Precerpt from My 20th Language: Codeswitching
Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from My 20th Language by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. -- Code-Switching: When Languages Collide One of the curious side effects of speaking multiple languages is something called code-switching . In simple terms, code-switching is when you shift from one language to another in the middle of a conversation, sometimes without even noticing you’re doing it. Linguists have studied this phenomenon for years, mostly in bilingual or multilingual communities where people flip back and forth between languages as part of everyday life. For me, though, code-switching happens even when I’m speaking English, my first language. Sometimes, without meaning to, I’ll slip into another language for just one word—usually a noun—because that word captures something that English doesn’t quite express. It’s not about forgetting the English word. It’s about finding that the English version doesn’t bring with it the same cultural weight, emotional color, o...