LANGUAGE CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL COMMUNITIES

Besse Tuti Alawiah1, Sari Indah Basri2, Fatima3, Dhita Putri4

ABSTRACT

Many bilinguals and multilinguals are adept at exploiting the rhetorical possibilitie of their
linguistic repertoires. Domain is clearly a very general concept which draws on three important
social factors in code choice – partipants, setting and topic. The term diglossia describes societal
or institutionalised blingualism, where several varieties are required to cover all the community’s
domains. A domain involves typical interaction between typical participants in typical settings.
Sociolinguistics who study the kind of rapid code-switching have been interested in identifyinf not
ony the functions or meaning of switches, and the stylistic motivations for switches, but also the
points at which switches occur in utterances.

Keyword : sociolinguistics, diglossia, code switching.

INTRODUCTION the appropriate code. A high-status

offi cial in Bukavu will be addressed
In multilingual communities,
in standard Swahili in many contexts.
more than one language is used. It
In Singapore, English is the most
means that people living, in this
frequently selected code for offi cial
situation may speak more than one
transactions, regardless of the
language. Thus, they can have
speaker’s ethnicity. Social role may
linguistics repertoire, when
also be important and is often a
interacting with others they can
factor contributing to status
choose a code or a variety which is
differences between people. Typical
appropriate with participants, topic
role relationships are teacher–pupil,
and location. These factors are
doctor– patient, soldier–civilian,
known as domains of language use.
priest–parishioner, offi cial–citizen.
The status relationship between The fi rst-named role is often the
people may be relevant in selecting more statusful. You can no doubt
think of many more examples of role about which domains and varieties
pairs like these. The same person are relevant to language choice. The
may be spoken to in a different code model summarises what we know
depending on whether they are acting about the patterns of language use in
as a teacher, as a parent or as a the community. It is not an account
customer in the market-place. of the choices a person must make or
of the process they go through in
selecting a code. It is simply a
DISCUSSION
description of the community’s
a. Modeling Variety or Code norms which can be altered or added
Choice to if we discover more information.
It would be possible, for instance, to
Domain is clearly a very general
add other domains after ‘school’, for
concept which draws on three
instance, such as ‘the pub’ or ‘the
important social factors in code
law court’.
choice – participants, setting and
topic. It is useful for capturing broad
b. Diglossia
generalisations about any speech
Diglossia has been described as
community. Using information about
a stable situation. It is possible for
the domains of use in a community,
two varieties to continue to exist side
it is possible to draw a very simple
by side for centuries, as they have in
model summarising the norms of
Arabic-speaking countries and in
language use for the community.
Haiti for example. Alternatively, one
This is often particularly useful for
variety may gradually displace the
bilingual and multilingual speech
other. Latin was ousted from its
communities.
position as the H language in Europe,
While it obviously oversimplifi
for example, as the L varieties
es the complexity of bilingual
gradually expanded or leaked up into
interaction, nevertheless a model like
more formal domains. England was
this is useful in a number of ways.
diglossic (in the broad sense) after
First it forces us to be very clear
1066 when the Normans were in
control. French was the language of number of different codes for
the court, administration, the legal different purposes. The term
system and high society in general. polyglossia has been used for
English was the language of the situations like this where a
peasants in the fi elds and the streets. community regularly uses more than
three languages.
English French English Polyglossia is thus a useful term
ox boeuf → beef for describing situations where a
sheep mouton → mutton number of distinct codes or varieties
calf veau → veal are used for clearly distinct purposes
pig porc → pork or in clearly distinguishable
situations.
The English calf becomes
French veau as it moves from the d. Code Switching
farm to the dinner table. However, by People sometimes switch code
the end of the fourteenth century, within a domain or social situation.
English had displaced French (while When there is some obvious change
absorbing huge numbers of French in the situation, such as the arrival of
words such as beef , mutton , veal a new person, it is easy to explain the
and pork ) so there were no longer switch. In example 8 , Mere is Maori
domains in which French was the and although the rest of the meeting
appropriate language to use. will be conducted in English, Sarah
switches to Maori to greet her. The
c. Polyglossia Maori greeting is an expression of
Diglossic situations involve two solidarity. So a code-switch may be
contrasting varieties, H and L. related to a particular participant or
Sometimes, however, a more addressee. In a Polish family living
sophisticated concept is needed to in Lancashire in the 1950s, the
describe the functional distribution of family used Polish in the home.
different varieties in a community. When the local English-speaking
People like Kalala in Bukavu use a priest called, however, everyone
switched to English. In both of these along the solidarity/social distance
cases the switch indicates a change in dimension.
the social situation and takes positive The switch involves just the
account of the presence of a new words that the speaker is claiming
participant. the quoted person said. So the switch
A speaker may similarly switch acts like a set of quotation marks.
to another language as a signal of The speaker gives the impression –
group membership and shared which may or may not be accurate –
ethnicity with an addressee. Even that these are the exact words the
speakers who are not very profi cient speaker used. A related reason for
in a second language may use brief switching is to quote a proverb or a
phrases and words for this purpose. well-known saying in another
Scottish Highlanders who are not language.
proficient speakers of Gaelic
nevertheless express their identifi CONCLUSSION
cation with the local Gaelic speech The process of switching back
community by using Gaelic tags and and forth between one language or
phrases interspersed with their dialect and another within the same
English. Maori people often use conversation is called code
Maori words and phrases in this way switching. It is a conversational
too, whether their knowledge of strategy used to establish, cross, or
Maori is extensive or not. Such break group boundaries; to create,
switches are often very short and evoke or change interpersonal
they are made primarily for social reaction. Situational code
reasons – to signal and actively switchinghappens because of the
construct the speaker’s ethnic situation changes while metaphorical
identity and solidarity with the code switcing happens because of the
addressee. topic changes..
Switches motivated by the This article expands my
identity and relationship between knowledge on the reasons of code
participants often express a move switching. Before reading this article,
I assumed that people code switch
due to their linguistics
incompetence. In fact, factors to do
code switching in a diaglossia and
polyglossia community are various.

REFERENCES
Holmes Janet, 2013, An Introduction
to Sociolinguistics Fourth Edition:
London