The Linguistic Identity of Shop Signs in Baghdad Governorate A Study of Selected Examples

Abstract

economic and commercial landscape represents a tangible aspect of the linguistic identity of any region whose linguistic character a researcher seeks to define. This identity is evident in city centers, particularly in their markets and shops, where the features of this landscape are clearly visible. Accordingly, Baghdad was chosen as a case study for this research hypothesis, which posits that many shops have abandoned their Arabic linguistic identity and have adopted foreign descriptive words to refer to what they offer their customers. Perhaps Ibn Khaldun's (d. 808 AH) statement, "The vanquished are always eager to imitate the victor," accurately describes this reality. On the one hand, globalization and its significant repercussions have played a clear role in altering the Arabic identity of commercial signs throughout the Arab world, including Iraq. Out of a sense of responsibility towards the Arabic language and pride in her Arab identity, the researcher undertook the task of diagnosing and analyzing this phenomenon. This diagnosis and comparison were conducted with signs displaying Arabic linguistic features in the cities from which the research samples were taken. This linguistic landscape, however, was not immune to errors and mispronunciations, or resorted to colloquialisms in the titles, as will be evident in the accompanying images.
The study adopted a descriptive-analytical approach to diagnosing and analyzing the phenomenon. During the research and investigation, preliminary findings emerged, including the presence of linguistic methods that attempt to undermine and suppress the Arabic language in order to replace it with foreign linguistic alternatives. The research reached a very serious conclusion: the increasing tendency to favor foreign names over Arabic ones.
Another finding is that we are now faced with a hybrid language, a blend of Arabic and foreign languages. Furthermore, we found that even signs with Arabic names have not escaped the use of colloquialisms or grammatical and derivational errors.