Linguistic change in the environment of a multilingual university in Southwest Finland

Abstract

This bachelor’s thesis contains data and analysis of different languages found within the linguistic landscape of the University of Turku, a large university in Southwest Finland. The analysis of this data is used to determine and discuss how the linguistic landscape of the university has changed and if the university has expanded on its philosophy of how a variety of different languages is applied on its grounds as time has passed. By examining data collected from 20 photographs of different signs which are located on the University’s grounds, the study maintains the goal of identifying how a variety of different language appearances have changed throughout the university’s lifespan. These 20 photographs are divided into 10 images from two buildings which were chosen to represent different periods in the university’s history. Determining whether the linguistic landscape of the university has changed is done by tabling the information provided by these signs into predetermined categories and using the numerical data obtained from the tables to support the main argument that the linguistic landscape of the university has evolved toward an increasingly multilingual environment. This data includes present languages, language hierarchy, and the purposes of the signs. Comparing the characteristics of these appearances provides information about changes that have happened in the university’s linguistic landscape. By comparing the results between old and new signs, the study found that there has been a noteworthy increase in linguistic diversity on the campus area as the frequency of the appearance English specifically increased from 80% inclusion rate to a total of 100% while the diversity of distinct languages has remained restricted. The study also found evidence of an increased level of equality between the treatment of distinct languages as modern signs had no instances of languages standing independently and information was consistently provided in multiple languages. The shortcoming of the linguistic landscape was determined to be the shallow number of distinct languages in the environment as the simultaneous use of multiple languages reached its top end at three languages.