Abstract This paper explores the linguistic landscape of City Road, Cardiff, using Vertovec’s superdiversity theory to analyse how multiple languages, particularly Arabic script and Chinese characters, shape the public and economic spaces of this diverse urban area. Through a combination of photographic analysis of signage and interviews with shop owners from Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, and China, this study examines how businesses use language to cater to their own communities while navigating the broader, multicultural environment. The research reveals that while most businesses primarily serve their linguistic and cultural groups, the interaction between language, culture, and economy creates a dynamic landscape where identity and commerce intersect. This study highlights how multilingual signage reflects both cultural retention and cross-cultural exchange, contributing to the broader understanding of how superdiversity transforms urban spaces. The conclusions drawn from City Road are applicable to other superdiverse areas around the world, making this analysis relevant for urban studies and sociolinguistics.
José María Santos Rovira (Mon,) studied this question.
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