A thesis at the University of Bahrain calls to review laws of commercial records

A postgraduate scientific thesis at the University of Bahrain called to review the laws of commercial records and verify the efficiency of regulatory procedures when issuing permits for shop signs, to help preserve the Arabic language and ensure the presence of an organized multilingual commercial linguistic landscape in the Bahraini market.

The call for such actions was stated as part of the thesis’s recommendations by Mr. Waleed Aboraya, a student of the Master of Applied English Language Studies program at the University, as part of the fulfilment of the degree requirements.

The thesis – supervised by Dr. Diana Al-Jahromi, the assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the College of Arts -, was titled “The Linguistic Landscape of Bahrain: A Comparative Study of Two Markets.”

The comparative study analyzed the local linguistic landscape by conducting a survey of shop signs in popular Manama and Muharraq traditional markets, and identifying the languages, the reasons for their use, and the attitude of Bahraini citizens towards the multilingual linguistic landscape.

The study used quantitative and qualitative research methods by surveying 1,000 shop signs, and documenting the signs with photos as well as interviewing 66 store owners, then 40 Bahraini visitors to the Manama and Muharraq commercial markets. Interviews elicited their justifications for using a specific language ​​rather than the other, their viewpoints in light of the multilingual linguistic landscape in the two traditional markets, and their opinions on means of preserving the Bahraini identity and the Arabic language as an official national language.

The study found heightened use of a bilingual pattern of both English and Arabic in shop signs. Where the Arabic language dominated the traditional market in Muharraq, the use of English prevailed in the traditional market in Manama.

Results showed that the multilingual pattern ranked second – with languages ​​such as Bengali, Malayalam, and Urdu – after the bilingual pattern in which Arabic and English languages dominated the linguistic landscape.

Evident in the multitude of languages ​​used in shop signs, findings also revealed that the Bahraini citizens had positive attitudes towards the multilingual linguistic landscape. However, many expressed their concern regarding some linguistic violations such as the exclusion of Arabic in shop sings where other languages were used, and the recurring of spelling mistakes in Arabic words, as well as the absence of elements regulating shop signs such as font size, and the location of the Arabic language in comparison to the other foreign languages.

The thesis committee included the supervisor Dr. Diana Al-Jahromi, an Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature at the University’s College of Arts , the external examiner Dr. Nuha Al-Shurafa, an Associate Professor at the Department of European Languages ​​and Literature in the College of Arts and Humanities at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia and the internal examiner Dr. Yasser Ahmed Gumaa, an Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, in the University’s College of Arts.