Symbolic identity building, ethnic nationalism and the linguistic reconfiguration of the urban spaces of the capital of Pristina, Kosovo

Abstract

This paper presents a historical study of the linguistic landscape (LL) of Pristina’s city center as an important site of contestation and competing symbolic identity constructions throughout Kosovo’s turbulent interethnic past. By means of historical linguistic evidence of the LL configuration of landmark establishments in the central promenade of the city, the paper illustrates the role of language in the construction of national identity and in this way, argues for the reconciliation of the study of symbolic nation building in Kosovo with language as an equally deserving dimension of investigation alongside other socio-political and social facets It is also argued that apart from its symbolic role to convey the specific ideological concepts of the dominant ethnic elites, the LL has been crucial in the construction of ethnocentric spaces, and has therefore been participatory in the creation of ethnic segregation which is the defining characteristic of Kosovo’s post-war ethnic configuration today.