In my linguistic landscape, I’ll be talking about Kings Highway in Brooklyn New York. This place is very dear to me because it was where I grew up. On Kings Highway, there are many shops that I’ve frequented and enjoyed going to some of these include a pizzeria, a bakery, a location that used to be a McDonalds, a family member’s laundromat, and even a gaming cafe. When I grew up here I tend to frequent the parks near my schools and play basket on the courts with my friends. Kings Highway has a great sense of community and because I lived on the street by the schools I had many of my classmates wave goodbye to me right outside my door. Signs are a great showcase of linguistic landscape study. In Kings Highway, I’d like to think that the signs here are different from what you’d see in many places in New York. This linguistic landscape here feels much different from the busyness of typical New York hustle and bustle. The landscape of Kings Highway is filled with signs galore. These signs show many themes from the theme of community, the word “Kings”, businesses, language, food, and promotion of the businesses.
Community
The emphasis on the theme of community is focused on two of the pictures. The pictures in Figure 1 and Figure 2 are schools known as p.s.255 and the picture of I.S.234 both focus on the sense of community because they are schools. These are elementary and middle schools that serve the community through their services as public schools. They provide education to the children of Kings Highway and its neighboring areas and these signs let parents know that these schools focus on informing the parents on what they schools are about. In Figure 1 you get an inviting sense from the way their sign is designed and shows the compassion of the school through a creative design and a positive message about it’s students. In Figure 2 you have an informative design that really connects the parents and the school together and keeps them informed about the school and its upcoming events.
Language
One theme that is consistent in all the pictures that are taken from Kings Highway is the language on all the signs. In Kings Highway you have a monolingual theme among the signs of the neighborhood. Yes, all the signs have English and only English this is because the neighborhood is because this avenue has origins going back to the oldest English neighborhoods back since the late 1600s. English is predominantly the spoken language in this part of New York and the signs here clearly show that there hasn’t been a great need for signs with other languages on them. These signs promote an English-speaking community and although there are many people from different cultural backgrounds living in Kings Highway a shared feature among its majority is the ability to speak and understand some amount of English.
Kings
It is absolutely one of the expected features you would expect when you come to Kings Highway, businesses here are named with the word “Kings”. The word “Kings” is on many businesses in the pictures shown such as Figure 5 (Kings Meats), Figure 4 (Kings News & Grocery), Figure 6 (Kings Gourmet Food), Figure 7 (Kings Games), and Figure 9 (Kings Pizza). This name makes the businesses iconic and representative of the avenue they reside on and marks their importance. The fact that these businesses are named “Kings” also entails that these businesses are here to stay in Kings Highway as something that is a small business only exclusive instead of a business that is looking to branch out and expand outside of this area. The word Kings gives a powerful impression and heightens the value of the business and creates an association with royalty or higher-end which the name “Kings” implies.
Businesses
The theme of businesses is seen through a large majority of these pictures. In pictures of Figure 3 (Beans & Bagels), Figure 5 (Kings Meat), Figure 4 (Kings News & Grocery), Figure 6 (King’s Gourmet Food), Figure 7 (Kings Games), Figure 9 (King’s Pizza), Figure 8 (CVS Pharmacy), and Figure 10 (Laundromat) these all showcase a variety of businesses that is part of the economy in this avenue. These businesses sell food, miscellaneous items, games, and services. In these businesses, an idea that is consistent with all their signs is the fact that they label what their business is and some go into detail about what they do and what they have available. The businesses that go into detail on their business are Figure 4 (Kings News & Grocery), Figure 7 (Kings Games), and the Figure 10 (Laundromat). In the picture of Kings Figure 4 (News & Grocery), Figure 7 (Kings Games), Figure 10 (Laundromat), and Figure 9 (King’s Pizza) they all include contact information such as phone numbers and the times in which these businesses open and close.
Food
Many of the businesses are of food in Kings Highway, the linguistic landscape here has Figure 3 (Beans & Bagels), Figure 4 (Kings News & Grocery), Figure 5 (Kings Meat), Figure 6 (Kings Gourmet Food), and Figure 9 (King’s Pizza). Food is a popular business on Kings Highway and it is clear through the many signs that are from my pictures of the avenue. There are so many various choices such as high-quality goods, pastries, meats, pizza, and just plain groceries. Food is something that you won’t have a shortage of on Kings Highway, where you can buy plenty of good quality food for very fair prices. Many business owners clearly show their interest in providing food to the community through the vast amounts of these opening, and proof of them working is in how old some of these businesses also date back to. some businesses here have been open for years such as Figure 9 (King’s Pizza), Figure 5 (Kings Meat), and Figure 6 (Kings Gourmet Food).
Promotion
In Kings Highway the signs of the stores that reside here have many ways that they promote the stores themselves. In Beans & Bagels Bake House you can see that the shop is using different colors in order to show emphasis on their available product hot bagels, while also using imagery of fruits with a labeling that they offer smoothies. In Figure 5 (Kings Meat) they show images and pricing on specific household goods and products such as milk, meat, and fish. In Figure 8 you get to see above the store a large poster explaining a real estate offering for office leasing along with contact information. In Figure 6 (Kings Gourmet Food) you have a simplistic design when compared to the rest of the stores where there is a well designed logo along with no further message to take away from the simplistic promotion style.
Kings Highway is a place with a lot of unique linguistic landscape for a place that is in New York. It shows that this area is a tight knitt community and one that isn’t as fast paced and busy as typical places in New York would suggest. There are some things however you can tell from the linguistic landscape that reminds you that you are in New York such as the signs for quick on-the-go food shops that are here. You can tell a lot about any neighborhood or place based on the linguistic landscape that you see. There is a story that can be told through the signs of a place and can tell you just as much as living in the place itself.
