LL-L: "Code switching" (was "Language varieties") LOWLANDS-L, 01.MAR.2000 (15) [E]

Wed Mar 1 23:10:21 UTC 2000

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Language varieties"

> From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
> Subject: Language varieties
>
> You will also frequently encounter this type of code switching between Low
> Saxon (Low German) and German in Northern Germany.  You might
[cut]
> <> French, perhaps also Scots <> English, in our Lowlandic

Yes indeed. Many, perhaps most, Scots speakers tend to use English for
technical terms, although in my family this doesn't tend to happen. This
seems to have come to the sorry pass where most Scots speakers will remark
on our language on hearing technical matters discussed by members of my
family. We've always used Scots for the sort of vocabulary which many Scots
speakers have learned in school and therefore use English for, such as
"algeebrae" (algebra), "the coontin" (arithmetic), names of countries
(Austreelae, Americae, Ostria (Austria), New Gueenae &c), language of
discourse (aliter (alternatively), abeit (albeit), condescend on (specify,
elaborate upon) &c).

Of course, there is the other side of the coin - as you say, code switching
tends to happen when people are equally conversant in both languages, and in
spite of being able to understand the language, my family aren't terribly
conversant in English! Even I spoke very little English until I left home at
seventeen.

Quite a lot of Scots speakers I know tend to do the sort of code switching
closer to what Ron and Ian were describing, however - that is, actually
switching in and out of English according to register. I think this might be
subconscious, but it doesn't tend to happen with my family because we can
only speak English when we "attempt" it. When we do attempt it in a
conversation in Scots, it's usually for humorous effect (often with strong
southern English affections such as "one" for "I" and inappropriate use of
the subjunctive, exaggerated diphthongisation, &c...!). This is the
advantage of having a TV set!

Does anyone else who speaks two languages with what might be seen as equal
proficiency still feel what I feel, that there is a fundamental difference
between the two that enables you somehow to still tell that one is your
native tongue and the other "foreign"? After speaking only Scots for the
first 17 years of my life and then 26 years speaking mostly English, I still
find that when I speak Scots I'm mostly unaware of my actual speech, but
when I speak English, I'm mostly conscious of the words and grammar I'm
using. In Scots I can just let my mouth express what's on my mind, whereas
in English I seem to have to keep listening to myself as if having to check
that it makes sense.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
http://www.fleimin.demon.co.uk

----------

From: Edwin Michael Alexander [edsells at idirect.com]
Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 01.MAR.2000 (14) [E]

At 12:58 PM 03/01/00 -0800, Ian James Parsley  wrote:

>That very interesting submission about Gibraltarian reminds me of a
>similar example (also of Spanish and English) in Crystal's _Encyclopedia of
>Language_ (I have the first edition, 1987). On that occasion two women
>were heard in Los Angeles, and they tended to use Spanish when they were
>ashamed of something, and use English otherwise. Etc etc.

And Ron wrote:
>It is also quite noticeable among
>Hispanics of the US, especially among those who are quite fluent in both
>Spanish and English.  Etc etc.

Sorry, but I couldn't help but submit the following humor in response.
Think of it as a celebration of the advantages of being bilingual.

In the last century (that's right, the 19TH CENTURY), there was a notorious
Mexican bandito named Pepe Rodriguez.

Pepe's modus operandi was to cross the border into Texas and raid the banks
of the many small towns along the Rio Grande and elsewhere in south Texas,
then scurry like a desert rat back across the border before he could be
caught.

Finally the Texas Rangers came to the end of their rope with Pepe's antics
and led a big illegal raid across the border into Mexico in search of his
hideout.

After several days of chasing around, the Rangers finally cornered the
quaking Pepe in a little cantina.

Since Pepe didn't know any English, and none of the Rangers knew Spanish,
they asked the bartender to translate for them.  They told him to tell Pepe
that if he didn't reveal the hiding place of the loot, they'd shoot him
right on the spot like a dog and leave him to rot.

The bartender translated all this carefully to Pepe, who, fearing for his
life, cracked and revealed that the money was hidden behind the 17th stone
down below the handle in the well in the center of town.

The bartender then turned to the Rangers and said in English, "Pepe says he
is sorry you've come all this way just to mistake him for a coward.  He
says that you are all a bunch of stinking Gringo pigs and he would rather
die than let the money come into your filthy hands."

Ed Alexander
JAG REALTY INC.
80 Jones Street Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8R 1Y1
Pager: 905-545-0177  Fax: 905-525-6671 Email: edsells at idirect.com
Jag Realty Inc.: http://www.deerhurst.com/jag/
Ontario Ultra Series:  http://ous.kw.net/
Burlington Runners Club: http://www.deerhurst.com/brc/

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