How multilingual people mix their languages creatively

Doppelstrich Blau

*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?​

Doppelstrich Blau

​(1) Toni, 82 J., 63 Jahre nach ihrer Emigration aus Bayern:

  1. 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?

  1. 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 …

Sprache Mischen1

​Was für eine Systematik, was für ein Motiv könnte hinter dieser Art des Sprachwechsels stecken? Wie wäre es mit dem folgenden Schema?

  1. 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 …



Icon Glühbirne Farbe

​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!