Code-switching is the practice of mixing different languages, or different varieties of the same language, within a single conversation or situation.
My grandparents were Hungarian immigrants to North America. They would usually converse with each other in Hungarian, but pepper their speech with English words. As I child, I once heard them say something like, “Gondolom, hogy az air conditioner nem működik,” and asked them if Hungarian didn’t have its own word for “air conditioner”. They told me that it did, and that they knew this word, but that they never got into the habit of using it since they never had an air conditioner before emigrating. That made sense to me at the time.
I’ve lived for about 14 years now in German-speaking Europe and find myself code-switching a lot as well. I also do it on a lexical level, like my grandparents did, but the funny thing is that I’m switching out a lot of perfectly familiar English terms. For example, I’m often telling my partner things like, “I’m on the Straßenbahn now and will be home in 10 minutes,” or “Remember to pay the Rechnung from the repairman,” even though I used to use the corresponding English words “streetcar” and “bill” regularly. I don’t see any rhyme or reason to which words get replaced; I’m not doing it entirely consciously, and if there’s some logic to it, then it so for eludes me. I don’t think it’s a sign of deteriorating mental faculties as my partner does this too.
Does anyone here do code-switching and if so, do you have any insight as to why? Again, I’m not talking about using different languages or dialects when addressing different people, but rather switching back and forth in the course of a single speech act.
It’s pretty common among Orthodox Jews to use a Hebrew or Yiddish word even where the English word is totally in context. There is a certain flavor in switching to the other language, and I think your grandparents nailed it when they explained that they didn’t have an air conditioner until they reached these shores.
Among Orthodox Jews, the first example that comes to mind is the Hebrew word sefer, which is nothing more or less than book. Most use sefer for any sort of book about Judaism, and would be horrified if someone used it in reference to a trashy novel. Others reserve sefer only for Jewish books written in Hebrew; they would not deign to give this honor to an English book, no matter how holy its subject matter might be.
I don’t know if “technical term” is the best way to describe it, but I can totally relate. My wife and I lived in Israel for several years, and it would not be unusual to ask each other, “Should we take the rakevet or the bus to get there?” (Rakevet is train.) I wonder if this has anything to do with switching between proper nouns and generic nouns, like when someone chooses between “Let’s go with Amtrak” or “Let’s go with the train.”
Looking forward to seeing what other posters write.
I don’t know if it rises to the level of code-switching, but when I was very young, say as a kid on into high school, I was pretty shy, had a lot of social anxiety. I was often ok talking with people one-on-one, and I’d cope by kind of taking on the persona of the person I was talking to-- if they were a jokey wisecracker I’d attempt to joke around right with them. If they were smart and serious I’d act the same. If they swore a lot when they spoke I would work swearing into my speech too. I may have taken on certain mannerisms, too, though it didn’t rise to the level of imitating their accent or their cultural slang if it was different than mine. At least, I don’t think so-- it was an unconscious thing.
The problem was, when I was in a group of people I didn’t know who or what to act like-- and that’s how I eventually realized what I was doing. I didn’t have a strong persona of my own! At least, not one I felt comfortable sharing with people. I didn’t know how to be ‘me’.
I think college was where I started coming into my own more and learning to be myself. Something I’m still learning to this day! But I’m much, much better in group situations than I used to be. I no no longer care much what other people think of me. i yam what i yam.
I speak English and French and I code-switch all the time. It’s just a matter of which word comes first, or which expression describes whatever I want to describe best. Often, I don’t realize that I’m code-switching. Sometimes, I have to pause and think “OK, which language have I just been using ?”
My ex was a native French speaker but she spoke English very well. When we met, we spoke English all the time because she wanted to practice and she was perfectly able to express herself clearly and precisely in English most of the times. However, we switched to French when our relationship turned more intimate.
I remember one particular striking instance of this. It was shortly after our first kiss but before we were really together. We hadn’t seen each other for several days and the situation was still fluid. I got to her place in the evening and we started talking. For the first two hours, we sat at opposite ends of the sofa and spoke English only. Then, we started sitting gradually closer, switched imperceptibly to French before spending the rest of the evening kissing.
After that, we used mainly French during our relationship, but spontaneously switched to English several times a day. I always found it cute when we did this. Hearing her slight accent and her favourite expressions reminded me of our first weeks together.
“I should have been at the Bahnhof by now, but there was a Stau on the Autobahn.”
Bahnhof = train station
Stau = traffic jam
Autobahn = freeway (but I think many non-German speakers recognize Autobahn)
I almost never say train station, as Bahnhof is quite well known by all parties. “Stau” is much shorter than traffic jam, and is anyway also on the panel at the train station which is explaining why all the the buses are delayed.
The other direction is amusing. I’ve heard non-English speakers tell me that “there’s no limit”, “it’s peanuts” and other English phrases that are used in Switzerland.
My coworker was trying to teach her replacement about the position and resorted to mostly English, even though they both speak Swiss German as natives. She works on those topics only in English, so she doesn’t even have the habit of discussing those topics in German.
It’s mostly the case that there are certain words that are shorter, or that I usually discuss those topics in German, so that vocabulary is closer to the tip of my tongue, even though English is still, by far, my main language.
From talking to others, it seems that there are many languages that miss some of the more technical vocabulary. So there’s a lot of English getting inserted into other languages.
My parents are from Pakistan and they switch between Urdu and English all the time. And in watching some of the stuff they watch from South Asia, it seems to be a common practice. Likely due to the English colonizing South Asia for so long.
My wife is Chinese-born American and a very fluent English speaker.
But when speaking at home in English she refers to a lot of food, kitchen and family relationships using Chinese words. Eggplant, cup, chopsticks, uncle, etc she will say in Chinese.
For example she refers to my mother as our daughter’s NaiNai (Paternal Grandmother).
“Code” means “a system of words, letters, figures, or other symbols substituted for other words, letters, etc., especially for the purposes of secrecy.”
Sprinkling foreign words (or slang words, or technical terms) throughout your conversation for reasons of laziness, clarification, subtlety, habit, or whimsy doesn’t imply secrecy.
I think people can use certain terms in a group as a way of conveying a hidden (especially an insulting) message when some group members are “in the know” and others are not. To me, that would be code-switching. There would need to be an intent to deceive in some way to fit the “code” part. JMHO.
We do this. My husband’s family speaks Spanish, so we often throw in Spanish words. I throw in French words. My parents used to throw in German, but we’ve all mostly stopped with that. I’ll have to pay more attention about when we do it. I’m not sure I’ve noticed a pattern, other than maybe swearing (me).
ETA: @ThelmaLou In this context, code switching refers to
The practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation. For example, the conversational code-switching of the German American bilingual community
In Montreal I see it a lot with French and English, and it seems to increase as the group grows younger. Pre-covid, on the bus, I heard it a lot in groups of high school students and, at work a couple of weeks ago, I saw a foursome of interns doing it.
Whereas the younger folk are doing it because they’re fluent in both languages, I do it (a bit, sort of) because I try to practice French but my ability is probably around 50 something %.
I actually find it really impressive and inspiring to see it so commonly done amongst the younger crowds.
I’m American-born Chinese and this is common in my family. It’s just how those foods were always referred to, even though my parents were both born in America, too. If we’re all at a Chinese restaurant you would think we are all fluent in Cantonese, but none of us are. We really only know “food Chinese.”
Also, I attended what was the “Black high school” in my county at the time, so I speak Jive.
I change my manner of speaking depending on the audience; anywhere from sailor-speak to a more learned vocabulary possibly sprinkled with foreign words. I’m equally comfortable talking to a construction worker or a college professor.
It’s a linguistics term that has nothing to do with what you’re talking about. Like any technical term, it doesn’t necessarily conform to any usual meaning of the component words.
Besides, “code” has a much broader beaning even in normal usage than what your suggest. Most likely, the usage here is much closer to that in, say, “dress code”, where it means a set of conventions.
What the two of you are doing isn’t code-switching, since you’re using different language varieties with different sets of conversation partners, but not different language varieties simultaneously with the same set of conversation partners. There’s another thread for that practice that you might like: Do you use a different accent or dialect, depending on who you speak to?
I wish I was able to do so. But since I’m only fluent in English, plus a stumbling grasp of French, It doesn’t happen. I envy people who had a multilingual upbringing.
Then of course there are apparently people who can effortlessly soak up languages like sponges (T E Lawrence supposedly had that ability). But not me, alas.
I guess I’ve just started doing this. I am trying to learn Italian and if I know the Italian word for something I’ll use it when I’m talking to my husband. I also have a friend who knows Italian so I’ll do it with her too, in both speaking or writing. I’m not sure if you’d call what we do Italish or Englian.
This is the usage I’ve come across it recently, and it does have the intent to mildly deceive or at least misrepresent.
…
This is why code-switching can be so damaging for members of minority populations. If the dominant culture runs counter to our own, we might feel like our “natural” selves are unacceptable, unprofessional, unpalatable, and undesirable. Here are some examples of code-switching in the workplace:
A Latina woman is called in for a job interview. She chooses an outfit and does her hair, but decides not to get her nails done before the interview. Even though she takes a lot of pride in her appearance, she doesn’t want to seem “trashy” or “ghetto” by painting her long nails.
A white man from the Midwest decides to go by his middle name instead of his full name when he moves to the East Coast. He’s concerned his full name will make him sound “like a redneck.”
A Black man works in a high-end clothing store. Known for his loud voice and personality, he plays up effeminate mannerisms so he doesn’t “put off” the store’s mostly white clientele.
…
I pulled all of these examples from people that I know personally. Code-switching isn’t specific to race, gender, or socioeconomic status. Despite the diversity of experience, there are some common reasons why people change how they interact with different groups.
…
Until the OP’s post in the original thread, that’s what I thought it meant as well. But it’s a distortion of the original usage, which is limited to switching in a single conversation. I’d suppose linguists take the narrower definition because switching across groups of people (friends, family, coworkers) isn’t really a linguistic question at all; more like behavioral psychology. It’s the mixing even within a single sentence that’s interesting to linguists, especially when different grammars collide.
