# Code Switching



## Dipti

Hi Guys,

I have to write a research paper on code switching in bilingual speakers.I ahve to use 4 academic sources.Any suggestions what topics covered in the paper would make it a good paper?Any good suggestions for the academic sources?

I would really appreciate suggestions.

Dipti


----------



## valerie

This is a very interesting subject, and  I would be happy to know the result of you research when it is done. I'm not a specialist of the subject, the only contribution I can make is share some experience with you, I'll send you an PM.


----------



## LadyBlakeney

Could anyone explain what is "code switching"?

Thank you very much in advance.


----------



## valerie

I understand it as language switching, when a person who is bilingual changes language according to... the person she is speaking to, the cirscumstances, the social context or whatever other criteria. Am I right?


----------



## cuchuflete

I'm not sure I understand the concept.  Here is an example from the home of friends in Santander.

Father is Spanish, mother English.  Children born and raised in Santander.  The household is completely bi-lingual.  When one of the children was about 3 or 4 years old, I heard her say,  "Mamá, quiero más pan con butter."  It seemed that she was using the shorter and easier word.  Was this code switching or something else?

thanks,
Cuchuflete


----------



## valerie

I think bilingual situations are quite rare in Europe and in the US, there are few places where a significant group of people is bilingual. So there is not much issue for bilingual persons in monolingual places to choose which language to use and when: just use the language the other person can understand. 

But in some places, like Barcelona, and in some countries, (I think this is a general case in India), most people speak several languages, and thus have to choose, conciously or not, which one to use in which circumstances, and when and why to change language. That is how I understand Dipti subject


----------



## Philippa

Good info on what code switching is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching
Must fly....
Philippa


----------



## LadyBlakeney

Thank you Philippa!


----------



## valerie

Thank you Philippa. At the bottom of the wiki article, there is a link to this site:

http://www.kottke.org/03/09/bilingual-conversations


There, Dipti, you can find a list of questions that may be of interest to you to develop in your research


----------



## Phryne

valerie said:
			
		

> I think bilingual situations are quite rare in Europe and in the US, there are few places where a significant group of people is bilingual. So there is not much issue for bilingual persons in monolingual places to choose which language to use and when: just use the language the other person can understand.





			
				valerie said:
			
		

> But in some places, like Barcelona, and in some countries, (I think this is a general case in India), most people speak several languages, and thus have to choose, conciously or not, which one to use in which circumstances, and when and why to change language. That is how I understand Dipti subject






Valerie, actually the US is one of the countries with the most amount of bilingual people. I have no idea the percentage of immigrants in this country; however, it is quite large. I've been all around Europe and I have never heard the amount of languages that you hear at least in the New York area. I imagine California, Florida, Chicago to be quite similar. People here switch from languages as second nature. Nevertheless, Puerto Ricans and other "latino" communities I find them to be the most peculiar for they use both languages at the same time. As a bilingual person myself, I had conversations with many Spanish speaking people that go like this:

"You know, fuí al dance club la otra noche. Allí estaba él, so handsome!"

In this area I find Puerto Ricans to be the ones who mix languages the most. Interestingly, they're second or third generation in the country!



Cheers!


----------



## valerie

Phryne said:
			
		

> Valerie, actually the US is one of the countries with the most amount of bilingual people.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, I realized that too late, immigrant communities are probably great places to practice code switching. I apologize if my sentences hurt somenone
Click to expand...


----------



## Phryne

valerie said:
			
		

> Yes, I realized that too late, immigrant communities are probably great places to practice code switching. I apologize if my sentences hurt somenone


 


Don’t worry, Valerie, I don't think anybody got offended!  


I was just thinking of the immigrants in the US (and I include myself in this category) when Cuchu was talking about the story of the bilingual family. My friend Ana, for instance, was born in Panama but she's of Chinese descent. She came to the US when she was 9, so she's almost trilingual. Chinese seems to be the hardest for her even though her parents talk to her in that language. If you see their conversations, you’ll be quite amused. The parents speak in Chinese and Ana answers in Spanish although they all live in an English speaking country!!!!! 



Cheers!!


----------



## lauranazario

Phryne said:
			
		

> In this area I find Puerto Ricans to be the ones who mix languages the most.


 Your comment made me smile... because I often engage in code switching --not in the same manner you described, speaking in one language and "peppering it" with words from another language every third or fourth word-- but rather with a choice few colleagues (translators and interpreters, not all Puerto Ricans).

You see, we will begin speaking in Spanish and somewhere along the line we will switch to English in the middle of a sentence and continue in English for a while... only to come back to Spanish some time later --without ever missing a beat. Get our group together in a room and the language becomes 'transparent'... conversations will jump naturally from one person to the next --but so does the language. It may sound very odd to other people, but to me it's commonplace.

Come to think of it... we do this in my family setting as well! My mom and I often switch between English and Spanish --much like what I described with my colleagues, with no lull in the conversation. 

I have also engaged in very natural code-switching with a gentleman friend who lives in New England (again, not a Puerto Rican)... which makes me think this is not a modern-day, generation-specific phenomenon.

Hmmmmm.... I wonder if this is a common occurrence between truly bilingual people --as what I'm describing is NOT the same thing as having weaknesses in either language, where you have to fill "voids" in vocabulary with words borrowed from the other language (which seems to be the case in the people whose conversation you pointed out in your previous post: _"You know, fuí al dance club la otra noche. Allí estaba él, so handsome!"_)

Saludos,
LN


----------



## te gato

My mother's family does this all the time..
They will start out talking in Dutch..switch to English..then back to Dutch again..in a heart-beat...
And when you get all eight of the siblings together..it is like watching a bad tennis match!!
Mind you..as a child I used to do this as well..switch..but not so much anymore..I forgot so much Dutch.. 

te gato


----------



## asm

I agree, however, that happens with immigrants and first generation Americans; if you find second/third and more generation Americans, it is very uncommon to find bilingual people. 

Americans are using several languages because they are serving population from abroad, not because they promoted bilinguism from within. I am happy that this trend is changing and more Americans are willing to learn another language.



			
				Phryne said:
			
		

> Valerie, actually the US is one of the countries with the most amount of bilingual people. I have no idea the percentage of immigrants in this country; however, it is quite large. I've been all around Europe and I have never heard the amount of languages that you hear at least in the New York area. I imagine California, Florida, Chicago to be quite similar. People here switch from languages as second nature. Nevertheless, Puerto Ricans and other "latino" communities I find them to be the most peculiar for they use both languages at the same time. As a bilingual person myself, I had conversations with many Spanish speaking people that go like this:
> 
> "You know, fuí al dance club la otra noche. Allí estaba él, so handsome!"
> 
> In this area I find Puerto Ricans to be the ones who mix languages the most. Interestingly, they're second or third generation in the country!
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers!


----------



## mjscott

From the smatterings of the readings and literature of a language you get a "taste" for a word. I enjoy speaking with bilingual teachers with whom I can code switch. Sometimes a word in English isn't as flavorful as the one in Spanish--it's not "just right." The one in Spanish has exactly the right flavor to make a savory sentence, and it emerges first as the right thing to say. It is nice when the people around understand you for whatever comes out of your mouth. It makes communication so much more effortless.

My school district discourages code switching and Spanglish. There is a fellow named Ramirez (not much help when looking up research--sorry--I'll try and find his first name this weekend) who did extensive research on bilingual education. Most of his research was done concerning the bilingual populations of Quebec. I'm thinking if you get anything from him (many schools with bilingual education use his models) it will bring you to other leads concerning the development of language in bilingual environments.

Good luck on your paper!


----------



## Philippa

lauranazario said:
			
		

> You see, we will begin speaking in Spanish and somewhere along the line we will switch to English in the middle of a sentence and continue in English for a while... only to come back to Spanish some time later --without ever missing a beat.
> I wonder if this is a common occurrence between truly bilingual people --as what I'm describing is NOT the same thing as having weaknesses in either language, where you have to fill "voids" in vocabulary with words borrowed from the other language...


Hi! As most of you are only too painfully aware I'm not bilingual and certainly not truly bilingual!! But I've still experienced this sort of thing talking to my Spanish friend on the phone (she is bilingual). I was amazed at the end of the conversation that we had swapped so 'effortlessly' from Spanish to English and back again (about 4 or 5 swaps in 3/4 hour) without it affecting the flow of conversation. True, once she wanted to speak in English so her family wouldn't understand (  !) and I swapped it twice semi-deliberately (once because I wanted to speak Spanish and back to English because my brain had got in a tangle!), but it flowed kind of naturally. So, I wonder whether it's a lot to do with being good friends with the other person as well as knowing you're both happy to speak either language.
Philippa


----------



## valerie

On the subject of bilinguilism and bilingual education, I recommend an French author called *'Claude Hagège'*. He writes in French, but perhaps some of his works have been translated, I do not know. I personaly recommend his book called 'Le souffle de la langue'.
I do not know if he researched especifically the subject code switching


----------



## Phryne

lauranazario said:
			
		

> Your comment made me smile... because I often engage in code switching --not in the same manner you described, speaking in one language and "peppering it" with words from another language every third or fourth word-- but rather with a choice few colleagues (translators and interpreters, not all Puerto Ricans). [...]
> Saludos,
> LN


Well, You made ME laugh! I have a handful of friends who are bilingual as me in Spanish and English. We might start a conversation in Spanish and then somebody who doesn't speak the language shows up so we switch to English. Or, sometimes nobody shows up, but, maybe one single idea felt better in one language so we switch back and forth along our chat. 

Anyway, Puerto Ricans and other Spanish speaking communities tend to speak half a sentence in one language and finish in the other. I try not to do this. I don't know why, but I don't like it.  Also, they tend to use a lot of Spanglish, which I don't necessarily like to use either if the words already exist in Spanish. I always feel awkward when I have to speak in Spanglish, but some times I have no choice. For example, the people that work at the deli where I buy my breakfast every morning are all Mexicans. I always talk to them in Spanish, but then I want a "roll", which I have no clue how to call it in Spanish besides describing it as "that round bread that you call roll in English", so I end up saying something like "Quiero un roll solo, sin nada" (I want a plain roll) and since the "sin nada" idea seems confusing to them they answer me back "Un plain roll?" And I say "Sí".

saludos


----------



## Phryne

mjscott said:
			
		

> From the smatterings of the readings and literature of a language you get a "taste" for a word. I enjoy speaking with bilingual teachers with whom I can code switch. Sometimes a word in English isn't as flavorful as the one in Spanish--it's not "just right." The one in Spanish has exactly the right flavor to make a savory sentence, and it emerges first as the right thing to say. It is nice when the people around understand you for whatever comes out of your mouth. It makes communication so much more effortless.!



It's quite funny that you say this. As my profile says, I'm an Argentine living in the US. I'm not only capable of switching language in conversations, but I also found myself switching languages in my own thoughts.  As a result I had a couple of mishaps with my family who live in Argentina. Many times I have said things like "anyway" in the middle of my Spanish sentences. I don't have to say anything about how odd it must have sound to them! Even once I cursed  in English a cab driver who almost ran over me when I was visting them. I didn't scream the typical Argentine insult. I said "you F****** As*****!"  Just imagine how offended he must have been!!!!


----------



## Markus

I experienced a lot of this the year that I was living in Ottawa. Ottawa is the capital of Canada and is right on the border of Ontario (English) and Québec (French of course). It has a sister town called Gatineau right across the river that separates the provinces.

Being that it has such strong influence from the French and English communities, both geographically and politically, it is full of bilingual people. I met many people who spoke both French and English as first languages, and they would constantly switch languages depending on who they were talking to. I didn't hear so much of the switching in the middle of a sentence, though.

What I really like is when you have two people of different native languages (e.g. English and French) who are fluent in each others' languages. Then each will speak their own native language to each other (one will speak English and the other French) and they will carry on a conversation this way. It's quite something to listen to!


----------



## lauranazario

Phryne said:
			
		

> Anyway, Puerto Ricans and other Spanish speaking communities tend to speak half a sentence in one language and finish in the other.


Ah, but this is NOT what I was trying to describe in my previous post. With my colleagues we'll begin a conversation in Spanish, continue talking in Spanish until one of us inadvertedly will say something in English and then the whole group switches to English for a while... until the next person inadvertedly switches to Spanish again. What I meant is that we do NOT "pepper" our sentences with words in another language every fourth or fifth word. 

Try to picture our group as 2 different TV stations... you tune in one channel and you see the people speaking in one language and then someone clicks on an invisible remote control and suddenly you're watching a perfectly coherent "program" in another language, all in a seamless transition. Perfectly normal for us... but maybe funny as heck to an "outsider". 

Saludos,
LN


----------



## Phryne

Philippa said:
			
		

> Hi! As most of you are only too painfully aware I'm not bilingual and certainly not truly bilingual!! B



Phillipa, please, don't put yourself down!!!! What is to be truly bilingual anyway? Do you want to hear something funny about my condition of a true bilingual person? Today, I told my boss that if I hadn't finished my job by tomorrow at 5pm I would stay *over*! He replied, "are you bringing a sleeping bag?"  

saludos

PS: Is this clause correct? "if I hadn't finished my job by tomorrow at 5pm I would stay late"


----------



## Phryne

lauranazario said:
			
		

> Ah, but this is NOT what I was trying to describe in my previous post.
> Saludos,
> LN



I understood you perfectly from the get-go.   You do what I do with my Spanish speaking friends. So, you and I do not speak like Puerto Ricans in the US, who switch languages in the middle of the sentence!!!   

saludos y buenas noches. Me voy a comer!!


----------



## Markus

Phryne said:
			
		

> PS: Is this clause correct? "if I hadn't finished my job by tomorrow at 5pm I would stay late"


 
Almost.


----------



## Phryne

Markus said:
			
		

> Almost.



Wow, that was a dumb mistake! I actually thought the clause was wrong ... 

Thanks!!!


----------



## Artrella

When I talk to an Irish neighbour of mine, whenever I see her, I speak English with her.  Then I change language if I talk to an Argentinian neighbour.  But this Irish woman speaks Spanish, I don't understand why I speak in English with her.

Some other times, when I am writing in Spanish and then I have to write a word in English, immediately after that word I continue writing in English until I realize what I am doing, so I change into Spanish again.

Is this the "code switching"??


----------



## lauranazario

Phryne said:
			
		

> I understood you perfectly from the get-go.   You do what I do with my Spanish speaking friends. So, you and I do not speak like Puerto Ricans in the US, who switch languages in the middle of the sentence!!!
> 
> saludos y buenas noches. Me voy a comer!!


Oh, okay... sorry for the misunderstanding.
Now that you say we "do not speak like Puerto Ricans in the US"... you have made me think. Do Puerto Ricans living in the US do this because they're bilingual or because they have serious deficiencies in BOTH languages? 

I have to admit I have engaged in conversation with US-born "Puerto Ricans" who spoke atrocious Spanish and whose vocabulary was so limited they had to constantly switch between English and Spanish in order to complete a whole sentence. I have also seen this same phenomenon among US-born "Mexicans"... must be because they are placed in a unique situation where Spanish is no longer their mother tongue (as it is their parents'), yet they are still exposed to it. And since they're living in the US, they do not get formal Spanish-language education until they're in high school, and by that time linguistic "bad habits" are so ingrained that they're almost impossible to overcome????

The more I think about it, the more blessed I feel and the more I treasure my bilingualism and biculturalism. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Saludos,
LN


----------



## Phryne

lauranazario said:
			
		

> Do Puerto Ricans living in the US do this because they're bilingual or because they have serious deficiencies in BOTH languages?
> 
> I have to admit I have engaged in conversation with US-born "Puerto Ricans" who spoke atrocious Spanish and whose vocabulary was so limited they had to constantly switch between English and Spanish in order to complete a whole sentence. I have also seen this same phenomenon among US-born "Mexicans"... must be because they are placed in a unique situation where Spanish is no longer their mother tongue (as it is their parents'), yet they are still exposed to it. And since they're living in the US, they do not get formal Spanish-language education until they're in high school, and by that time linguistic "bad habits" are so ingrained that they're almost impossible to overcome????
> LN



Well, second generations in the US seem to have problems speaking their parents’ language, no matter what origin their parents are (some of these kids don't even speak it at all!), but, can we say that what they speak is horrendous? Take into consideration that all the knowledge they have is a reflection of their communication with the older generations of family members. Once they're out of their houses, or even among siblings, English is their language. Besides, and despite our horror, linguists believe that people who are able to switch between languages are actually fluent en both languages. Otherwise, they would not be able to do so. So, basically, those who can code switch might not speak like a native speaker and have grammatical and lexical differences with us, but as long as it is fluent and coherent, it’s correct. 

saludos

PS, I've heard a million times among Puerto Ricans the construction "está supuesto ser" instead of "se supone que". Does it also happen in P.R., or is it just a phenomenon for US born speakers?


----------



## kennytimes2

Today, I told my boss that if I hadn't finished my job by tomorrow at 5pm I would stay *over*! 

it's fine if you say, "I would stay/work overtime."


----------



## asm

I hadn;t thought about this, it is true, we have many bilingual people in the USA. However, few of those people were raised bilingual in the USA, they are either immigrants or their offsprings.  I know very few people who learned a second language bythemselves.
Although you can hear many more languages in NY than maybe any other place in the world, the only official language is English. In Europe you travel 5 hours and you are in another country and most of they will speak a different language. It is not the same to have a myriad of marginal languages in a single city than just some languages within a whole continent. 
Even though NY has more groups with their own language, I'd consider Europe to be better off in regard of the languages.
In Switzerland there are people who do not know what their first language is because of the natural exposure to two languages, not because of their immigrant parents.





			
				Phryne said:
			
		

> Valerie, actually the US is one of the countries with the most amount of bilingual people. I have no idea the percentage of immigrants in this country; however, it is quite large. I've been all around Europe and I have never heard the amount of languages that you hear at least in the New York area. I imagine California, Florida, Chicago to be quite similar. People here switch from languages as second nature. Nevertheless, Puerto Ricans and other "latino" communities I find them to be the most peculiar for they use both languages at the same time. As a bilingual person myself, I had conversations with many Spanish speaking people that go like this:
> 
> "You know, fuí al dance club la otra noche. Allí estaba él, so handsome!"
> 
> In this area I find Puerto Ricans to be the ones who mix languages the most. Interestingly, they're second or third generation in the country!
> 
> 
> 
> Cheers!


----------



## cirrus

I do this all the time.  I do it in my first language with people who have a similar dialect (not that common in London, but such fun when it happens). Also with London based Spanish speakers hablamos un languaje very especial!


----------



## Residente Calle 13

cirrus said:
			
		

> Also with London based Spanish speakers hablamos un languaje very especial!



Thanks, Cirrus. On this side of the pond eso pasa todo el tiempo too.


----------



## Laia

Residente Calle 13 said:
			
		

> One definition of *code-switching* is the "alternation between two or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common."
> Do you code-switch? Do you know people who do? How is it seen by society in general?


 
Here we do it all the time... changing from Catalan to Spanish, and viceversa.

For example, there are words/sentences we (we, at least in Barcelona is so common that I can say "we" instead of "I") say in Spanish when speaking in Catalan:

- *quieto parao!* (quieto parado, debería ser "no et moguis", "atura't" o algo por el estilo)
- *ojo*! (pronunciado "oju" y debería ser "compte!")
- em menjaré un* bocata* (me comeré un "bocata", debería ser "em menjaré un entrepà")
- que faràs el *finde*? (¿que harás el finde (fin de semana)?, debería ser "que faràs el cap de setmana?")
- no me'n vaig *enterar* (no me enteré, debería ser "no me'n vaig assabentar")
- el *nòvio* de la nostra amiga és insuportable (el novio de nuestra amiga es insoportable, debería ser "el xicot de la nostra amiga és insuportable")

For example, there are words/sentences we say in Catalan when speaking in Spanish:

- hoy *plegaré* del trabajo muy tarde ("hoy saldré del trabajo muy tarde" o similar)
- que *lleig* ha sido eso (que feo ha sido eso)
- como me duele la *panxa* (como me duele la barriga)
- no *calia* (no era necesario/ no hacia falta)
- *Déu n'hi do!* (mmm... algo así como "¡vaya!"... no, no tiene una traducción exacta)
- *enchega* la tele ("engega la tele", debería ser "enciende la tele")

In general, people gets angry when this kind of speech is in TV, radio or newspaper. People working in the media should speak and write properly.


----------



## nichec

I do that all the time, Chinese-Taiwanese, Chinese-English, and Taiwanese-English. It can be a lot of fun sometimes (especially when someone pretends that he/she is still in the context of the first language that's been using therefore can't understand the joke )

In Taiwan, to "code-switch" between Chinese and English is somehow a symbol of higher education....(that's why many people love to do that even when their English is really poor or with very strong accents )


----------



## Zakalwe

When i met my spanish girlfriend in england, we were speaking in english because we didn't know the other's language.
Then we went to France and she learned french, and we were speaking in french.
Then we went to Spain and i learned spanish and at first we were speaking in spanish.
But nowadays, we use the "code-switch", as we alternate and mix our two languages (sadly, we do not speak english now, as we are not so confident with it as with the two other languages). 
Moreover there are words in spanish that i don't know how to say in french, and if i'm speaking in french i will just insert it in the sentence.

But it is just a thing between us as we don't share it with other people, except with two other couples of friends who have also the same particularity (france-mexico, france-peru).


----------



## Bettie

Hola, me invitaron para acá, jejeje, debido a que en mi Estado en México tenemos mucha influencia del maya y del español antiguo.

Por ejemplo en el resto de la república dicen árbol, como debe ser y nosotros decimos mata, para todo, no es un naranjo, es una mata de naranja, se burlan de nosotros.

Pero para mí lo peor es que en lugar de usar el verbo prestar en forma correcta lo usamos al revés.

En lugar de decir: "Me prestas un lápiz" Para que alguien te dé su lápiz un momento decimos: te presto tu lápiz, decimos no, porque yo no quiero caer en eso.
También decimos, lo busco, lo busco y no lo busco. En lugar de decir que estamos buscando algo y no lo encontramos, en este caso es porque según me explicaron en el maya es lo mismo buscar y encontrar, si no encuentras algo es como si jamás lo hubieras buscado, así que no vale la pena ni mencionarlo, en cuando a lo primero también algo tiene que ver pero no sé bien qué.

De palabras usamos muchísimas:
Tuch: ombligo.
Xic (pronunciándose shik) axila
Y hay un verbo que inventamos al español de una palabra maya: wishar, pero me da penita poner que significa, pero bueno, lo voy a poner porque es muy común ahí: hacer pis, ya que wix es orina X)


----------



## alcarma~~

Ejemplos de mezcla _erótico-festiva_ (eso es coña, eh) en español hay un montón. Sólo te tienes que parar a escuchar alguna canción de un artista italiano traducida al español, que lo suelen hacer mucho, porque como se parecen mucho los dos idiomas hay palabras que a veces ni traducen ya que es fácil captar su significado para un español. O también hacen traducciones casi literales del italiano, que en español quedan rarísimas:
_http://www.tizianoferro.com/it/txt/t_rr/track4.php_ (y ésta sólo la traducen en 3 idiomas, que las hay de 4...)


----------



## Laia

alcarma~~ said:
			
		

> Ejemplos de mezcla _erótico-festiva_ (eso es coña, eh) en español hay un montón. Sólo te tienes que parar a escuchar alguna canción de un artista italiano traducida al español, que lo suelen hacer mucho, porque como se parecen mucho los dos idiomas hay palabras que a veces ni traducen ya que es fácil captar su significado para un español. O también hacen traducciones casi literales del italiano, que en español quedan rarísimas:
> _http://www.tizianoferro.com/it/txt/t_rr/track4.php_ (y ésta sólo la traducen en 3 idiomas, que las hay de 4...)


 
Ya, pero ¿no crees que esto es un caso diferente? Quiero decir, una cosa es que haya malas traducciones, pero ¿hay alguien que hable "castellano italianizado"? (No me refiero a italianos que aprendan castellano, o viceversa, sino a personas bilingües). No sé si me explico...



			
				Residente Calle 13 said:
			
		

> One definition of *code-switching* is the "alternation between two or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common."
> 
> So in a nutshell, it's switching from one "language" to another in the middle of speaking to somebody who know's that other "language."


----------



## I.C.

Residente Calle 13 said:
			
		

> Do you code-switch?


Yes, language registers. Mostly for fun.


----------



## lauranazario

My name is Laura and I'm a part-time "code-switcher". 

I believe code-switching is an unconscious phenomenon between people who are fluent in whatever language pair their conversation chooses. For the sake of argument, let's take Spanish and English as a language pair.

People who engage in Spanish><English code-switching are usually very fluent in both languages, to a degree that they are able to express their thoughts identically well in either language. Code-switching is sometimes a unconscious act --which is completely different from using "Spanglish" to 1) either make up and incorporate Spanish-sounding or English-sounding words in a conversation, or 2) filling vocabulary gaps in a sentence by resorting to English or Spanish words as substitutes for the term that is 'missing'.

As to your question regarding how is code-switching viewed by society in general... I can only speak from personal experience (not standardized or research information).
When non-code-switchers listen to two or more code-switchers talking, sometimes they give us an odd look. Maybe they think we're being snotty, maybe they're puzzled as to why they are unable to follow _our_ conversations, maybe they think we're purposely trying to hide something from them, or maybe they think we've got a couple of loose screws. 
But for the most part, non-code-switchers do not complain when they hear us talk.

Of course, I do not engage in code-switching when talking to someone whom I know is not very fluent in English (or Spanish, as the case may be) --basically because I do not want to be rude. 
Furthermore, what good would it do if my code-switching stands in the way of _communicating_ with the person? If I'm perfectly aware that changing languages would create a communication barrier with the other person, my code-switching "switch" doesn't click "on". 

Saludos,
LN


----------



## Papalote

lauranazario said:
			
		

> My name is Laura and I'm a part-time "code-switcher".
> 
> I believe code-switching is an unconscious phenomenon between people who are fluent in whatever language pair their conversation chooses. For the sake of argument, let's take Spanish and English as a language pair.
> 
> People who engage in Spanish><English code-switching are usually very fluent in both languages, to a degree that they are able to express their thoughts identically well in either language. Code-switching is sometimes a unconscious act --.......When non-code-switchers listen to two or more code-switchers talking, sometimes they give us an odd look. ........ maybe they're puzzled as to why they are unable to follow _our_ conversations, ...... or maybe they think we've got a couple of loose screws.
> But for the most part, non-code-switchers do not complain when they hear us talk.
> 
> ..................".
> 
> Saludos,
> LN


 
I¨ve kept only the parts of Lauranazario´s post para ayudarme a ilustrar a funny anecdote regarding code-switching. At home we speak French with my parents (previous generation) and Spanish amongst siblings (same generation). We are all fluent in English. 

During one of our trips to the USA, my youngest sister wanted to buy diving equipment, especially the fins and mask. Without realizing it, my mother, sister and I kept on switching between the 3 languages, discussing the merits of each piece of equipment placed in front of us. We must have used English only when referring to the equipment because when my sister finally went to pay for her stuff, the sales lady, very timidly, asked her what language she had been speaking, because at first she thought we were speaking Spanish, but then she couldn´t understand a word, then we switched to English, then another language she thought sounded Spanish, etc. etc. You can´t imagine how relieved she was to know that she hadn´t wasted all those years learning Spanish!

Hasta +,

P


----------



## panjabigator

I find myself speaking sometimes less "Hinglish" and "Punjablish" than my parents do!  My mother speaks, I feel, has ceased speaking Hindi and English all together with me and just speaks Hinglish, even though she knows I hate it.  I, on the other hand, am a big fan of the vocab and will use words that sometimes are not often said (the english equivalent being the prevalent term).


----------



## panjabigator

Code switching is very prevalent in India.  In Indian films, code switching provides more of a regional flare.  In the big cities, people tend to use code switching a lot because of the diverse population...your neighbors might be Bengali but the children may only speak Hindi, so your conversation with the family turns into both.


----------



## emma42

Code switching is really prevalent in England too, amonst the Asian community (in my town, mainly Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Kashmiri, Indian).  I take a lot of taxis and you can hear the Asian taxi drivers switching from, for example, Urdu to broad Nottinghamese.  I love it.

I also do it with my sister, who likes to speak French.  One of us will start talking French and then we will start code-switching as the conversation progresses.


----------



## medeterian

My ancestors had migrated from Dağıstan of Russia to Türkiye long time ago. Besides we all speak Turkish some of them still can speak Dagistanish. Some of my relatives also speak russian. When there is a problematic issue between them, they switch code to Dagistanish not to let us understand them. They also switch Dagistanish or Russian suddenly in the trade negotiations for privacy. Funny They do that as if the only ones speaking Russian are they.


----------



## french4beth

When I lived in Quebec, the bilingual French-English people that I met from Montreal would constantly code-switch with me; it was tiring for me - I wanted to improve my French (as a native English speaker), and they wanted to practice their English!

Back when I was in university, I studied Russian language - both my professor and fellow students were fluent in French, so the Russian language and literature classes were held in French (at a US university).  Very tiring, at 8:00am !  But excellent practice, just the same...


----------



## natasha2000

I do it all the time when speaking with my compatriots who also live in Spain... Serbian & Spanish... And sometimes we even include English, too... 

And I hear this is also the case with Serbs living in English speaking countries.
Sometimes it can be embarrassing, too.

A friend of mine was at a funeral of a very young guy who died in a car accident. Most of the attendants were Serbs living in Canada, so they were talking in Serbian. Someone asked how he died, and the other one replied "He hit his car into the tree., where All the sentence but the word CAR was in Serbian. Now, KARA (which is car with Serbian suffix for instrumental case) in Serbian means d*ck, so for one Serbian speaker, the sentence looked something like "He hit his d*ck against the tree!"
Nobvody could resist, and everybody started to laugh at the funeral!!!! What an embarrassment it was!


----------



## Etcetera

But don't most of us code-switch here, at WR?.. 
For example, I can read the forums and even write replies in English, talking at the same time with my Mum in Russian. 
Or when we're speaking about code-switching, we mean oral speech only?


----------



## Bettie

Phryne said:
			
		

> Well, second generations in the US seem to have problems speaking their parents’ language, no matter what origin their parents are (some of these kids don't even speak it at all!), but, can we say that what they speak is horrendous? Take into consideration that all the knowledge they have is a reflection of their communication with the older generations of family members. Once they're out of their houses, or even among siblings, English is their language. Besides, and despite our horror, linguists believe that people who are able to switch between languages are actually fluent en both languages. Otherwise, they would not be able to do so. So, basically, those who can code switch might not speak like a native speaker and have grammatical and lexical differences with us, but as long as it is fluent and coherent, it’s correct.
> 
> saludos
> 
> PS, I've heard a million times among Puerto Ricans the construction "está supuesto ser" instead of "se supone que". Does it also happen in P.R., or is it just a phenomenon for US born speakers?


 
Well, my boss is Puerto Rican and he says machear y estoquear cuando quiere decir que algo concuerda o que algo se atora   Y te llamo pa'trás, en lugar de te vuelvo a llamar, o no me enganches en lugar de no me cuelgues... I am code switching!!


----------



## lauranazario

Etcetera said:
			
		

> But don't most of us code-switch here, at WR?..
> 
> Or when we're speaking about code-switching, we mean oral speech only?


Code-switching is basically *a verbal phenomenon*.... not to be confused with the kind of thing that happens in certain WR forums with specific language pairs (SP-EN, FR-EN, IT-EN, etc.) where people are free to post and reply in either language _within that pair_.

I hope you are able to understand the difference... 

Saludos,
LN


----------



## Etcetera

Yeah, I see now. 
Thank you, Laura!


----------



## lauranazario

Bettie said:
			
		

> Well, my boss is Puerto Rican and he says machear y estoquear cuando quiere decir que algo concuerda o que algo se atora   Y te llamo pa'trás, en lugar de te vuelvo a llamar, o no me enganches en lugar de no me cuelgues... I am code switching!!


What your boss is doing is NOT code-switching. 
He is creating "Spanish-sounding words" to cover his personal deficiencies in Spanish. He must not have remembered (or known) that 'to match' is not '_machear_' but rather 'combinar/coordinar', and 'to stock' is not '_estoquear_' but rather 'abastecer (el inventario)'.

"_Te llamo p'atrás_" is an example of something called Third-Language Syndrome... an utterrance that retains the gramatical structure of one language (in this case English) and replaces the words (in this case, using Spanish) without taking into consideration the particular gramatical structure of the second language.

I'll call you back = English
Te vuelvo a llamar / te devuelvo la llamada = Spanish
Te llamo para atrás = Third Language Syndrome

Hope that helps.

Saludos,
LN


----------



## lauranazario

Etcetera said:
			
		

> Yeah, I see now .
> Thank you, Laura!


You are very welcome, Etcetera. 
LN


----------



## Bettie

I know that he is not code switching, well he does that too, because he sometimes speaks to me in English and sometimes in Spanish, but as you are saying he is covering some deficiencies when he doesn't know the word in Spanish, and the worst part is he is so stubborn that sometimes I try to correct him and he doesn't believe me!


----------



## Chaska Ñawi

Once I was on a youth exchange between Canada and Bolivia.  Our working languages were Spanish, English and French.  Initially the only code-switching took place between English and French or English and Spanish, but by the end of the program, six months later, code-switching took place across all three languages.  The trigger was sometimes the topic, sometimes the linguistic ability of a group member, and sometimes a simple exclamation from a participant in the conversation.

With us it was unconscious, but it was very intimidating for anyone from outside our group.  I still miss the enriched conversations we had by the end of the exchange.

I think this is one of the major reasons I joined WR - this is as close to code-switching as I come these days.


----------



## Bienvenidos

I code-switch between Farsi/Spanish/English, because Spanish and Farsi have such rich sayings that really can't be translated. So I'll be saying, "Alright, but calm down, ¡no hay que ahogarse en un vaso de agua!"  Okay, maybe it *can be* translated, but everything sounds better in Spanish! 

*Bien*


----------



## Mariaguadalupe

My sisters and I really code switch all the time!  As Laura says, we don't even realize that we do it, we just suddenly find ourselves doing it. Imagine what it felt like at home, (in Mexico) when by brothers would suddenly arrive where we were at home and find us speaking English!  They would usually say, "Estaran locas"   It would drive them mad!  You see, we live very near the border with the US and as I have said before, we went to school in the States and our brothers went to school on the Mexican side of the border.  It made for extremely interesting conversations!

When our children were very young, preschoolers really, we would speak in English when we didn't want them to understand us until one day, I asked my mom in English if she wanted to go with us to the "little one".   She asked what, and I repeated my question in English.  She was trying to figure out where or what the "little one" was.  Finally my three year old son turned to her and told her, "a la Chiquita abuelita" which just happened to be _his _favorite cafeteria.    From then on we had to practice our French so they wouldn't understand us!

As Laura says, its not because we have limitations on either language, it just sometimes happens this way.  But the really weird thing happened to me after a couple of years of studying French.  I woke up one morning and couldn't remember neither my Hail Mary nor my Ave María!  I could only "hear" je vous salute Marie.....  For a few years I could only say my Hail Mary in French!


----------



## alcarma~~

I usually code-switch with an australian friend. He's learning spanish, so he sometimes talk with mixed sentences like: "I went a mi clase de spanish hoy and I've laughed un montón with my partners". He use english verbs and spanish nouns most of the time but I always find it funny and I usually answer him in the same way, so he can learn new spanish words.
moreover, although I'd try to talk to him always in english I couldn't, because when I'm surprised, or impressed, or something like that I'll always said sth in spanish like "qué fuerte", "qué me estás contando" or "no jodas"


----------



## moirag

I have always spoken English to my kids, who were born in Spain ( I´m English), and they´ve answered me in a mixture of things. Apart from the mixed words " Está en the bathroom", you also have the mixed grammar 
"it´s a car red" or "jumpo". Unfortunately they grow up, and such howlers are extremely rare nowadays!


----------



## panjabigator

HAha that is insane!  Are fluent in French too?  it could be that you engrossed yourself so much in French that it just became so easy for you.


----------

