How urban history is influenced by translation

Ponder this assertion: language is a foundational building block of cities. Language plays a large role in the evolution of cities and has done throughout history. While it may not seem as overt as architecture, immigration or cuisine in shaping a city’s specific characteristics, all of a city’s inhabitants use language, more than they collectively use anything else. The mix of languages is in constant flux, through normal processes of migration or through more violent episodes of war and takeover--but all leave their mark and give urban spaces a DNA that is uniquely theirs.

The city as a translational space

Dr. Sherry Simon, a distinguished Research Professor at Concordia University in Canada, and an expert in translation and its effect on cities, describes cities as “translational”. She believes cities are influenced by the interactions among languages spoken there and how language use showcases historical change over time. Ghosts of languages past can be seen in many worldwide cities in ways we will explain below. However, being “translational” is about the present as much as it is about the past: bilingualism or multilingualism in cities provides cultural identity. Dr. Simon says: “all cities are translational in the sense that all cities are multilingual and all cities have communities that communicate with each other through translation. So all cities are translational.” Whether it’s official, in a bilingual city like Montreal, for example, or unofficial with boroughs and districts defined by the language of the people who live there—such as those with recently immigrated populations from South East Asia or Latin America—the fusion of languages, and the grey areas where they mix, have an anthropological influence on the population.

The physical manifestations of language history

Archaeologists painstakingly dig down through layers of earth and discover different eras of history built upon each other. In a similar way, cities are made up of layers of languages, or dramatic overlays, as Dr. Simon would say. This linguistic layering and especially the ways that memory is integrated into the cityscape can come to define a city. An interesting phenomenon in cities with ages-old cultural history is something known as “ghost signs”. This is where traces of past languages remain even though more recent events have covered them up. In one example, we can see the multiple languages experienced by a city in signage that has been repeatedly painted over and changed. This is particularly dominant in Eastern Europe, where two world wars, occupations and the advent and end of communism has seen borders move and languages come and go. “You have a city like Chernivtsi, which has gone from German language to Romanian and now it’s Ukrainian. Each of those layers are represented by language and architectural styles, street signs, vestiges … these fragments of language just peek out, from under some cracked paint or a broken brick, and remind you of the way in which these layers have come, one after the other,” notes Dr. Simon.

How different languages influence your perspective of a city

The way we are introduced to a city and the way we learn about it will depend to an extent on the languages used in that space. Experiencing cities differently depending on the language you speak has been prevalent throughout history. If, as an English-speaker, you experienced Calcutta in the 19th century, your view would be very different to if you had moved through it in its native Bengali, or its colonial English. Barcelona is a strong example of this. Leaving the politics of the two cultures aside, the city is defined by its balance of Spanish and Catalan. Your experience of that city is influenced by which of the languages you happen to speak. These two languages compete for your attention and, depending on your bias, the people you’re with, or what historical features you visit, the languages can give you a different experience of the same city. Dr. Simon analyzes the city where she lives, Montreal, as another good example: “If you read about it in English, and from a long historical English perspective, you will see the city in certain ways. You will read it in certain ways. Whereas if you read about it in French, it will be different.” In this case, the English signs that can date back to colonial times present the city in a more formal way than the French signs, many of which have only been around since the 1970s and adopt a more contemporary tone. No matter how you look at it, a tension is at play: Dr. Simon says “the relationship between languages on the terrain of the city is one of interrelations that can be conflictual, that can be creative, that can be productive, but they’re relationships. So, when we talk about bilingual, we think of side-by-side, but it’s not side-by-side, it’s incorporation, it’s interweaving, it’s ideas of how languages come to interact with one another and very often it’s a question of competition.”

The positive impact of living in a translational city

Most travelers and bilinguals would agree that living in cities where you interact with multiple languages (and the cultures they represent) makes for a richer experience. Dr. Simon says, “I often think of cities where languages have this very important physical and psychological presence as having a kind of benefit, a kind of a cognitive benefit, that you experience difference on a daily level.” If you encounter words, signs and people who are speaking another language, you are automatically thinking ‘translationally’, even if you aren’t aware of it. When you hear another language, you will become briefly aware that a different culture has come before, or exists alongside, yours. It’s this inclusiveness that makes the city a richer place. As Dr. Simon puts it, “you’re obliged to pay attention to language, to pay attention to the world around you … you’re always obliged to engage with difference. I see this as a positive thing.” Even the conflict that occurs in bilingual cities has been known to spark great periods of creativity and productivity. The Italian city of Trieste, for example, blossomed around the turn of the 19^th-20^th century. At this time, there was a lot of German and Italian traffic in its streets, representing two very different cultures, as psychoanalysis moved into Italy from Germany. Dr. Simon notes that “it was through this dissonance, through this difficulty of the relationship between German and Italian, that there was this terrific flowering of literary and intellectual life in the city.” Translational cities invite us to embrace changes, reflect on different cultures and open our eyes to history and to the ways of others. It may not always be easy and it may challenge our thinking, but it is always an opportunity to grow. Whether you live in a multilingual city or you’re visiting one, these cities invite you to look at them differently through language. Translational cities give us the opportunity to broaden our perspective on the world. If we dig a little deeper and peel back the layers of language that have shaped these cities into what they are now, we better understand the deep impact language and translation has had on them. Dr. Simon outlines it from the perspective of a traveller, but the same could also be said of a resident. "On the one hand, there's the question of the traveller, and how the traveler can be a better informed traveller. And that, I think, is very important to me, that we become more aware of these layers of history, become more attentive to them. And more understanding of the importance of translation and the traces it leaves in the world." If you'd like to read more about translational cities, check out our interview with Dr. Simon in our Globally Speaking Radio podcast.