The Linguistic Landscape of Tahrir Square Protest Signs and Egyptian National Identity

Abstract

This is a study of the languages that occurred naturally in Tahrir Square at the heart of Cairo during the revolution in 2011. This paper proposes a vivid perspective to the Linguistic Landscape (LL) research by investigating the Egyptian revolution protest signs and the semiotic aspects of communication of over one hundred photographs. This paper is situated within Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodological approaches and the grounded theory approach which have implications for investigating protest signs. The main objective of this study is to show how the LL of Tahrir Square protest signs can offer some insights into Egyptian national identity. The unit of analysis was protest sign in search for a dominant pattern that represents the Egyptian national identity. After analyzing the protest signs and the photographs, two main dominant patterns found in these signs which are unique features of Egyptian national identity. These patterns were sarcasm and faith.