How multilingual people mix their languages creatively
*This text is also available in German .*
Do you sometimes converse in multiple languages with the same person? Multilingual people are able to mix their languages creatively. This is also called code-switching. The sequence below is from a German-American person who participated in a study about German-English code-swicthing (see literature below). The example is from Toni, a speaker who emigrated from Munich to America with her parents and her sister and who is 82 years old at the time of her expression.
Have a look at passage (1). Can you distinguish between the German (Bavarian) and English parts?
(1) Toni, 82 J., 63 Jahre nach ihrer Emigration aus Bayern:
- Dann hat sei Frau zu mir g’sagt, why are you leaving us now? Da sog i, because I would like to laugh once in a while, und dann hats’ g’sagt, well I’m here too an’ ich leb noch, hots’ g’moant. Na hab ich g’sagt, well, gee …
In (2) wurden die englischen Bestandteile fett markiert. Stimmt das mit Deiner Einschätzung englischer und deutscher Anteile überein?
- Dann hat sei Frau zu mir g’sagt, why are you leaving us now? Da sog i, because I would like to laugh once in a while, und dann hats’ g’sagt, well I’m here too an’ ich leb noch, hots’ g’moant. Na hab ich g’sagt, well, gee …
Was für eine Systematik, was für ein Motiv könnte hinter dieser Art des Sprachwechsels stecken? Wie wäre es mit dem folgenden Schema?
- Dann hat sei Frau zu mir g’sagt
Why are you leaving us now?
Da sog i
because I would like to laugh once in a while
und dann hats’ g’sagt,
well I’m here too an’
ich leb noch, hots’ g’moant,
Na hab ich g’sagt well, gee …
What we can see: In this sequence German is the frame, in this case it provides the verbs of saying and the quotations are in English. This is a division that has been discussed a lot in research. This form of switching is probably familiar to you when you listened to multilingual people – and if you use multiple languages in your daily life, you can do this too!
We conclude: Mixing is not a sign of lacking langauge skills!
For further reading:
Tracy, Rosemarie & Stolberg, Doris (2008). Nachbarn auf engstem Raum. Koexistenz, Konkurrenz und Kooperation im mehrsprachigen Kopf, pp. 83-108 (access through Shibboleth)