The Role of the Japanese Language in Venice
A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Japanese Linguistic Landscape
abstract
This paper focuses on the description and analysis of the Japanese linguistic landscape of the historic centre of Venice to understand the heterogeneous relationships among languages, its users and the involved urban context. After a brief theoretical introduction, the phase of fieldwork has been integrated with a more comprehensive qualitative approach, consisting of interviews conducted with both Japanese native speakers and Italian native speakers. This multilayered approach sheds light on the role that the Japanese language plays in creating and modifying the linguistic context of Venice, underlining its functions in relation to users’ attitude and linguistic behaviours.
Keywords: Multilingualism • Context-driven methodology • Japanese language • Linguistic landscape