Language on Place Name Signs in Tourist Attractions of Surat Thani Province: A Linguistic Landscape Study
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Abstract
The objective of this research is to analyze and compare the languages used on public and private sector place name signs in tourist attractions in Surat Thani Province, based on the linguistic landscape approach. Data were systematically collected by photographing 60 place name signs, equally divided between 30 public sector signs and 30 private sector signs, situated in 3 areas: (1) Talat Subdistrict, Mueang Surat Thani District, (2) Phum Riang Subdistrict, Chaiya District, and (3) Bo Phut Subdistrict, Ko Samui District. The analysis focused on three aspects: (1) the number and variety of languages on the signs, (2) language patterns based on Backhaus (2007), and (3) language salience based on Ben-Rafael. The results revealed that bilingual signs were the most common, followed sequentially by monolingual, trilingual, and quadrilingual signs. Public sector agencies predominantly employed monolingual Thai signs, whereas private sector agencies used bilingual Thai–English signs the most. Analysis of language patterns indicated that monophonic signs were most prevalent, followed by mixed, homophonic, and polyphonic. Public sector signs across all three study areas were predominantly monophonic, whereas private sector signs were mostly mixed. The language salience analysis indicated that Thai was the most prominent language, particularly on public sector signs in all 3 study areas, while English, Chinese, Korean, and Hebrew appeared more prominently on private sector signs in Bo Phut, Ko Samui. These findings demonstrate the different roles of languages appearing on public and private sector place name signs, reflecting government policies, social dimensions, and the influence of English and other foreign languages in shaping the linguistic landscape of tourist areas in Surat Thani Province. The findings may contribute to proposing linguistic landscape policies for tourist destinations or guidelines to support effective tourism development.
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