Anchored, hybrid, and prestigious: English in the linguistic landscape of southeastern Türkiye

This study investigates the functions and symbolic roles of English in the linguistic landscape of Diyarbakır, a multilingual city in southeastern Türkiye, to show how English circulates across regional urban ecologies. Drawing on 300 signs from three socio-spatially distinct districts, the analysis examines how English is mobilized across language combinations, communicative purposes, and commercial–cultural domains. The findings reveal a patterned continuum: in the old town, English serves as a functional lingua franca tied to heritage and tourism; in the transitional administrative district, it appears in hybrid, playful forms articulating global-local identities; and in the affluent new town, it detaches from Turkish as a prestige marker of cosmopolitan consumerism. English in Diyarbakır is thus stratified rather than uniform, taking on anchored, hybridized, and symbolic functions. Situating this case within World Englishes debates, the study shows how urban margins illuminate the localization, commodification, and politicization of English in Expanding Circle contexts.