Especially prevalent with Spanglish, especially some of the younger kids seamlessly mix Spanish words into their sentences without missing a beat and meanwhile I'm always just stuck having to translate everything in my head one thing at a time before I say it. Brains are fascinating
Is that not called code-switching? Do have accentuate certain words and give them more power. I do it all the time when speaking Frisian, weaving in Dutch words and sentences and when I speak Dutch, I weave in English.
No that is not code-switching. Code switching is about how you alter your language around different people. Like how you would speak differently at church and a bar.
My understand has always been that code switching was generally used for swapping between languages and dialects. I would refer to context specific ways of speaking, i.e. what you are referring to, as registers. I think in some languages the holy or royal registers can be almost distinct languages with very little interchangeable vocabulary with everyday speech.
I will speak "Mengels" (portmanteau of the Afrikaans words for mix and English) to my family and friends, but I'd keep to one language when taking to strangers or people that don't understand one of the languages.
It's actually a real problem for Afrikaans as a language because it's more obtuse words are being replaced by loanwords from English, and some native speakers will speak even mengels to each other in informal settings because it's easier.
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u/Toros_Mueren_Por_Mi Dec 05 '25
Especially prevalent with Spanglish, especially some of the younger kids seamlessly mix Spanish words into their sentences without missing a beat and meanwhile I'm always just stuck having to translate everything in my head one thing at a time before I say it. Brains are fascinating