How prestige and socio-economic status shape the linguistic landscape of Brownsville, Texas

This study explores the linguistic landscape of Brownsville, Texas, a bilingual community located on the east side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Public signage was analysed using quantitative methods to explore the relationship between socio-economic status and language choice, as well as the symbolic and instrumental functions of English and Spanish. The analysis also examines the relative prevalence of both languages to assess the ethnolinguistic vitality of Spanish, the representation of local Spanish varieties, and phenomena linked to language contact. Our findings reveal that the linguistic landscape reflects and reinforces social hierarchies, highlighting the dominant status of English and the emblematic use of Spanish to appeal to cultural authenticity. These results align with previous linguistic landscape studies carried out on other US-Mexico borders, contributing to the growing field of linguistic landscape research, and providing insights into the sociolinguistic dynamics of border towns.