Grammatical code-switching patterns of early and late Basque-Spanish bilinguals

Abstract

This article analyses and compares the grammatical code switching patterns of 22 Basque- Spanish bilinguals. Ten of these are early bilinguals who have learned both of the languages in the natural environment of a bilingual community, and twelve of these are late bilinguals, ‘new Basques’, who have learned Basque as their L2 in a formal setting after the onset of puberty. The data is based on 22 hours of participant-observer recordings made in Basque Country in the years 2005, 2007 and 2011 and contain nearly 1500 examples of code-switching. All the informants are connected to the Bilbao Metropolitan area and were between 20 and 45 years of age at the time of the recordings. Differences between the two speaker groups are clear. Whereas the late bilinguals mainly use extrasentential and conventionalized types of code-switching, the early bilinguals present a variety of patterns. In the latter group, the intra-group differences are wide: some of the informants engage in highly intensive mixing, while others maintain the separation between the linguistic systems. These pattern differences might be attributed to different levels of bilingual language competence, but also to the degree of linguistic confidence of the speaker.

Emergence of a Bilingual Grammar: Word Order Differences in Monolingual Basque vs. Bilingual Basque-Spanish Predicative Constructions

“…Among the L2 speakers, the tendency is more restricted. The results are in line with the code-switching research investigating the two groups of Basque speakers (Lantto, 2012). L2 Basque speakers learn the languages mostly in contexts of "double monolingualism" (Jørgensen, 2005), where adhering to monolingual language norms is encouraged and hybridism rejected.…”

“…On the other hand, research investigating code-switching practices of Basque-Spanish bilinguals has shown that the L2 Basque speakers tend to keep their languages more separate than the L1 Basque speakers who learn both languages in informal contexts in the bilingual community. The L1 Basque speakers tend to use their linguistic repertoire more as a whole, and they use more intensive code-switching than the L2 Basque speakers (Lantto, 2012). Therefore, the L2 speakers might also favour the more normative options in this case.…”

Age-related Variation in Code-switching between Italian and the Sicilian Dialect

“…The complex, grammatically diverse, frequent, smooth back and forth unfunctional mixing (typical of the older fluent bilinguals) requires indeed good mastery of both linguistic systems, but also all conditions of sociolinguistic neutrality, which no longer seem to hold for younger generations. One might say that social constraints lead to grammatical ones (Lantto, 2012). This is reflected in some distinguishing features of young speakers' CM, i.e.…”

Euskara-gaztelania elebidunen kode-alternantzia: gazteentzako euskal irratsaio baten analisia

“…(cf. Lantto, 2012;Epelde eta Oyharçabal, 2010). Hala, JGren karakterizazioa kontuan izanda, hots, helduaroan euskara H2 moduan jaso duen Burgoseko «euskaldun» berria, etiketa moduko edota esaldikanpoko KA adibideak ugariagoak izatea espero dugu, eta gehien bat makulu hitzak, esaerak, eta mota horretakoak txertatzea gaztelaniaz.…”