PART V - CASE STUDY 13.1 - Language and tourism in Edinburgh, Scotland
Research on language and tourism is an emerging area of study that is being largely led by researchers in linguistics, as opposed to tourism studies. It has largely focused on how the social context of the tourism encounter reflects or challenges existing theories of host-guest relations, service quality, and language use. Hall-Lew and Lew (2014) have suggested that language and tourism relate to each other at three potential levels of analysis:
A key aspect through these three levels is the degree of mutual intelligibility between hosts and visitors. In cases where language is a potential barrier to mutual understanding, there is a distinct set of pronunciation patterns, vocabulary, and grammatical features associated with the way that locals speak with tourists. Cohen and Cooper (1986) referred to this as Tourist Talk, and usually consists of stylizations of the local language (or Host Language). In some cases, a local accent may become commodified, in which case the linguistic distinctiveness of Tourist Talk is even more pronounced in performative contexts, such as in tour guiding. This is the case for Scottish English in Edinburgh, Scotland.
VisitScotland.com promotes Scotland's distinct linguistic differences as a positive aspect of the tourist experience: "Often characterised as rough and impenetrable, the truth of the matter is that it varies so much around the country that there's not really such a thing as a standard 'Scottish accent'… In fact, it's only when you visit [that] you realise the rich distinctions in different regional dialects (and the fun you can have trying to copy them!)." In this way, they balance the potentially threatening 'rough' and 'impenetrable' against the more attractive 'rich' and 'fun', while also welcoming tourists to role play with the accents, thereby participating in a temporary switching of worlds.
- the historical context that has resulted in the distribution of present day linguistic variations, and which contributes to a destination's sense of place;
- the contemporary uses of language variation within a community, including the ways society uses language to influence public opinion and destination marketing organization brand and sell tourism; and
- the individual's personal linguistic competencies and experiences, which may be seen in the social and cultural capital that language skills enable for both local tourism hosts and for tourist as guests.
A key aspect through these three levels is the degree of mutual intelligibility between hosts and visitors. In cases where language is a potential barrier to mutual understanding, there is a distinct set of pronunciation patterns, vocabulary, and grammatical features associated with the way that locals speak with tourists. Cohen and Cooper (1986) referred to this as Tourist Talk, and usually consists of stylizations of the local language (or Host Language). In some cases, a local accent may become commodified, in which case the linguistic distinctiveness of Tourist Talk is even more pronounced in performative contexts, such as in tour guiding. This is the case for Scottish English in Edinburgh, Scotland.
VisitScotland.com promotes Scotland's distinct linguistic differences as a positive aspect of the tourist experience: "Often characterised as rough and impenetrable, the truth of the matter is that it varies so much around the country that there's not really such a thing as a standard 'Scottish accent'… In fact, it's only when you visit [that] you realise the rich distinctions in different regional dialects (and the fun you can have trying to copy them!)." In this way, they balance the potentially threatening 'rough' and 'impenetrable' against the more attractive 'rich' and 'fun', while also welcoming tourists to role play with the accents, thereby participating in a temporary switching of worlds.
Hall-Lew, Fairs and Lew, (2014) found that the attitudes of tourists toward the linguistic variation in Edinburgh are largely positive, although 'light' accents are significantly more positive than 'heavy' accents. A 'light' Scottish accent was seen as likeable, helpful, melodic, and polite, while a 'heavy' Scottish accent is considered interesting, honest and slightly more authentic, but also potentially unclear and unintelligible. Unintelligibility is a not necessarily a negative experience, as most tourists preferred hearing an 'authentic Edinburgh accent', even if they could not understand it, indicating a deeper search for authenticity.
One significant result was that that the context of the linguistic encounter influenced the types of accents that tourists preferred to hear, indicating a trade-off between intelligibility value and authenticity value. Edinburgh is a place where the local linguistic variation is strongly associated with place authenticity. As such, tourists vastly prefer to hear a light Scottish accent in their tour guides, which might be defined as one that provides a balance between authenticity and understandability. This finding was less significant for non-tourism encounters (such as with a gas/petrol station attendant), where a light accent was still preferred, but not considered crucial to the experience.
A negative implication of these results is that the secondary status of the 'heavy' Scottish accent may, in the long term, relegate it to a museumized existence, as is the case with many threatened minority language variations. As with other intangible culture artefacts (e.g., the visual and performing arts), tourism commodification has a dual role in contributing to their conservation, but also creating debased and variant forms. This speaks to the broader tourism challenge in which the mass tourism commodification of one form of an intangible cultural heritage shifts the authenticity value away from other, less accessible, forms of the same heritage.
One significant result was that that the context of the linguistic encounter influenced the types of accents that tourists preferred to hear, indicating a trade-off between intelligibility value and authenticity value. Edinburgh is a place where the local linguistic variation is strongly associated with place authenticity. As such, tourists vastly prefer to hear a light Scottish accent in their tour guides, which might be defined as one that provides a balance between authenticity and understandability. This finding was less significant for non-tourism encounters (such as with a gas/petrol station attendant), where a light accent was still preferred, but not considered crucial to the experience.
A negative implication of these results is that the secondary status of the 'heavy' Scottish accent may, in the long term, relegate it to a museumized existence, as is the case with many threatened minority language variations. As with other intangible culture artefacts (e.g., the visual and performing arts), tourism commodification has a dual role in contributing to their conservation, but also creating debased and variant forms. This speaks to the broader tourism challenge in which the mass tourism commodification of one form of an intangible cultural heritage shifts the authenticity value away from other, less accessible, forms of the same heritage.
References
Cohen, Erik and Robert L. Cooper. 1986. "Language and Tourism." Annals of Tourism Research, 13: 533-563. DOI: 10.1016/0160-7383(86)90002-2
Hall-Lew, Lauren A. and Lew, Alan A. 2014. "Speaking Heritage: Language, Identity and Tourism." In A.A. Lew, C.M. Hall and A.M. Williams, eds., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Tourism, pp. 336-348. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lew, Alan A.; Hall-Lew, Lauren; and Fairs, Amy. 2014. "Language and Tourism in Sabah, Malaysia and Edinburgh, Scotland." In B. O'Rourke, N. Bermingham and S. Brennan, eds., Opening New Lines of Communication in Applied Linguistics, pp. 253-9.
photos by Lauren Hall-Lew
Cohen, Erik and Robert L. Cooper. 1986. "Language and Tourism." Annals of Tourism Research, 13: 533-563. DOI: 10.1016/0160-7383(86)90002-2
Hall-Lew, Lauren A. and Lew, Alan A. 2014. "Speaking Heritage: Language, Identity and Tourism." In A.A. Lew, C.M. Hall and A.M. Williams, eds., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Tourism, pp. 336-348. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lew, Alan A.; Hall-Lew, Lauren; and Fairs, Amy. 2014. "Language and Tourism in Sabah, Malaysia and Edinburgh, Scotland." In B. O'Rourke, N. Bermingham and S. Brennan, eds., Opening New Lines of Communication in Applied Linguistics, pp. 253-9.
photos by Lauren Hall-Lew