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Language in public space and language policies in Hanoi Old Quarter, Vietnam: a dynamic understanding of the interaction

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Abstract

This paper explores the interaction between linguistic landscapes and language policies of the Old Quarter in Hanoi, Vietnam to investigate how legislated and de facto language policies come together to create lived monolingualism, multilingualism and hybridity in language displays in public spaces. Our research focuses on language policies as both text and practice and shows how practices in the linguistic landscape manoeuvre and bend around multiple, overlapping and conflicting legislated policies to embrace broader discourses. We conclude that dynamic understandings of multiple language policies at work in the linguistic landscape provide a crucial lens for understanding the roles of national languages, foreign languages and language invisibility.

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Notes

  1. For a deeper discussion of other research that focuses on the direct and indirect relationship between LL and LP, see also Hult (2018).

  2. The labelling of ethnic minority languages relates to languages with a long historical presence in Vietnam. It excludes recent languages spoken by minority communities such as Korean spoken in the Korean–Vietnamese community. We use the term “indigenous language” to refer to ethnic minority languages in the constitution document.

  3. Some works refer to this area as the French Quarter. However, given the complexity in the historical developments of this area, we refer to be more broadly as “the Old Quarter”, a term often used in tourist maps of the area.

  4. Scollon and Scollon (2003: 125) have signaled that size is more important than position because sizing gives readers more salient information. This is called the “size overruling order” (Pavlenko 2009: 252). The advertising LP mentions size before positioning and from a discourse-analytic approach, this implies that size may be viewed as more important in the Vietnamese context as well.

  5. The bolded instances will be used for further analysis.

  6. Other exceptions include a gold trading centre, a post office, an electric company, a puppetry theatre and a news agency.

  7. In other neighbourhoods with a strong ethnic presence, different layers of internationalisation might be present.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia

    Nhan Phan & Donna Starks

  2. Ha Tinh University, Ha Tinh City, Vietnam

    Nhan Phan

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  1. Nhan Phan
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  2. Donna Starks
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Phan, N., Starks, D. Language in public space and language policies in Hanoi Old Quarter, Vietnam: a dynamic understanding of the interaction. Lang Policy 19, 111–138 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-019-09526-z

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