LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES

Exercise 1
Which variety do you think you will use to:
(i) talk to your younger brother at home?
(ii) plan the morning’s activities with your best friend?
(iii) greet a stranger from a different tribe whom you met in the street?

Domains of language use

A domain involves typical interactions between typical participants in typical settings.

Exercise 2
Fill in the column labelled variety/code for your speech community. If your community is
monolingual, remember that the term variety includes different dialects and styles of language.

Domain Addressee Setting Topic Variety/Code

1. Family Parent Home Planning a family party
2. Friendship Friend Beach How to play beach tennis
3. Education Teacher School Solving a maths problem
4. Employment Employer Workplace Applying for a promotion

Diglossia
Example:
In Eggenwil, a town in the Aargau canton of Switzerland, Silvia, a bank-teller, knows two very distinct
varieties of German. One is the local Swiss German dialect of her canton which she uses in her
everyday interactions. The other is standard German which she learnt at school, and though she
understands it very well indeed, she rarely uses it in speech. Newspapers are written in standard
German, and when she occasions- ally goes to hear a lecture at the university it may be in standard
German. The national TV news is broadcast in standard German, but weather broadcasts now use
dialect. The sermons her mother listens to in church are generally in standard German too, though
more radical clerics use Swiss German dialect. The novels Silvia reads also use standard German.

The pattern of code or variety choice in Eggenwil is one which has been described with the term
diglossia. This term has been used both in a narrow sense and in a much broader sense and I will
describe both. In the narrow and original sense of the term, diglossia has three crucial features:

1. Two distinct varieties of the same language are used in the community, with one regarded as a
high (or H) variety and the other a low (or L) variety.
2. Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H and L complement each other.
3. No one uses the H variety in everyday conversation.

Exercise 3
Fill in the following on the basis of your predictions: Will H or L be used in diglossic communities?
1. Religion (sermon, prayers)
2. Literature (novels, non-fiction)
3. Newspaper (editorial)
4. Broadcasting: TV news
5. Education (written material, lectures)
6. Education (lesson discussion)
7. Broadcasting: radio
8. Shopping
9. Gossiping

Exercise 4
Using the information provided above, summarise what you now know about the differences
between H and L in diglossic communities.
(i) How are they linguistically related? Are they distinct languages or varieties of the same
language?
(ii) How are they used in the community?
(iii) Which is used for conversation with family and friends?
(iv) How is each variety learned?
(v) Which has most prestige?
(vi) Which is codified in grammar books and dictionaries?
(vii) In which variety is literature usually written?

Code-switching or code-mixing
Example 1
[The Maori is in italics. THE TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL CAPITALS.]
Sarah: I think everyone’s here except Mere.
John: She said she might be a bit late but actually I think that’s her arriving now.
Sarah: You’re right. Kia ora Mere. Haere mai. Kei te pehea koe?
[HI MERE. COME IN. HOW ARE YOU?]
Mere: Kia ora e hoa. Kei te pai. Have you started yet?
[HELLO MY FRIEND. I’M FINE]

People sometimes switch code within a domain or social situation. When there is some obvious
change in the situation, such as the arrival of a new person, it is easy to explain the switch. In
example 1, Mere is Maori and although the rest of the meeting will be conducted in English, Sarah
switches to Maori to greet her. The Maori greeting is an expression of solidarity. So a code-
switch may be related to a particular participant or addressee. In a Polish family living in
Lancashire in the 1950s, the family used Polish in the home. When the local English-speaking priest
called, however, everyone switched to English. In both of these cases the switch indicates a change
in the social situation and takes positive account of the presence of a new participant.
A speaker may similarly switch to another language as a signal of group membership and shared
ethnicity with an addressee. Even speakers who are not very proficient in a second language may
use brief phrases and words for this purpose. Scottish Highlanders who are not proficient speakers
of Gaelic nevertheless express their identification with the local Gaelic speech community by using
Gaelic tags and phrases interspersed with their English. Maori people often use Maori words and
phrases in this way too, whether their knowledge of Maori is extensive or not. Such switches are
often very short and they are made primarily for social reasons – to signal and actively construct the
speaker’s ethnic identity and solidarity with the addressee. Here are some examples.

Example 2
(a) Tamati: Engari [SO] now we turn to more important matters.
(Switch between Maori and English)
(b) Ming: Confiscated by Customs, dà gài [PROBABLY]
(Switch between English and Mandarin Chinese)
(c) A: Well I’m glad I met you. OK?
M: ándale pues [OK SWELL], and do come again. Mm?
(Switch between Spanish and English)

In (a), Tamati uses a Maori tag at the beginning of his utterance while the Mandarin speaker in (b)
uses a final tag. This kind of switching is sometimes called emblematic switching or tag switching.
The switch is simply an interjection or a linguistic tag in the other language which serves as an
ethnic identity marker. The exchange in (c), for instance, occurred between two Mexican Americans
or Chicanos in the USA. By using the Spanish tag, M signalled to A that she recognised the
relevance of their shared ethnic background to their future relationship. The tag served as a
solidarity marker between two minority ethnic group members whose previous conversation has
been entirely in English.

Example 3
[BOKMÅL IS IN SMALL CAPITALS. Ranamål in lower case.]
Jan: Hello Petter. How is your wife now?
Petter: Oh she’s much better thank you Jan. She’s out of hospital and convalescing well.
Jan: That’s good I’m pleased to hear it. DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HELP ME WITH THIS PESKY
FORM? I AM HAVING A GREAT DEAL OF DIFFICULTY WITH IT.
Petter: OF COURSE. GIVE IT HERE . . .

Nothing appears to change except the topic of discussion and with it the code. In fact the change of
topic here symbolises a change in the relationship between the men. They switch from their roles
as neighbours to their roles as bureaucrat and member of the public. In other words, they switch
from a personal interaction to a more formal transaction. This kind of role switch is commonly
associated with a code-switch in multilingual communities. Exactly the same kind of switching occurs
in Beijing when a government administrator deals with a query from someone who comes from her
home town in Guangzhou. They begin sorting out their business in Mandarin, but when they
realise they went to the same school they switch to Cantonese to exchange stories about the
school and their teachers. And in shops in bilingual communities, salespeople often switch to the
language of their customers. In Strasbourg, for instance, a city in Eastern France, where French is the
official language and Alsatian (a Germanic dialect) is the local variety which marks Alsatian identity,
salespeople switch between the two varieties according to the preferred language of the shoppers
they are serving.

Exercise 5
When people switch from one code to another for reasons which can be clearly identified, it is
sometimes called situational switching. If we knew the relevant situational or social factors in
advance in such cases, we could usually predict the switches. Which code would you predict
the speaker will switch from and which code will they switch to in the following situations and
why?
(a) A Javanese resident chatting to a friend in the queue at the community administration office
gets to the counter and speaks to the clerk.
(b) Three students from the Chinese province of Guangdong are sharing a flat together in
London. They are discussing the ingredients of the stir-fry vegetable dish they are cooking. One of
them starts to discuss the chemical composition of the different ingredients.
Example 4
[The Maori is in italics. THE TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL CAPITALS.]
A Maori person is recalling the visit of a respected elder to a nearby town.
‘That’s what he said in Blenheim. Ki a mAtou NgAti Porou, te MAoritanga i papi ake i te whenua. [WE
OF THE NG9TI POROU TRIBE BELIEVE THE ORIGINS OF M9ORITANGA ARE IN THE EARTH.] And
those Blenheim people listened carefully to him too.’

The switch involves just the words that the speaker is claiming the quoted person said. So the
switch acts like a set of quotation marks. The speaker gives the impression – which may or may not
be accurate – that these are the exact words the speaker used. A related reason for switching is to
quote a proverb or a well-known saying in another language, as illustrated in the following example.

Example 5
[The Mandarin Chinese is in italics. THE TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL CAPITALS.]
A group of Chinese students from Beijing are discussing Chinese customs.
Li: People here get divorced too easily. Like exchanging faulty goods. In China it’s not the same. Jià
goJ súi goJ, jià jC súi jC. [IF YOU HAVE MARRIED A DOG, YOU FOLLOW A DOG, IF YOU’VE MARRIED A
CHICKEN, YOU FOLLOW A CHICKEN.]

The code-switch corresponds exactly to the proverb being recited from Chinese. The similarity of
quotation and proverb recitation is very clear. Both are referentially motivated switches in that the
speaker wishes to be accurate – the exact words are important. But switches often serve several
functions at once. In these examples, the switches not only emphasise the precise message content,
they also signal ethnic identity. In other words, they have an affective as well as a referential
function.

Example 6
Polly is a young British Black woman. She speaks standard English with a West Midlands accent, as
well as Patois, a variety of Jamaican Creole, learned from her parents. On one occasion, a
schoolteacher annoyed her intensely by criticising a story Polly had written about British West
Indians. In particular, he corrected the use of Patois by one of her characters – something he knew
nothing about. Her response was to abuse him in Patois, swearing at him only just below her
breath. The effect was electrifying. He seemed terrified. He threatened to send her to the
headmaster but in fact he didn’t, and she noted with satisfaction that he left her alone after that.

Polly’s switch to Patois was here used to express affective rather than referential meaning. The
teacher didn’t need to understand the words – he simply needed to get the affective message. In
other contexts too, switching between Patois and standard English can achieve a range of
interesting rhetorical effects. Just as the use of ethnic tags signalled ethnic group membership for
speakers in the utterances in example 6 above, a switch from Patois to standard English with the
local British regional pronunciation can signal a person’s identity as a West Midlander in a
conversation where local regional values are relevant. In an argument with a West Indian from
another area over the best soccer team, for instance, the use of the localised English accent can
serve just this kind of function.

Example 7
[Patois is written in italics.]
With Melanie right you have to say she speaks tri different sort of language when she wants to.
Cos she speak half Patois, half English and when im ready im will come out wid, ‘I day and I bay
and I ay this and I ay that. I day have it and I day know where it is’ . . . And then she goes ‘Lord God,
I so hot’. Now she’ll be sitting there right and she’ll go. ‘It’s hot isn’t it?’, you know, and you think
which one is she going to grow up speaking?

This is not simply code-switching for the purposes of accurate quotation. The Patois is being used
here for amusement and dramatic effect. Melanie is being parodied and sent up. Polly is again using
her ability in the two codes for affective purposes.

Example 8
[The German is in italics. THE TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL CAPITALS.]
In the town of Oberwart two little Hungarian-speaking children were playing in the woodshed and
knocked over a carefully stacked pile of firewood. Their grandfather walked in and said in
Hungarian, the language he usually used to them:
‘Szo! ide dzüni! jeszt jerámunyi mind e kettüötök, no hát akkor!’ [WELL COME HERE! PUT ALL THIS
AWAY, BOTH OF YOU, WELL NOW.]
When they did not respond quickly enough he switched to (dialectal) German:
‘Kum her!’
[COME HERE!]

Exactly the same content is expressed first in Hungarian and then in German. The children in fact
know only Hungarian so the reason for the switch is clearly not to convey referential content. In
Oberwart, German is the language of the school and officialdom. So in families where Hungarian is
the usual language of the home, a switch to German is significant. In these homes Hungarian
expresses friendship and solidarity, and a switch to German puts the addressee at a distance.
German symbolises authority, and so by using German the grandfather emphasises his anger and
disapproval of the children’s behaviour.

Example 9
Father: Tea’s ready Robbie.
(Robbie ignores him and carries on skate-boarding.)
Father: Mr Robert Harris if you do not come in immediately there will be consequences which you
will regret.

Example 9 illustrates a similar code-switch between two different styles of English. Its purpose is
similarly to reprimand a child and the switch involves a move from an intimate and friendly style
to a formal style which distances the speaker from the addressee.

Exercise 6
Identify the linguistic features in example 9 which signal that Robbie’s father has switched code
between his first and second utterance.

Example 10
At a village meeting among the Buang people in PNG, Mr Rupa, the main village entrepreneur
and ‘bigman’, is trying to persuade people who have put money into a village store to leave it
there. This is a section from his skilful speech.
[Tok Pisin is in italics. Buang is not italicised.]
Ikamap trovel o wonem, mi ken stretim olgeta toktok. Orait. Pasin ke ken be, meni ti ken nyep la,
su lok lam memba re, olo ba miting autim olgeta tok . . . moni ti ken nyep ega, rek mu su rek ogoko
nam be, one moni rek, . . . moni ti ken bak stua lam vu Mambump re, m nzom agon. Orait, bihain,
bihainim bilong wok long bisnis, orait, moni bilong stua bai ibekim olgeta ples.

English translation
If any problem comes up, I will be able to settle all the arguments. OK. This is the way
– the money that is there can’t go back to the shareholders, and the meeting brought up all these
arguments . . . the money that’s there you won’t take back, your money will . . . this money from
the bulk store will come back to Mambump, and we’ll hold on to it. Now later, if we continue these
business activities, then the store money will be repaid to everyone.

By switching between codes with such rapidity the village bigman effectively draws on the different
associations of the two codes. Buang is the local tribal language. By using it Mr Rupa is emphasising
his membership of the Buang community – he belongs here and everyone knows him. He is using
Buang to construct his local identity. But he is also a skilled businessman with contacts in the
outside world of money and marketing. Mr Rupa’s use of Tok Pisin (‘talk pidgin’), a creole which is a
valuable lingua franca and an official language in PNG, emphasises this role of entrepreneur, as well
as his superior knowledge and experience as a man of the wider world. His use of Tok Pisin
constructs his professional identity as a businessman. Buang symbolises high solidarity, equal status
and friendly feelings. Tok Pisin represents social dis- tance, status and the referential information of
the business world. Mr Rupa is getting the best of both worlds. He is code-switching for rhetorical
reasons, drawing on the associations of both codes. This type of switching has sometimes been
called metaphorical switching. Each of the codes represents or symbolises a set of social
meanings, and the speaker draws on the associations of each, just as people use metaphors to
represent complex meanings. The term also reflects the fact that this kind of switching involves
rhetorical skill. Skilful code-switching operates like metaphor to enrich the communication.

Example 11
[THE WORDS ORIGINALLY SPOKEN IN SAMOAN ARE IN SMALL CAPITALS.]
Alf is 55 and overweight. He is talking to a fellow Samoan at work about his attempt to go on a diet.
My doctor told me to go on a diet. She said I was overweight. So I tried. BUT IT WAS SO HARD. I’D
KEEP THINKING ABOUT FOOD ALL THE TIME. Even when I was at work. And in bed at night I’D GET
DESPERATE. I COULDN’T GET TO SLEEP. So I’d get up and RAID THE FRIDGE. THEN I’D FEEL GUILTY
AND SICK AND WHEN I WOKE UP NEXT DAY I WOULD BE SO DEPRESSED because I had to start the
diet all over again. The doctor wasn’t sympathetic. She just shrugged and said ‘well it’s your
funeral!’

Some people call the kind of rapid switching illustrated in the last few examples ‘code- mixing’,
but others prefer the term metaphorical switching. Code-mixing suggests the speaker is mixing up
codes indiscriminately or perhaps because of incompetence, whereas the switches are very well
motivated in relation to the symbolic or social meanings of the two codes. This kind of rapid
switching is itself a specific sociolinguistic variety; it has been labeled a fused lect. It is a distinctive
conversational style used among bilinguals and multilinguals – a rich additional linguistic resource
available to them. By switching between two or more codes, the speakers convey affective meaning
as well as information.

Exercise 7
Where possible insert in the appropriate column an example number from this chapter which
illustrates the relevant reason for switching

Reasons for code-switching Quote the example number

1. Setting
2. Addressee specification
3. Ethnic identity marker
4. Express solidarity
5. Express social distance
6. Assert social status
7. Topic
8. Quoting someone
9. Proverb
10. Add emphasis
11. Add authority
12. 1Express feelings
13. Describing facts