The Role of English in Shaping the Linguistic Landscape of Paris, Berlin and Kazan

The paper examines the linguistic cultural landscape of three European cities: Paris (France), Berlin (Germany) and Kazan (the Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation). The subject of the analysis is the impact of the English language as an international communication agent on the development of the linguistic landscape in these cities.Each of these capital cities has its own language policy that aims at preserving their unique national heritage: language and culture. The Republic of Tatarstan is twice-challenged as there are two official languages in the region – Russian and Tatar, both carefully preserved. However, the process of globalization affects the development of each European country; and the role of English in the linguistic landscape development is becoming increasingly important. This is reflected in the names of companies, shops, cafes and other ergonyms. Here linguists meet the challenge of the correct translation of the borrowed lexical units. The research seeks to facilitate and improve the translation accuracy of ergonyms by adapting the experience of other cities.The findings of the authors contributed not only to the extension of the corpus of ergonyms, particularly those originating from the English language but first and foremost to the promotion of the positive international image the city of Kazan. This predominately comparative study made it possible to collect and critically analyze best practices of preservation and promotion the native language and culture in France, Germany and Russia to adopt them in Kazan, which aims to become an integral part of Europe.