Palimpsestic Multilingualism in George Town, Malaysia: Vertical, Horizontal and Hierarchical Layers in the Linguistic Landscape

This article examines George Town, Penang, as a multilingual urban palimpsest where public signage records colonial legacies, state language policy, and community identity. Drawing on fieldwork in the UNESCO World Heritage area, it focuses on public signs. These materials are analysed for visible traces of historical change, especially where inscriptions have been layered, altered, or preserved unevenly. The article first proposes and identifies three empirical forms of palimpsest: vertical palimpsest, where newer inscriptions cover older ones; horizontal palimpsest, where signs from different periods coexist; and hierarchical palimpsest, where languages, scripts, or symbols remain unevenly visible. It shows how Malay additions, Chinese scripts, English ghost lettering, weathered façades, and selectively erased multilingual signs reflect changing relations among authority, commerce, heritage, and identity. By turning palimpsest into observable categories, this study offers a replicable framework for analysing how linguistic landscapes store historical time and materialise power in postcolonial heritage cities.