Tension in the linguistic landscape: the implications of language choices for diversity and inclusion in multilingual museums representing minorities

ABSTRACT

Globalisation has led to increasingly more languages being commodified to boost profit; this is particularly evident in museums in areas with a regional or minority language. There is, however, limited research on the implications of language use in multilingual museums for visitors and the (minority) cultures being represented. Based on a critical discourse analysis of 124 photographs, this study explores the linguistic landscape of a museum in a minority context (the Fries Museum, Friesland, the Netherlands) and how the language choices and functions observed may result in tension regarding diversity and inclusion. The findings revealed that the minority language Frisian has a largely symbolic function, whereas the majority language Dutch and the lingua franca English are used to facilitate wider communication and highlight the museum's modernity. Although the linguistic landscape reflects diversity and inclusion, it reinforces (inter)national language ideologies that may negatively impact the museum experience and vitality of Frisian. Further research that employs a mixed-methods comparative approach, which explores, among others, museum visitors’ and staff's awareness and views of multilingualism and minority languages, is needed to provide deeper insights into other possible areas of tension arising from language use that may hinder the development of more inclusive, multilingual museums.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• inclusion
• linguistic landscape
• minority languages
• multilingualism
• museums

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Joana Duarte for her valuable comments and suggestions on a previous version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.