Linguistic landscape of Mojosari: Language policy, language vitality and commodification of language

Abstract

AbstractThis current article presents the linguistic landscape in Mojosari, Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia. The existing linguistic landscape studies in East Java merely focus on the pattern of the use of various languages in certain areas. They do not relate the patterns with other aspects of language policy. The present study tries to relate the use of languages in the signs with discussions on other aspects of language policy, that is, rules and regulations, and language vitality as well as the commodification of language. The data were collected by taking pictures of 600 top-down and bottom-up signs in six places in Mojosari, that is, two markets, two hospitals, and two tourist places in Mojosari. The quantitative analysis shows that the linguistic landscape in the six areas is dominated by the Indonesian language, which shows loyalty to the central government’s language policy, followed by English and some other languages. Javanese is rarely used in the signs although Javanese is the first language for the majority of inhabitants of Mojosari. Both the local government and the local people follow the central government’s language policy. In addition, the findings also report that the commodification of a language does not occur in Mojosari LL. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are provided at the end of the paper.

Keywords

• linguistic landscape
• language policy
• language vitality
• power
• commodification