Hybrid Language Practices and Linguistic Errors in the Linguistic Landscape of Nakhon Sawan

Pornpan Pothisuwan

ผู้แต่ง

Pornpan Pothisuwan Humanities and Social Sciences, Nakhon Sawan Rajabhat University, Thailand

คำสำคัญ:

Linguistic landscape, Thailand, language use, language mixing, language prominence, linguistic errors

บทคัดย่อ

This paper presents an empirical study of the linguistic landscape of Nakhon Sawan, examining language use, mixing, prominence, and errors in public signage. A total of 200 signs were analysed, revealing that bilingual signs predominated (62%), followed by monolingual signs (33%; Thai 24.5%, English 8.5%) and trilingual signs (5%). Thai was the dominant language across all sign types, while English served as the principal secondary language, reflecting both communicative functions and symbolic associations with globalization, modernity, and prestige. Analysis of monolingual and bilingual signs showed frequent language mixing through lexical borrowing, transliteration, and syntactic influence from English. Language prominence, assessed via font size, placement, colour, and visual hierarchy, identified Thai as visually dominant in 81.34% of cases. Across all signage types, 194 linguistic errors were found in 147 signs, with word choice, spacing, and capitalization errors most common. Although these errors seldom cause serious misunderstandings, they may occasionally distort meaning or produce unintended humor. Overall, the findings highlight a hybridized and dynamic linguistic landscape in Nakhon Sawan, reflecting the balance between communicative functionality and symbolic expressions of globalization and local identity, and offer practical implications for effective signage design in Thailand.

เอกสารอ้างอิง

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