Info & Map

Have you ever wondered how many signs you pass on your daily way to work? In which languages these signs are lettered? And how language in public space changes over time? Welcome to Lingscape!

Writing is everywhere in public space. All different kinds of signs and lettering form the linguistic landscape of a place or community. Often these signs display different languages, be they on the same sign or next to each other. Lingscape is an app for researching such linguistic landscapes all over the world. Therefore we collect photos of signs and lettering on an interactive map.

Our main objectives: We want to analyze the diversity and dynamics of public writing. And we want to do that together with people from all over the world.

You can help us to collect as many photos as possible. Upload your own photos or explore the map with all photos added by other users. Share photos you like with your friends. Become a citizen scientist by contributing to the project.

Citizen science meets linguistic landscaping, or short: Lingscape!



Click here for a fullscreen map | Click here to get to the public image repository

Signs

Take photos of signs and lettering in public space! Help us document and analyze language use and visible multilingualism

Projects

Create your own projects, publish your own datasets! Get your project account to use Lingscape for your research 

Repository

Build your own corpus, publish your own datasets! In our public repository, your data is citable and future-proof

Analysis

Explore the map with all photos uploaded by users! Discover polymorphic linguistic landscapes all over the world

What's happening in the project?

Updates

List of recent additions to the language list, new features and updates

Media coverage

List of press coverage appearances and mentionings of the project in the media

Activities

List of project-related outreach activities, publications, and talks

Download Lingscape

Click on the buttons below or scan the respective QR code to download Lingscape for iOS or Android

The app is available for download and use worldwide. Plus, we have just released the group update with improved features for the creation of teams and working groups within project. If you would like to use the app for an individual or group project, just let us know.

Stats

These basic stats will be updated manually on a weekly basis.

5560
Downloads from Apple App Store
2193
Number of active contributors
1716
Downloads from Google Play Store
A collaborative story

Project blog

Projects

Die Sprach-Checker ‒ So sprechen wir in der Neckarstadt

– For English, scroll down, please! –  Das Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) und stadtteilbezogene Kooperationspartner führen aktuell das Citizen-Science-Projekt „Die Sprach-Checker – So sprechen wir in der Neckarstadt“ zur Erforschung …

Projects

VisibLL

The project VisibLL – High-schoolers investigate the (in)conspicuous multilingualism of the Viennese Linguistic Landscape is a Vienna-based project that explores the LL of the city together with teachers and students. In …

Go to blog

Featured projects

Lingscape is all about opening spaces for collaboration and co-explorataion, and about providing you with the means to do so through our apps & platform. If you want to use the app for your own research project, just let us know. The platform is open for everyone.

Here you can find some projects that we are happy to host on our platform. Want that for your own project, too? Just drop us a line.

Sichtbare Sprachen an der TU Darmstadt

The PhD project explores the visible language diversity on the campus of the TU Darmstadt using photos of signs, posters, stickers and other written signs. In the Citizen Science project, you become part of the research yourself.

More info

Alpilink

AlpiLinK (Alpine Languages in Contact) is the new project hosted at the VinKo crowdsourcing website. The project aims to gather numerically relevant information about the Germanic and Romance dialects and minority languages and dialects spoken across the Alpine regions of Italy.

More info

Die Sprach-Checker

The project “Die Sprach-Checker” stems from a cooperation with the Institut für Deutsche Sprache in Mannheim that engages in Citizen Science activities. It is a state-funded, prize-winning citizen science project on multilingualism in Mannheim, Germany.

More info

VisibLL

The VisibLL project is a recent addition to our list of international cooperations. Led by a Vienna-based research team, the project explores the LL of the city together with teachers and students. The project is funded by the “Sparkling Science” initiative of the OEAD.

More info

Featured on

Lingscape is part of the following Citizen Science platforms that foster participatory research

mit:forschen! Gemeinsam Wissen schaffen

mit:forschen! Gemeinsam Wissen schaffen

SciStarter

SciStarter

European Citizen Science

European Citizen Science

Our Team

Christoph Purschke
Lingscape officer
Jacques Spedener
Lingscape officer
Peter Gilles
Lingscape officer
ibros.ch
App development

Contact us

You miss a language you want to tag? You want to use the app for your own research? You are working on a linguistic landscaping project? Just drop us a line. We are happy to welcome you in the project.

We speak Deutsch, English, Français, Italiano, Lëtzebuergesch and Plattdüütsch.



lingscape@uni.lu