Cover not available
Article published In:
Multilingual Landscapes and the Construction of Community
Edited by Leonie Gaiser and Yaron Matras
[Linguistic Landscape 6:2] 2020
► pp. 155–182

Multilingual voices of unification in ‘No man’s land’

Evidence from the Linguistic Landscape of Nicosia’s UN-controlled buffer zone

| University of Reading

The island of Cyprus and Nicosia, its capital, have been divided by a UN-controlled buffer zone since the 1974 war. The ease of movement restrictions in 2003 saw Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots crossing into each other’s area after 30 years of complete separation and increased mobility, especially through the UN-controlled buffer zone at the Ledras Street crossing-point in Nicosia, interjected a new dynamic in the area. The analysis of photographic data collected over a period of three years from the Linguistic Landscape of the buffer zone reveals that ephemeral signs in Greek, Turkish, and English are used to establish connections and strengthen social ties between the former enemies, and to project ideologies that go against popular nationalist narratives. By adopting new conceptualisations of the term ‘community’ (Blokland, 2017), this study discusses how a new, imagined community can emerge in conflict-ridden contexts through the display of written public signs in the Linguistic Landscape.

Keywords: community, conflict, border, buffer zone, Cyprus, mobility, Linguistic Landscape, ephemeral signs, ideologies, identity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Lingustic landscape in post-war and conflict zones
  • 3.Community, language, conflict
  • 4.The Cypriot context
    • 4.1The Greek-Turkish Cypriot conflict
    • 4.2Dominant ideologies in Cyprus and their effect on language use
  • 5.Research methods
  • 6.Data analysis
    • 6.1Promoting rapprochement through joint events
    • 6.2Enhancing shared values and common goals
    • 6.3Expressing counter-narratives
  • 7.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.19030.the
References

References

Akçalı, E.
(2011) Getting real on fluctuating national identities: Insights from Northern Cyprus, Antipode, 43 (5), 1725–1747. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Amara, M.
(2019) Arabisation, globalisation, and Hebraisation reflexes in shop names in the Palestinian Arab Linguistic Landscape in Israel. Language and Intercultural Communication, 19 (3), 272–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Antifa λευkoşa
(2014) Ποιοί είμαστε [Who we are] Retrieved on 13 January 2020, from [URL]
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. H., & Trumper-Hecht, N.
(2006) Linguistic Landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3 (1), 7–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Block, D.
(2006) Multilingual identities in a global city. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blokland, T.
(2017) Community as urban practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Blommaert, J.
(2013) Ethnography, superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, J., & Backus, A.
(2011) Repertoires revisited: ‘Knowing language’ in superdiversity. Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies, 671, 1–26.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M.
(1999) “Why be normal?”: Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls. Language in Society, 28 (2), 203–223. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Charalambous, C., Charalambous, P. & Zembylas, M.
(2013) Doing ‘Leftist propaganda’ or working towards peace? Moving Greek-Cypriot peace education struggles beyond local political complexities. Journal of Peace Education, 10 (1), 67–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Charalambous, P., Charalambous, C. & Zembylas, M.
(2014) Old and new policies in dialogue: Greek-Cypriot teachers’ interpretations of a peace-related initiative through existing policy discourses. British Educational Research Journal, 40 (1), 79–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dembinska, M.
(2017) The imagined ‘other’ and its shifts: politics and identifications in Turkish Cyprus. National Identities, 19 (4), 395–413. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dimou, N.
n.d.). Δεν ξεχνώ [Remember Cyprus]. Retrieved on 13 January 2020, from [URL]
Fishman, J. A.
(1971) Sociolinguistics. Rowley: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P.
(2005) Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: From The Age of Mythology to today’s schools. In D. Barton & K. Tusting (Eds.), Beyond Communities of Practice: Language, power and social context, (pp. 214–232). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hadjioannou, X., Tsiplakou, S., & Kappler, M.
(2011) Language policy and language planning in Cyprus. Current Issues in Language Planning, 12 (4), 503–569. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heller, M.
(2007) Bilingualism as ideology and practice. In M. Heller (Ed.), Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 1–22). London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jenjekwa, V., & Barnes, L.
(2018) Changes in the Linguistic Landscape resulting from Zimbabwe’s post-2000 land reforms: Recasting the First and Second Chimurenga narratives. Language Matters, 49 (3), 67–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jewson, N.
(2007) Cultivating network analysis: rethinking the concept of ‘community’ within ‘communities of practice’. In J. Hughes, N. Jewson & L. Unwin (Eds.), Communities of Practice: Critical perspectives (pp. 68–82). London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kallen, J.
(2010) Changing landscapes: Language, space and policy in the Dublin Linguistic Landscape. In A. Jaworski, & C. Thurlow (Eds.). Semiotic Landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 41–58). London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Karoulla-Vrikkis, D.
(2010) 50 years of language policy in the Republic of Cyprus. Promotion of Greek, Cypriot or European identity? In C. Perikleous (Ed.), Republic of Cyprus 50 Years: A Painful Path (pp. 130–157). Athens: Papazisi.Google Scholar
Karyolemou, M.
(2003) ‘Keep your language and I will keep mine’: Politics, language, and the construction of identities in Cyprus. In M. Dedaić, & D. Nelson (Eds.), At War with Words (pp. 359–384). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Sociolinguistic patterns (No. 4). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lai, M. L.
(2013) The linguistic landscape of Hong Kong after the change of sovereignty. International Journal of Multilingualism, 10 (3), 251–272. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Landry, R., & Bourhis, R.
(1997) Linguistic Landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16 (1), 23–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lave, J., & Wenger, E.
(1991) Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Left initiative – We want federation
(2019) About us. Retrieved on 13 January 2020, from [URL]
Li, Wei
(2018) Translanguaging as a practical theory of languages. Applied Linguistics, 39 (1), 9–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mac Giolla Chríost, D.
(2007) Language and the city, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2003) Language, identity and conflict: A comparative study of language in ethnic conflict in Europe and Eurasia. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Makriyianni, C., Psaltis, C., & Latif, D.
(2011) History teaching in Cyprus. In E. Erdmann, & W. Hasberg (Eds.), Facing mapping, bridging diversity: Foundations of a European discourse on history education (pp. 91–138). Germany: Wochen Schau Wissenschaft.Google Scholar
Mallinson, W.
(2009) A modern history of Cyprus. London: I. B. Tauris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mavratsas, C.
(2001) Greek-Cypriot identity and conflicting interpretations of the Cyprus problem. In Keridis, D. and Triantaphyllou, D. (eds) Greek-Turkish relations in the era of globalisation. Dulles: Brassey’s.Google Scholar
McKeown, S., & Psaltis, C.
(2017) Intergroup contact and the mediating role of intergroup trust on outgroup evaluation and future contact intentions in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 23 (4), 392–404. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muth, S.
(2015) Language removal, commodification and the negotiation of cultural identity in Nagorno-Karabakh. In R. Rubdy, & S. Ben Said (Eds.), Conflict, exclusion and dissent in the Linguistic Landscape (pp. 77–100). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014) Linguistic Landscapes on the other side of the border: Signs, language and the construction of cultural identity in Transnistria. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2271, 25–46.Google Scholar
Papadakis, Y.
(2005) Echoes from the dead zone: Across the Cyprus divide. London: I.B. Tauris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papangelou, R.
(2001) Dictionary of the Cypriot Dialect. Athens: Iolikos.Google Scholar
Papen, U.
(2012) Commercial discourses, gentrification and citizens’ protest: The Linguistic Landscape of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16 (1), 56–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A.
(2010) Linguistic landscape of Kyiv, Ukraine: A diachronic study. In E. Shohamy, B. R. Eliezer, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic Landscape in the City (pp. 133–150). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009) Language conflict in post-Soviet Linguistic Landscapes. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 17 (1–2), 247–274. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pennycook, A., & Otsuji, E.
(2015) Metrolingualism: language in the city. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Psaltis, C.
(2016) Collective memory, social representations of intercommunal relations, and conflict transformation in divided Cyprus. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 221, 19–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rubdy, R., & Ben-Said, S.
(2015) Conflict, exclusion and dissent in the Linguistic Landscape. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Şahin, S.
(2014) Diverse media, uniform reports: An analysis of news coverage of the Cyprus problem by the Turkish Cypriot press. Journalism, 15 (4), 446–462. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S.
(2003) Discourse in Place: Language in the Material World. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, E., Ben-Rafael, E., & Barni, M.
(2010) Linguistic Landscape in the City. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Themistocleous, C.
(2019) Conflict and unification in the multilingual landscape of a divided city: The case of Nicosia’s border. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40 (2), 94–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010) Writing in a non-standard Greek variety: Romanized Cypriot Greek in online chat. Writing Systems Research, 2 (2), 155–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trumper-Hecht, N.
(2009) Constructing national identity in mixed cities in Israel: Arabic on signs in the public space of Upper Nazareth. In E. Shohamy, & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 238–252). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tofallis, K.
(2016) A history of Cyprus. London: Greek Institute.Google Scholar
United Nations Cyprus Talks
(2017) Conference on Cyprus Reconvenes in Crans- Montana. Retrieved on 13 January 2020, from [URL]
United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus
(2018) About the buffer zone. Retrieved on 13 January 2020, from [URL]
Vetter, E.
(2015) Re-thinking language conflict: Challenges and options. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2351, 103–118.Google Scholar
Way, L.
(2011) The local news media impeding solutions to the Cyprus conflict: Competing discourses of nationalism in Turkish Cypriot radio news. Social Semiotics, 21 (1), 15–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar