Italian in the linguistic landscape of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Abstract

This article looks at the presence of Italian in the linguistic landscape (LL) of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Rather surprisingly, Italian is quite visible, and it might even be the most used European language after English. After a general introduction on the Italian language and Malaysia, including the latter's LL, the article goes on to outline the methodology employed, which made use of both a quantitative and a qualitative approach, and the results obtained. There follow a brief discussion on the recognisability of written Italian on the part of people who do not know the language and an analysis of the actual examples of Italian recorded. The article closes with an in-depth discussion on the reasons that account for the relative popularity of Italian and some general conclusions.