Russian journal of linguistics: Vestnik RUDN (Dec 2017)

LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE AND WHAT IT TELLS US ABOUT THE INTEGRATION OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE INTO ISRAELI ECONOMY

  • Maria Yelenevskaya,
  • Larisa Fialkova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-9182-2017-21-3-557-586
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 21, no. 3
pp. 557 – 586

Abstract

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This essay analyzes the use of Russian in the linguistic landscape of Israel. Despite continu-ing hegemony of Hebrew, Russian has penetrated all spheres of public life, although concessions to multi-lingualism in Israeli society are hesitant and unsystematic. Russian written texts marking urban areas are unevenly distributed and reveal ethnic and social stratification of Israeli cities. The concentration of Russian signs is highest in business and commercial areas, where they target both domestic and international cus-tomers. The article focuses on the use of Russian in language-intensive domains and traces its influence on the symbolic economy in which cultural symbols are used as a marketing strategy.

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