Welcome to my personal webpages. I am a PhD student at the University of Amsterdam, working in the field of sociolinguistics. Here you can find information about my research interests and project, the institutes I belong to, my publications and presentations and my curriculum vitae. Some of the information is in English and some is in Dutch. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me an e-mail!

Last updated: 2 December 2009

My stay at the Università per Stranieri di Siena - picture report

Comparing linguistic landscapes

The linguistic landscape consists of the languages used on signs in public space placed by government agencies and by private individuals such as shop owners. In the Netherlands many different languages are spoken, including the official state language Dutch as well as immigrant minority languages and the regional minority language Frisian. To find out to what extent this multilingualism is reflected on signs in public space, this PhD project examines linguistic landscapes in eight shopping areas in Amsterdam and Friesland.

Prof. Durk Gorter and dr. Umberto Ansaldo are my supervisors.

Durk Gorter
Umberto Ansaldo
'Linguistic landscape art' on YouTube
Project into the linguistic landscape at the University of Liverpool

Sometimes people ask me to send them a list of literature on linguistic landscape. For an introduction to the field and for further references I would advise the following publications.

Backhaus, P. (2007). Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Gorter, D. (ed.) (2006). Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

Landry, R. and R.Y. Bourhis (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16, 23-49

Shohamy, E. andD. Gorter (eds) (2009). Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery. London and New York: Routledge