Exploring the Linguistic Landscape of Yoruba in Osogbo, Osun State: Signs, Language Use, and Identity

Linguistic landscape research examines the visibility and vitality of languages in public signage as an index of their social status, official recognition, and community identity significance. This study explores the linguistic landscape of Yoruba in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State, South West Nigeria, analysing the language composition, placement, and semiotic functions of public signs across commercial, governmental, religious, and educational domains. Data were collected through systematic photography and cataloguing of 800 signs in six purposively selected zones of Osogbo, supplemented by interviews with 30 sign producers including business owners, government officials, and religious institutions. The study applies Landry and Bourhis's linguistic landscape theory and Ben-Rafael's semiotic approach to analyse sign content, language hierarchy, and identity messages. Existing linguistic landscape research in Nigeria has focused predominantly on Lagos and Abuja, with state capital cities in the Southwest, including Osogbo, remaining underdocumented. This study fills that geographical research gap. The research investigates whether Yoruba is represented as a language of power in official and commercial spaces, how Yoruba script interacts with English and Arabic in multilingual signs, and whether the linguistic landscape reflects or misrepresents the sociolinguistic reality of Yoruba community identity. Findings are expected to reveal significant marginalisation of Yoruba in official and commercial signage despite its position as the majority community language. Recommendations will address language policy for public signage and the use of Yoruba in official visual communication in Osun State. Keywords: linguistic landscape, Yoruba, Osogbo, public signs, language identity.