Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 1:1/2 (2015) ► pp.172–190

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Imagined community

The linguistic landscape in a diaspora

 | Addis Ababa University
 | Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan – University of Oslo
Published online: 19 June 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.1.1-2.10wol
In this article, we investigate how the linguistic landscape serves as an important strategy among a diaspora community not only to maintain a transnational identity but also to construct a unique identity in the recipient society. We examine the linguistic landscape in the Ethiopian diaspora of Washington DC, referred to as “Little Ethiopia”, which provides an interesting site to investigate the role of the linguistic landscape in constructing an imaginary community built on the myth of the old homeland, including a unique African identity in a new homeland with other Africans as well as African Americans. Serving as a rich source of data for investigating language, culture and identity, the linguistic landscape in “Little Ethiopia” encompasses many semiotic resources. This Ethiopian transnational community engages in (re)constructing socio-cultural and political ideologies through the linguistic landscape.
References (39)
Andersen, B. (2006). Imagined communities (rev. ed.). New York, NY: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E., & Ben-Rafael, M. (2010). Diaspora and returning diaspora: French-Hebrew and vice versa. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 326–343). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benwell, B., & Stokoe, E. (2006). Discourse and identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blackwood, R., Lanza, E., & Woldemariam, H. (Eds.). (Forthcoming). Negotiating and contesting identities in linguistic landscapes. London: Bloomsbury.
Bogatto, F., & Hélot, C. (2010). Linguistic landscape and language diversity in Strasbourg: The “Quartier Gare” . In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 275–291). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). (2014). Ethiopians in the US cling to their heritage, 5 August 2014. Retrieved [URL] (23 October 2014)
Chacko, E. (2003). Ethiopian ethos and the creation of ethnic places in the Washington Metropolitan area. Journal of Cultural Geography, 20(2), 21–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chacko, E., & Gebre, P.H. (2013). Leveraging the diaspora for development: Lessons from Ethiopia. GeoJournal, 781, 495–505. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daswani, G. (2013). The anthropology of transnationalism and diaspora. In A. Quayson & G. Daswani (Eds.), A companion to diaspora and transnationalism (pp. 29–53). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Faist, T. (2010). Diaspora and transnationalism: What kind of dance partners? In R. Bauböck & T. Faist (Eds.), Diaspora and transnationalism. Concepts, theories and methods. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Retrieved from <[URL]> (27 October 2014). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gambino, C., Trevelyan, E.N., & Fitzwater, J.T. (2014). The foregin-born population from Africa: 2008 – 2012. American Community Survey Briefs, 12 – 161. Retrieved from <[URL] > (27 October 2014).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gee, J.P. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses, critical perspectives on literacy and education. London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorter, D. (Ed.). (2006). Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorter, D., Marten, H., & Van Mensel (Eds.). (2012). Minority languages in the linguistic landscape. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habecker, S. (2012). Not black, but Habasha: Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in American society. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(7), 1200–1219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hélot, C., Barni, M., Janssens, R., & Bagna, C. (Eds.). (2012). Linguistic landscapes, multilingualism and social change. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ibrahim, A. (2014) The rhizome of blackness: A critical ethnography of hip-hop culture, language, identity, and the politics of becoming. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iedema, R. (2003). Multimodality, resemiotization: Extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication, 2(1), 29–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (Eds.). (2010). Semiotic landscapes. Language, image, space. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Joseph, J.E. (2004). Language and identity: National, ethnic, religious. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kenny, K. (2013). Diaspora. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kent, M.M. (2007). Immigration and America’s Black Population. Population Bulletin. A Publication of the Population Reference Bureau, 62(4).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landry, R., & Bourhis, R.Y. (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 24–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lanza, E., & Woldemariam, H. (2009). Language ideology and linguistic landscape: Language policy and globalization in a regional capital of Ethiopia. In E. Shohamy & D. Gurter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape. Expanding the scenery (pp. 189–205). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2014). Indexing modernity: English and branding in the linguistic landscape of Addis Ababa. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18(5), 491–506. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leeman, J., & Modan, G. (2009). Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 332–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malinowski, D. (2009). Authorship in the linguistic landscape: A multimodal-performative view. In E. Shohamy & D. Gurter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape. Expanding the scenery (pp. 107–125). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mohammed, H.M. (2006). Imagining and performing Habasha identity: The Ethiopian Diaspora in the Area of Washington, D.C. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Northwestern University.
Moriarty, M. (2014). Languages in motion: Multilingualism and mobility in the linguistic landscape. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18(5), 457–463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quayson, A., & Daswani, G. (2013). Diaspora and transnationalism: Scapes, scales, and scopes. In A. Quayson & G. Daswani (Eds.), A companion to diaspora and transnationalism (pp. 1–26). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sebba, M. (2010). Discourses in transit. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 59–76). London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D. (Eds.). (2009). Linguistic landscape. Expanding the scenery. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, E., Ben-Rafael, E., & Barni, M. (Eds.). (2010). Linguistic landscape in the city. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Showalter, M. (2010). Inside Washington’s ‘Little Ethiopia’, CNN, 22 October 2010. Retrieved from: <[URL] (October 27 2014).
Singer, A., Friedman, S., Cheung, I., & Price, M. (2001). The world in a zip code: Greater Washington, D.C. as a new region of immigration. Washington, DC: Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, The Brookings Institute.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. Milton Park: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Q., & Stroud, C. (2015). Battling the race: Stylizing language and the coproduction of whiteness and colouredness in a freestyle rap battle. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 24 (3),277–293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Q. (In press). Ethnicity and extreme locality in South Africa’s multilingual Hip-Hop Ciphas. In H.S. Alim, A. Ball, & J. Rickford (Eds), Racing language, languaging race. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.
Woldemariam, H., & Lanza, E. (2012). Religious wars in the linguistic landscape. In C. Hélot, M. Barni, R. Janssens, & C. Bagna (Eds.), Linguistic landscapes, multilingualism and social change: Diversité des approches. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (26)

Cited by 26 other publications

Amos, Will
2025. « Nana sacs plastiques ». Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 11:3 ► pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
Arias Álvarez, Alba
2025. Asturian cider in Madrid? Linguistic identity and the multilingual signage of Asturian restaurants in Madrid, Spain. International Journal of Multilingualism 22:2 ► pp. 187 ff. DOI logo
Bhujel, Birendra & Sweta Sinha
2025. Linguistic landscape as a tool of identity negotiation: The case of the Nepali ethnic communities in West Bengal. Ethnicities 25:1 ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Gao, Shuang & Zhu Hua
2025. Enacting cultural distinctiveness and diasporic identity in semiotic landscapes: a material ethnography of Chinese restaurants in the UK. Applied Linguistics Review DOI logo
Gu, Chonglong
2025. The (un)making and (re)making of Guangzhou’s ‘Little Africa’: Xiaobei’s linguistic and semiotic landscape explored. Language Policy 24:1 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Lang, Bin & Kanokporn Numtong
2025. Nostalgic regimes of cultural heritage: semiotic artifacts and linguistic landscapes of Teochew Huashang at Lhong1919, Bangkok. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 23:2-3 ► pp. 152 ff. DOI logo
Liu, Jia
2025. Space, language and culture: a linguistic landscape case study of a Chinese immigrant-owned ethnic restaurant in Honolulu's Chinatown. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Liu, Zhixin
2025. Liminalising and affectivising cityscape as a branding practice: a sociolinguistic ethnography in urban China. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 46:3 ► pp. 815 ff. DOI logo
Buschfeld, Sarah, Claus Weihs & Patricia Ronan
2024. Modeling Linguistic Landscapes. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 10:3 ► pp. 302 ff. DOI logo
Byrne, Steven & Erika Marcet
2024.  La lluita continua : socio-political debate and the linguistic landscape of a Catalan city . Social Semiotics 34:1 ► pp. 113 ff. DOI logo
Guarín, Daniel
2024. From Bilingualism to Multilingualism: Mapping Language Dynamics in the Linguistic Landscape of Hispanic Philadelphia. Languages 9:4 ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
Liao, Cecily Ran & Brian Hok-Shing Chan
2024. Linguistic landscape in transnational areas: a comparative study of African and Korean neighbourhoods in Guangzhou. International Journal of Multilingualism 21:1 ► pp. 489 ff. DOI logo
Lou, Jackie Jia
2024. Linguistic Landscape. In Reference Module in Social Sciences, DOI logo
Yasri-Labrique, Éléonore, Fabio Scetti & Ksenija Djordjevic Léonard
2024. Introduction au volet 2 et présentation du cadre scientifique : quelques repères pour une exploration des paysages linguistiques européens. Diversité urbaine 21:2 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Yasri-Labrique, Éléonore, Fabio Scetti, Ksenija Djordjevic Léonard & Rachel Panckhurst
2024. Introduction au volet 1 et présentation du cadre scientifique : quelques repères pour une exploration des paysages linguistiques du « bout du monde ». Diversité urbaine 21:1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Yeshalem, Abraham Degu, Tommaso M. Milani & Marie Rydenvald
2024. The south in the north. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices 4:2 ► pp. 179 ff. DOI logo
Bever, Olga & Mahmoud Azaz
2023. An Educational Perspective on Community Languages in Linguistic Landscapes: Russian and Arabic. In Spatializing Language Studies [Educational Linguistics, 62], ► pp. 179 ff. DOI logo
Cocq, Coppélie, Lena Granstedt, Eva Lindgren & Urban Lindgren
2022. Multilingualism in the North: From Baklava to Tre Kronor. Languages 7:2 ► pp. 124 ff. DOI logo
Han, Yanmei
2022. Enacting identity and ethnicity in transnational spaces: bilingual practices and positioning of Chinese visiting scholars in America. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 43:10 ► pp. 907 ff. DOI logo
Amos, H. William
2021. Chinatown by numbers. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal ► pp. 127 ff. DOI logo
Huebner, Thom
2021. Diaspora and Asian spaces in a transnational world. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 7:2 ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Xie, Yilan & Louisa Buckingham
2021. The linguistic landscape and materials development. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 7:3 ► pp. 285 ff. DOI logo
Gaiser, Leonie & Yaron Matras
2020. Defining the position of ‘community’ in the study of linguistic landscapes. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 6:2 ► pp. 109 ff. DOI logo
Ziegler, Evelyn, Ulrich Schmitz & Haci-Halil Uslucan
2020. Community Ma(r)king in the linguistic landscape of the Ruhr Metropolis. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 6:2 ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Buckingham, Louisa
2019. Migration and ethnic diversity reflected in the linguistic landscape of Costa Rica’s Central Valley. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 40:9 ► pp. 759 ff. DOI logo
Woldemaram, Hirut
2016. Linguistic Landscape as standing historical testimony of the struggle against colonization in Ethiopia. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 2:3 ► pp. 275 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue