Linguistic practices and the linguistic landscape along the U.S.-Mexico border: translanguaging in Tijuana

Abstract

Borders are loci of language contact that have been understudied. Mexico and the Unites States share a border that is 1,954 miles long. Along this border we find two major languages, namely English and Spanish, and their various dialects representing two nation states and a diverse population; in addition, border economic interdependence promotes transnational flows of a diverse nature. The municipality of Tijuana, along with San Diego County, forms one of the largest cross-border conurbations with five million inhabitants. This study explores linguistic practices reflected in Tijuana’s linguistic landscape. Of the languages spoken there, English and Spanish play a principal role with Asian, other European and Amerindian languages playing a minor role that nevertheless adds to the city´s diversity. In particular, this work seeks to explore translanguaging in the linguistic landscape of Tijuana’s most renowned avenue, Avenida Revolución, and in other city areas from working-class to upscale to analyze how speakers engage in linguistic practices, and in doing so, to contribute to other works in border studies and sociolinguistics. The hard data consist of a corpus of 2,000 digital images, which were collated by relying on critical discourse analysis and on current research in translanguaging and the linguistic landscape. The guiding research questions for this study were the following: (1) What happens to linguistic practices on borders and how can these be observed through understanding the border’s linguistic landscape? (2) How are languages used in Tijuana’s landscape? and (3) How is translanguaging performed through the local linguistic landscape? The findings of the study suggest that Tijuana’s landscape shows that Tijuanans perform translanguaging in several ways: their linguistic repertoires reflect, on the one hand, contact between Baja California Spanish and other Mexican Spanish dialects on a lexical level that gives rise to lexical alternation and enrichment. On the other hand, its LL also evidences contact between English and Spanish, which gives form to lexical creativity and hybrid forms that also reflect on social practices resulting from the city’s condition and adaptation as part of the borderlands.

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ORCID for Darren Paffey: orcid.org/0000-0003-2709-8012

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