The Influence of English on the Linguistic Landscape of Slovak-Serbian Bilingual Environments in Vojvodina

This article examines the presence, functions, and adaptation of English language elements in the linguistic landscape of Slovak-Serbian bilingual environments in Vojvodina, Serbia. The study focuses on municipalities with a majority Slovak population and analyses the ways in which English elements appear in public space, particularly in business names, advertising texts, posters, and shop displays. The theoretical part discusses the concept of linguistic landscape, the characteristics of Slovak-Serbian bilingualism in Vojvodina, the global status of English, and the influence of English on Serbian through anglicisms and hybrid forms. The empirical part is based on a corpus of photographed public signs collected in seven Slovak-majority municipalities and on a questionnaire survey conducted among inhabitants of Selenča. The analysis shows that English elements occur in various forms, including unadapted anglicisms, pseudo-anglicisms, and mixed English-Serbian expressions. The questionnaire results indicate differences between respondents’ subjective perception of understanding and their actual interpretation of meanings. The findings suggest that English contributes to the symbolic attractiveness of public signs, but excessive or unclear use of English elements may reduce their communicative effectiveness.