Language Choice in Multilingual Communities PDF

**Chapter 2 Language choice in multilingual communities** Choosing your variety or code What is your linguistic repertoire? Kalala is 16 years old. He lives in Bukavu, an African city in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-Zaire with a population of about 240,000. It is a multicultur...

**Chapter 2 Language choice in multilingual communities** Choosing your variety or code What is your linguistic repertoire? Kalala is 16 years old. He lives in Bukavu, an African city in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-Zaire with a population of about 240,000. It is a multicultural, multilingual city with more people coming and going for work and business reasons than people who live there permanently. Over 40 groups speaking different languages can be found in the city. Kalala, like many of his friends, is unemployed. He spends his days roaming the streets, stopping off periodically at regular meeting places in the market-place, in the park, or at a friend's place. During a normal day he uses at least [three different varieties or codes], and sometimes more. - Kalala speaks an informal style of Shi, his tribal language, at home with his family - he is familiar with the formal Shi used for weddings and funerals. - He uses informal Shi in the market-place when he deals with vendors from his own ethnic group. - When he wants to communicate with people from a different tribal group, he uses the lingua franca of the area, Swahili. - He learned standard (Zairean) Swahili at school, but the local market-place variety is a little different. It has its own distinct linguistic features and even its own name -- Kingwana. - He uses Kingwana to younger children and to adults he meets in the streets, as well as to people in the market-place. - He listens to pop music in Lingala, although he doesn't speak it or understand it. - Standard Swahili, one of the national languages, is the language used in Bukavu for most official transactions, despite the fact that French is the official language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-Zaire. - Kalala knows almost no French and, like most other people in Bukavu, he uses standard Swahili with officials in government offices when he has to fill in a form or pay a bill. He uses it when he tries for a job in a shop or an office. - He spends most of his time with his friends, and with them he uses another variety or code called Indoubil. This is a variety which is used among the young people in Bukavu, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds or tribal affiliations. - It is used like in-group slang between young people in monolingual communities. Indoubil is based on Swahili, but it has developed into a distinct variety or code by drawing on languages like French, English and Italian -- all languages which can be read or heard in the multilingual city of Bukavu. **Domains of language use** 'Anahina is a bilingual Tongan New Zealander living in Auckland. At home with her family she uses Tongan almost exclusively for a wide range of topics. She often talks to her grandmother about Tongan customs, for instance. With her mother she exchanges gossip about Tongan friends and relatives. Tongan is the language the family uses at meal-times. They discuss what they have been doing, plan family outings and share information about Tongan social events. It is only with her older sisters that she uses some English words when they are talking about school or doing their homework. - Certain social factors -- who you are talking to, the social context of the talk, the function and topic of the discussion -- turn out to be important in accounting for language choice in many different kinds of speech community. - It has proved very useful, particularly when describing code choice in large speech communities, to look at 'typical' interactions which involve these factors. - We can imagine, for instance, a 'typical' family interaction. It would be located in the setting of the home; the typical participants will obviously be family members; and typical topics would be family activities. - 'Anahina's family's meal-time conversations illustrate this pattern well. A number of such typical interactions have been identified as relevant in describing patterns of code choice in many speech communities. - They are known as **domains** of language use, a term popularized by Joshua Fishman, an American sociolinguist. A domain involves typical interactions between typical participants in typical settings. Five domains which can be identified in many communities: **Domain** **Addressee** **Setting** **Topic** **Variety/Code** ------------ --------------- ------------- ----------------------------- ------------------ Family Parent Home Planning a family party Friendship Friend Beach How to play beach tennis Religion Priest Church Choosing the Sunday liturgy Education Teacher School Solving a maths problem Employment Employer Workplace Applying for a promotion Example 3 In Paraguay, a small South American country, two languages are used -- Spanish, the language of the colonizers, and Guaraní, the American Indian indigenous language. People in Paraguay are proud that they have their own language which distinguishes them from the rest of South America. Many rural Paraguayans are monolingual in Guaraní, but those who live in the cities are usually bilingual. They read Spanish literature, but they gossip in both Spanish and Guaraní. - A study in the 1960s identified complementary patterns of language use in different domains. Urban bilingual Paraguayans selected different codes in different situations, and their use of Spanish and Guaraní fell into a pattern for different domains. **Modelling variety or code choice** Example 4 Maria is a teenager whose Portuguese parents came to London in the 1960s. She uses mainly Portuguese at home and to older people at the Portuguese Catholic church and community center, but English is the appropriate variety or code for her to use at school. She uses mostly English in her after-school job serving in a local café, though occasionally older customers greet her in Portuguese. - Domain is clearly a very general concept which draws on three important social factors in code choice -- participants, setting and topic. It is useful for capturing broad generalizations about any speech community. - Using information about the domains of use in a community, it is possible to draw a very simple model summarizing the norms of language use for the community. This is often particularly useful for bilingual and multilingual speech communities. - The information provided in example 4, for instance, identifies four domains and describes the variety or code appropriate to each. **Domain Variety/code** Home/family Portuguese Church/religion Portuguese Work/employment English School/education English - While it obviously oversimplifies the complexity of bilingual interaction, nevertheless a model like this is useful in a number of ways. 1. First it forces us to be very clear about which domains and varieties are relevant to language choice. The model summarizes what we know about the patterns of language use in the community. It is not an account of the choices a person must make or of the process they go through in selecting a code. It is simply a description of the community's norms which can be altered or added to if we discover more information. It would be possible, for instance, to add other domains after 'school', for instance, such as 'the pub' or 'the law court'. 2. A second reason why an explicit model is useful is that A. It provides a clear basis for comparing patterns of code choice in different speech communities. B. Models make it easy to compare the varieties appropriate in similar domains in different speech communities. C. A model is useful to a newcomer in a community as a summary of the appropriate patterns of code use in the community. D. A model describes which code or codes are usually selected for use in different situations. A model for Sauris, an Italian mountain community, would show that Friulian is normally used to order a beer in the local bar. And in Bukavu, if you want to be able to buy vegetables in the local market-place at a reasonable price, a model would inform you that you need to know how to use Kingwana. **Other social factors affecting code choice** **Example 5** Oi Lin Tan, a 20-year-old Chinese Singaporean, uses three languages regularly. At home she uses Cantonese to her mother and to her grandfather who lives with them. With her friends she generally uses Singapore English. She learned to understand Hokkien, another Chinese language, in the smaller shops and market-place, but in large department stores she again uses Singapore English. At primary school she was taught for just over half the time in Mandarin Chinese, and so she often watches Channel 8, the Mandarin television station, and she regularly reads a Chinese newspaper Liánhé ZFobào, which is written in Mandarin Chinese. During the other part of the time at primary school she was taught in a formal variety of Singapore English. This is the code she uses when she has to deal with government officials, or when she applies for an office job during the university holidays. She went to an English-medium secondary school and she is now studying geography and economics at an English-medium university. Her text books are all in English. - Though the use of domains provides useful summaries of relevant social factors in the model above, it is often necessary to examine more specific social factors if a model is to be a useful description of code choices in a community. - The components of a domain do not always fit with each other. They are not always 'congruent' (that is, in agreement or harmony). In other words, within any domain, individual interactions may not be 'typical' in the sense in which 'typical' is used in the domain concept. They may, nevertheless, be perfectly normal, and occur regularly. This is illustrated by Oi Lin Tan's use of Singapore English to her sisters as described in example 5. - People may select a particular variety or code because it makes it easier to discuss a particular topic, regardless of where they are speaking. - At home, people often discuss work or school, for instance, using the language associated with those domains, rather than the language of the family domain. - Some describe this as 'leakage', suggesting it is in some way irregular -- the code associated with one domain is 'leaking' into another. In fact, it is quite normal and very common. - Particular topics may regularly be discussed in one code rather than another, regardless of the setting or addressee. (domain of religion is often discussed in a formal variety even at home). - The status relationship between people may be relevant in selecting the appropriate code. - A high-status official will be addressed in standard code in many contexts. - In Singapore, English is the most frequently selected code for official transactions, regardless of the speaker's ethnicity. - Social role may also be important and is often a factor contributing to status differences between people. - Typical role relationships are teacher--pupil, doctor--patient, soldier--civilian, priest--parishioner, official--citizen. The first-named role is often the more statusful. You can no doubt think of many more examples of role pairs like these. - The same person may be spoken to in a different code depending on whether they are acting as a teacher, as a parent or as a customer in the market-place. In Bukavu, for instance, Mr Mukala, a teacher, insists on standard Swahili from his pupils, his wife uses Kongo, their tribal language, to talk to him, while in the market-place he is addressed in Kingwana, the local variety of Swahili. - Features of the setting and the dimension of **[formality]** may also be important in selecting an appropriate variety or code. - In church, at a formal ceremony, the appropriate variety will be different from that used afterward in the church porch. - The variety used for a formal radio lecture differs from that used for the adverts. - In Paraguay, whether the interaction takes place in a rural as opposed to an urban setting is crucial to appropriate language choice. - Other relevant factors relate to the social dimensions of formality and status: Spanish is the appropriate language for formal interactions. - Another important factor is the **function** or goal of the interaction. What is the language being used for? Is the speaker asking a favor or giving orders to someone? - When Kalala applies for an office job he uses his 'best' standard written Swahili on the application form, and his most formal style of standard Swahili at the interview. - When he abuses his younger brother he uses Indoubil, the code in which his vocabulary of 'insult' is most extensive. The function is exclusively affective, and Kalala transmits his feelings effectively, despite the fact that his brother doesn't understand much Indoubil yet. - So in describing the patterns of code use of particular communities, the relevant social factors may not fit neatly into institutionalized domains. As we have seen, more specific social factors often need to be included, and a range of social dimensions may need to be considered too. The aim of any description is to represent the language patterns of the community accurately. If the model does not do that, it needs to be modified. The only limitation is one of usefulness. If a model gets too complicated and includes too many specific points, it loses its value as a method of capturing generalizations. - Models can usefully go beyond the social factors summarized in the domain concept to take account of social dimensions such as social distance (stranger vs friend), relative status or role (doctor--patient), degrees of formality (formal wedding ceremony vs lunchtime chat) and the function or goal of the interaction (getting a bargain). - Nevertheless, because they are concerned to capture broad generalizations, there are obvious limits to the usefulness of such models in describing the complexities of language choice. Interactions where people [switch between codes within a domain] cannot always be captured even by diagrams which consider the relevance of topic or social dimensions such as formality and social distance. - This kind of linguistic behavior is better described by a more detailed analysis of [particular interactions]. This point will be developed further in the section on code-switching and mixing. Before considering code-switching, however, it is useful to relate the patterns described so far to the important sociolinguistic concept of **diglossia**. **Diglossia** **A linguistic division of labor** Example 6 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 occasionally 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. [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. - The situation in Eggenwil fits these three criteria for narrow or 'classic' diglossia perfectly. There are a number of other communities which fit this narrow definition too. \- Arabic-speaking countries use classical Arabic as their H variety and regional colloquial varieties as L varieties. \- In Greece, there still exists an H variety Katharévousa, alongside an L variety, Dhimotiki, which is steadily displacing it. \- At one time, Latin was the H variety alongside daughter languages, such as Italian, French and Spanish, which had developed from its more colloquial form. These communities all satisfy the three criteria. - In these communities, while the two varieties are (or were) linguistically related, the relationship is closer in some cases than others. The degree of difference in the pronunciation of H and L varies from place to place, for example. - The sounds of Swiss German are quite different from those of standard German, while Greek Katharévousa is much closer to Dhimotiki in its pronunciation. - The grammar of the two linguistically related varieties differs too. Often the grammar of H is morphologically more complicated. - Standard German, for instance, uses more case markers on nouns and tense inflections on verbs than Swiss German; - Standard French, which is the H variety in Haiti, uses more markers of number and gender on nouns than Haitian Creole, the L variety. - Most of the vocabulary of H and L is the same. But, not surprisingly since it is used in more formal domains, the H vocabulary includes many more formal and technical terms such as *conservation* and *psychometric*, while the L variety has words for everyday objects such as *saucepan* and *shoe*. - There are also some interesting paired items for frequently referred to concepts. - Where standard German uses Kartoffel for 'potato', and Dachboden for 'attic', Swiss German uses Härdopfel and Estrich. - Where Katharévousa uses *ikías* for 'house', Dhimotiki uses *spiti*. - We have some choices in English which give the flavor of these differences. Choosing between words like *perused* and *read*, or *affluent* and *rich*, for instance, or between expressions such as *having* *finally dispatched the missive* and *when I had posted the letter at last* captures the kind of differences involved. But while either would be perfectly possible in written or spoken English, in most diglossia situations the H form would not occur in everyday conversation, and the L form would generally seem odd in writing. - No one uses H for everyday interaction. In Arabic-speaking countries, for instance, classical Arabic is revered as the language of the Koran. It is taught in school and used for very formal interactions and in writing. But for most everyday conversations in Arabic-speaking countries people use the everyday colloquial variety. A friend of mine went to Morocco having learned classical Arabic at university in England. When he arrived and used his classical variety some people were very impressed. People generally respect and admire those who have mastered classical Arabic. But most of them couldn't understand what he was saying. His colleagues warned him that he would be laughed at or regarded as sacrilegious (i.e. a violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred) if he went about trying to buy food in classical Arabic. It would be a bit like asking for steaks at the butcher's using Shakespearian English. **Attitudes to H vs L in a diglossia situation** - Haiti has been described as another diglossic situation by some linguists, with French as the H variety and Haitian Creole as the L variety. - Attitudes toward the two codes in a diglossia situation are complicated. People generally admire the H variety even when they can't understand it. Attitudes to it are usually very respectful. It has prestige in the sense of high status. - These attitudes are reinforced by the fact that the H variety is the one which is described and 'fixed', or standardized, in grammar books and dictionaries. - People generally do not think of the L variety as worth describing. However, attitudes to the L variety are varied and often ambivalent, reflecting mixed feelings or contradictory ideas. For example, in many parts of Switzerland, people are quite comfortable with their L variety and use it all the time -- even to strangers. - In other countries, where the H variety is a language used in another country as a normal means of communication, and the L variety is used only locally, people may rate the L variety very low indeed. For example, in Haiti, although both French and the Creole were declared national languages in the 1983 constitution, many people still regard French, the H variety, as the only real language of the country. They ignore the existence of Haitian Creole, which in fact everyone uses at home and with friends for all their everyday interactions. - On the other hand, even here the L variety is highly valued by some speakers. So while its very existence is denied by some, others may regard the L variety as the best way of expressing their real feelings. **Diglossia with and without bilingualism** - Diglossia is a characteristic of speech communities rather than individuals. Individuals may be bilingual. Societies or communities are diglossic. In other words, the term **diglossia** describes societal or institutionalized bilingualism, where two varieties are required to cover all the community's domains. - There are some diglossic communities where there is very limited individual bilingualism; e.g. in Haiti more than 90 per cent of the population is monolingual in Haitian Creole. Consequently, they cannot actively contribute in more formal domains. - There is a range of potential relationships between diglossia and bilingualism. 1. **Both diglossia and bilingualism**: Two languages are required to cover the full range of domains, and (most) individuals are bilingual, for example, those communities in Vanuatu where individuals speak the local village language (e.g. Erromangan, Aulua), as well as Bislama, the lingua franca of Vanuatu. 2. **Bilingualism without diglossia**: There are situations where individuals are bilingual, but there is no community-wide functional differentiation in the use of their languages. Many English-speaking countries fit this description. Individuals may be bilingual in Australia, the USA, England and New Zealand, but their two languages are not used by the whole community in different domains. 3. **Diglossia without bilingualism**: There is a situation of politically united groups where two languages are used for different functions, but by largely different speech communities. - This is true for Haiti, since most people are monolingual in Haitian Creole. - This situation tends to characterize colonized countries with clear-cut social class divisions: i.e. the elite speak one language and the lower classes use another: e.g. the French-speaking elite in 19th century Russia and in 11th century Norman England. - There will, of course, always be some bilingual individuals who act as go-betweens, but the overall pattern is one of diglossia without bilingualism. 4. **Neither diglossia nor bilingualism**: There is the situation of monolingual groups, and this is typical of isolated ethnic communities where there is little contact with other linguistic groups. - Iceland, especially before the 20th century, serves as an example of such a community, but there are also communities like this in places such as Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Amazon basin. **Polyglossia** - Diglossic situations involve two contrasting varieties, H and L. Sometimes, however, a more sophisticated concept is needed to describe the functional distribution of different varieties in a community. - People like Kalala in Bukavu use a number of different codes for different purposes. The term **polyglossia** has been used for situations like this where a community regularly uses more than three languages. - Kalala 's linguistic repertoire described above provides a nice example of polyglossic relationships. - Polyglossia is a useful term for describing situations where a number of distinct codes or varieties are used for clearly distinct purposes or in clearly distinguishable situations. **Changes in a diglossia situation** - Diglossia has been described as a stable situation. It is possible for two varieties to continue to exist side by side for centuries, as they have in Arabic-speaking countries and in Haiti for example. - Alternatively, one variety may gradually displace the other. - Latin was ousted from its position as the H language in Europe, for example, as the L varieties gradually expanded or leaked up into more formal domains. - England was diglossic (in the broad sense) after 1066 when the Normans were in control. French was the language of the court, administration, the legal system and high society in general. English was the language of the peasants in the fields and the streets. The following words provide a nice illustration of this relationship: **English French English** ox boeuf beef sheep mouton mutton calf veau veal pig porc pork - The English *calf* becomes French *veau* as it moves from the farm to the dinner table. However, by the end of the fourteenth century, English had displaced French (while absorbing huge numbers of French words such as beef, mutton, veal and pork) so there were no longer domains in which French was the appropriate language to use. - Finally, it is worth considering whether the term *diglossia* or perhaps *polyglossia* should be used to describe complementary code use in all communities. - In all speech communities, people use different varieties or codes in formal contexts, such as religious and legal ceremonies, as opposed to relaxed casual situations. - In multilingual situations, the codes selected are generally distinct languages, e.g. French or Swahili for formal situations vs a vernacular tribal language such as Shi for casual interactions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo-Zaire. - In predominantly monolingual speech communities, such as those of many English-speaking people in Britain or New Zealand, the contrasting codes are [different styles of one language]. - There are clearly identifiable linguistic differences between the more formal and the more colloquial styles of a language. But they are often a matter of degree. Nevertheless, there is a sense in which the variety at the formal end of the scale could be regarded as an H variety, while the most casual variety could be labelled L. - Adopting this approach, the [colloquial Maori] used to talk to friends and family and in local shops in Maori townships in the early 20th century could be described as the L variety. In addition, these communities made use of [two H varieties]. A. They used a formal variety of Maori for ceremonial purposes and for formal interaction on the formal meeting area. B. English was the other H variety. It was the language of the school, the government, the courts and for all official transactions with the non-Maori New Zealanders). - So, if we expand the concept of diglossia to encompass different contextual varieties as well as distinct languages, the situation in these townships could be described as triglossic rather than diglossic. **Code-switching or code-mixing** **Participants, solidarity and status** Example 8 \[The Maori is in bold. THE TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL CAPITALS.\] 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?** 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 8, 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. - 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 9 \(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 signaled to A that she recognized 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. - Switches motivated by the identity and relationship between participants often express a move along the solidarity/social distance dimension introduced in chapter 1. - While example 9 (c) illustrates a tag contributing to the construction of solidarity, switches can also [distance] a speaker from those they are talking to. - In Pamaka, a village in Suriname, young people switch between their local community language, Pamaka, and Sranan Tongo, the language of Suriname urban centers. Pamaka is the usual language of interaction in the community, but young people often switch to Sranan Tongo to signal their sophistication and identification with modernity. In one conversation, two young women and a young man are discussing local music. While the women use Pamaka, their community language, the young man deliberately switches to Sranan Tongo and avoids Pamaka. His language switch distances him from the other participants, while also signaling his alignment with the urban western world. - More formal relationships, which sometimes involve status differences too, such as doctor--patient or administrator--client, often involve the H variety or code: e.g. Spanish in Paraguay, standard Swahili in Bukavu. - Friendly relationships involving minimal social distance, such as neighbor or friend, generally involve an L code: e.g. Guaraní in Paraguay or a tribal language such as Shi in Bukavu. - In the little village of Hemnesberget (described in example 6 in chapter 1), Bokmål or standard Norwegian is the variety to use when you go to the tax office to sort out your tax forms. But the person you will deal with there may also be your neighbor. The conversation might look like this. Example 10 \[BOKMÅL IS IN SMALL CAPITALS. Ranamål in lower case.\] 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 symbolizes a change in the relationship between the men. - They switch from their roles as neighbors 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 realize they went to the same school they switch to Cantonese to exchange stories about the school and their teachers. - 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. **Topic** - Example 10 illustrated that people may switch code within a speech event to [discuss a particular topic]. Bilinguals often find it easier to discuss particular topics in one code rather than another. - In Hemnesberget, Bokmål is the more appropriate variety for discussing a business matter. - Topic relates to the function dimension introduced in chapter 1. For many bilinguals, certain kinds of referential content are more appropriately or more easily expressed in one language than the other. - Japanese war brides in the USA, for instance, found it easier to use Japanese for topics they associated with Japan such as 'fish' and 'New Year's Day'. - Chinese students from Guangzhou who are flatting together in an English-speaking country tend to use Cantonese with each other, except to discuss their studies when they switch to English. This is partly because they have learned the vocabulary of economics or linguistics or physics in English, so they do not always know the words for 'capital formation' or 'morpheme' or 'electron' in Cantonese. - But it goes further than simply borrowing words from English. They often switch to English for considerable stretches of speech. The technical topics are firmly associated with a particular code and the topic itself can trigger a switch to the appropriate code. - Another example of a referentially oriented code-switch is when a speaker switches code [to quote a person]: Example 11 \[The Maori is in italics. THE TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL CAPITALS.\] 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*. \[WE OF THE NGATI POROU TRIBE BELIEVE THE ORIGINS OF MAORITANGA ARE IN THE EARTH.\] 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 12 \[The Mandarin Chinese is in italics. THE TRANSLATION IS IN SMALL CAPITALS.\] 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 emphasize the precise message content, they also signal ethnic identity. In other words, they have an [affective] as well as a [referential] function. **Switching for affective functions** - In the twentieth century, the use of Jamaican Creole or Patois alongside standard English by those who belong to the African-Caribbean or West Indian Black communities in Britain followed similar patterns to those described above for a range of multilingual and bilingual communities. At school, for instance, Black British children used Patois to their friends and standard English to their teachers. Patois: the dialect of a particular region, especially one with low status in relation to the standard language of the country. Example 13 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 criticizing 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 (i.e. in an undertone or whisper). 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 signaled ethnic group membership for speakers in the utterances in example 9 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 localized English accent can serve just this kind of function. - Example 14 demonstrates not only Polly's code-switching ability -- it also illustrates her rhetorical skills. Example 14 \[Patois is written in bold\] 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 (given an exaggerated imitation of her in order to ridicule her). Polly is again using her ability in the two codes for affective purposes. - Many bilinguals and multilinguals are adept at exploiting the rhetorical possibilities of their linguistic repertoires. - Standard Norwegian is the language of the school, for instance, but while they are in class children may make rude remarks or jokes about the teacher in their local dialect. - In Paraguay too, Guaraní, the L variety, is considered more appropriate for joking and humorous anecdotes. So while discussing a serious political issue in Spanish a Paraguayan might switch to Guaraní with a humorous example or a witty aside. - Fijian people switch from Fijian to Hindi for joking, and because Hindi is not normally used for communication between Fijians, just the switch itself is often considered to be amusing. - A language switch in the opposite direction, from the L to the H variety, is often used to [express disapproval]. So a person may code-switch because they are angry.