Community Morphology
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The Linguistic Landscape
At the heart of these spaces, which are to a greater or lesser extent defined by geographic concentration, it is of interest to identify not only the numbers and characteristics of the minority population, but also the impact of the predominant linguistic landscape. The linguistic landscape is made up of signs, street names and place names, trademarks, signage, commemorative plaques, etc. (Bourhis and Landry, 2002). In asserting itself in space in this way, the official language of the minority participates in the identity-building process of OLMCs, while at the same time establishing a relationship with the majority in terms of recognition. The linguistic landscape of a territory can thus fulfil two basic functions: an informational function and a symbolic function.
The importance of the linguistic landscape as a factor in vitality is demonstrated not only in Canada (Bourhis and Landry, 1997, 2002), but also in the minority communities of Europe: in Wales, Ireland and Catalonia, for example (Grin and Vaillancourt, 1999). The linguistic landscape constitutes a vital element of cultural capital, given its visibility and its function of promoting minority realities in public space.
"Consequently, language planners as well as language activists can ill afford to ignore the issue of the linguistic landscape, not only as a tool to promote language maintenance or reverse language shift but also as another front on which to wage the struggle for consolidating the vitality of their ethnolinguistic groups in multilingual settings" (Bourhis and Landry, 1997: 46).
Linguistic landscape has been neglected in Canada's Francophone communities outside Quebec, presumably because of the insufficient influence that they are able to exert on municipal and provincial authorities. Some associations of Francophone and bilingual minorities have nonetheless taken action in this regard (the Association des municipalités bilingues du Manitoba, the Association des municipalités francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick, the Association francophone des municipalités de l'Ontario). At the same time, the provincial associations and tourist associations have undertaken initiatives to introduce bilingual signage, for instance, in Nova Scotia and northeastern Ontario. This is a strategic issue for municipalities in particular.
Geographers are endeavouring to better delineate the geographic spaces where Anglophone and Francophone minorities are concentrated. Gilbert and Langlois (n. d.) have produced eloquent images of the situation of the various Francophone communities in Ontario by mapping demographic and socio-economic data for these populations on a regional basis. These studies attempt to highlight minority Francophone population concentrations using concepts of space, place and networks.
This approach has led to a multidisciplinary research program on Francophone communities in Canada (Gilbert et al., 2005). It comprises studies of institutions, case studies in localities with variable concentrations of Francophones, and studies of the attitudes and motivations of individuals, in order to achieve a better understanding of the vitality of communities and to validate a model thereof. Those involved in the communities and, in particular, in government are awaiting the results of this research with great interest.
We thus find that the territorial communities remain an essential concern of OLMCs. Their demographic fate has wavered in recent decades, but it continues to reflect a resilience that development experts continue to feed. While in a more distant era this type of community seemed to incorporate the lion's share of the minority population, today it appears that other types of community, more dispersed from the spatial standpoint, have taken over with regard to social identity. These are often referred to as communities of interest, or networks.
