South Slavic Languages and Vienna’s Linguistic Landscape (Katharina Tyran)

Vienna’s walls are full of signs, stickers and graffitis in South Slavic languages. How does this come about? – In this episode, Leonid Motz (RECET) talks to Prof. Katharina Tyran (University of Helsinki) about Vienna’s linguistic landscape and how it is shaped by Post-Yugoslav migrants. What can we learn about power dynamics from the linguistic practices in which they engage? Tyran highlights how – often subversive or subcultural – linguistic signs are rooted in transnational cultural contexts that transcend the linguistic borders of the modern nation-state.

Katharina Tyran is an Associate Professor of Slavic Philology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research focuses on South Slavic languages. Tyran’s interests include sociolinguistic topics with a focus on minority languages, language and identity, linguistic landscape research, language commodification, writing systems and orthography.