The Commodification of Arabic in the Commercial Linguistic Landscape of Leipzig

Abstract

Previous studies on the Arabic linguistic landscape have identified the commodification of Arabic in heritage sites; however, the identification was not accompanied by a satisfactory account. The current article investigates the distribution of languages, with particular reference to the position of Arabic in the commercial linguistic landscape of Leipzig, highlighting the commodification of Arabic in the commercial linguistic landscape of Leipzig. The data were collected by taking pictures of shop signs on Leipzig’s Strassenbahnstrasse and writing field notes during the participant observation. The quantitative and qualitative results show that bilingual patterns dominated by Arabic are commoner than other language patterns. One of the most interesting findings is the employment of the Arabic word ‘halal’ to arabicise some terms in Germany and manipulate the Arabic learning environment for selling products. Suggestions for future researchers are put forth at the end of the article.