Code Switching mixing two languages in conversation

[Villa]

En mi casa se ​​habla español e inglés. Aveces solo español y aveces solo ingles pero algunas veces nos mezclamos español e inglés. Me preguntaba si alguno de ustedes hagan lo mismo.

At home we speak Spanish and English. Sometimes only Spanish and sometimes only English but sometimes we
mix both languages. I was just wondering if some of you do the same.

In linguistics, code-switching is switching between two or more languages, or language veraity, in the context of a single conversation. Multilinguals—speakers of more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other.

Among my friends that speak Spanish and Italian we mix those two languages.
Entre mis amigos que hablan español e italiano mezclamos los dos. (With English thrown in there. sometimes.)

They say that todo esto is very natural entre bilingual speakers.

Dicen que todo esto es muy natural entre los hablantes bilingües.
¿Qué les parecen? Have you heard of the term "code-switching"?
This is something done between bilingual or multilingual speakers.

[pjt33]

What's really interesting is when you switch languages and you don't even realise.

[Liquinn3]

Originally Posted by pjt33

What's really interesting is when you switch languages and you don't even realise.

Yup. I agree. I find when I speak at the 'La ruca'. (Is Ruca a Spanish word). I think it means hut... I find I'm speaking Spanish and little English in the conversation. That could be why watching the Spanish TV is different when I speak Spanish to people since they only speak Spanish on the Spanish TV.

[wrholt]

I've certainly been in conversations where the participants have code-switched. It seems to be related to having different first languages, and especially related to having weaker second languages.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by pjt33

What's really interesting is when you switch languages and you don't even realise.

Estás en lo cierto pjt.

Mi esposa hispana parlante seguía poniendo más y más palabras en inglés en sus conversaciones conmigo a través de los años. Luego, cuando ella comenzó a ver más novelas en español ella comenzó a hablar más puro español. Esto es el valor de ver telenovelas en español.

[poli]

Originally Posted by Liquinn3

Yup. I agree. I find when I speak at the 'La ruca'. (Is Ruca a Spanish word). I think it means hut... I find I'm speaking Spanish and little English in the conversation. That could be why watching the Spanish TV is different when I speak Spanish to people since they only speak Spanish on the Spanish TV.

According to Spanish dictionary a ruca is an old sick horse, but in Caribbean American Spanish it often is a derogatory word for a very old woman, like hag in English. Maybe it means hut too somewhere in the Spanish-speaking world.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by poli

According to Spanish dictionary a ruca is an old sick horse, but in Caribbean American Spanish it often is a derogatory word for a very old woman, like hag in English. Maybe it means hut too somewhere in the Spanish-speaking world.

La ruca is Mexican slang and means:

Loose woman, girlfriend. Old woman. From Mexican Spanish slang.

Hands off! She's my ruca.

Mi esposa cubana que sabe de Mexican slang dice que no se usa en Cuba. Ella fue a una escuela mexicana por cinco años y vivió en Mexico y California con muchos mexicanos. This is slang and you usually get a laugh when you use this term.

[Xilea]

Hi, Villa

I did few corrections in your text, and now I´m telling you my opinion about this thread.

I think you are very lucky, because you can practice spanish everyday and you can also practice "code-switching". In my case I can´t, because my family and friends don´t speak other language. Sometimes I know an english word which express better a concept than word I´m using in Spanish, then I said: "English Language has a specific word for this and it is...." But, only few times, because my English knowledge is not enough.

However, I believe it is a positive exercise,because mind gets used to think in two different languages at least. By the way, once time I listened to a friend that he was aware of his bilingualism when he realized that he had dreams in two different languages, and it is a"code-switching" too, isn´t it?.

Cheers,

En mi casa se ​​habla español e inglés. A veces (Aveces) solo español y a veces (aveces) solo inglés, pero (algunas) otras veces (nos) mezclamos español e inglés. Me preguntaba si alguno de ustedes hace (hagan) lo mismo.

At home we speak Spanish and English. Sometimes only Spanish and sometimes only English but sometimes we
mix both languages. I was just wondering if some of you do the same.

In linguistics, code-switching is switching between two or more languages, or language veraity, in the context of a single conversation. Multilinguals—speakers of more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other.

Among my friends that speak Spanish and Italian we mix those two languages.
Entre mis amigos que hablan español e italiano mezclamos los dos. (With English thrown in there. sometimes.)

They say that todo esto is very natural entre bilingual speakers.

Dicen que todo esto es muy natural entre los hablantes bilingües.
¿Qué les parecen? Have you heard of the term "code-switching"?
This is something done between bilingual or multilingual speakers.

[difinturGM]

Seems that switching languages during a conversation could lead to a more precise converse?

[Villa]

Originally Posted by difinturGM

Seems that switching languages during a conversation could lead to a more precise converse?

Hola difintur. Good point. Also it's a cultural thing. Wherever there are
two or more languages going on there will be code switching. In Italy near the Austrian border there is a bilingual city called Bolzano where Italian and German are spoken. On the other extreme Italy has a region that borders France and they are bilingual there. In Belguim you have French and Dutch speakers. Spain has Spanish and Catalan and borders France.
In the U.S. California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas border Mexico and of course the U.S. is the second with the most Spanish speakers in the world.
The trick of course is to also be able to speak correct Spanish and English when speaking to people who are not bilingual.

[difinturGM]

Ah, ok thanks that is interesting. I am aware of the bilingual environment of the US border cities/towns. It is true on both sides of the border. Many differences in this type of Spanish when apposed to base Latin American Spanish.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by difinturGM

Ah, ok thanks that is interesting. I am aware of the bilingual environment of the US border cities/towns. It is true on both sides of the border. Many differences in this type of Spanish when apposed to base Latin American Spanish.

You bring up another related interesting subject difintur. Mexico has 31 states and one Federal District. Each state has it's own dialect or accent. (The Mexican states that are along the U.S. border have an English language influence and do their code switching a bit.) It's somewhat of another subject but you can tell which state a person is from in Mexico by his accent. Just like you can tell if somebody is from the state of Mississippi by their accent. Speaking of Mississippi that must be a cultural shock going from California to Mississippi. I have less cultural shock when I go to Mexico than when I visit my relatives in Arkansas. I guess it's because I speak Spanish every day with my Spanish speaking wife and watch TV in Spanish every day. Don't talk every day with people with that thick Arkansas rural accent even though it's suppose to be English. Just kidding. jajajajajaja... Actually I like that southern U.S. accent and can speak it like a native. My mother and father are from Arkansas and so are all my other kin folk. Actually being able to speak another dialect of English helped me learn Spanish.

California - Arizona - New Mexico - Texas

[Premium]

Originally Posted by Villa

Actually being able to speak another dialect of English helped me learn Spanish.

How is that even possible?

[difinturGM]

Originally Posted by Villa

You bring up another related interesting subject difintur. Mexico has 31 states and one Federal District. Each state has it's own dialect or accent. (The Mexican states that are along the U.S. border have an English language influence and do their code switching a bit.) It's somewhat of another subject but you can tell which state a person is from in Mexico by his accent. Just like you can tell if somebody is from the state of Mississippi by their accent. Speaking of Mississippi that must be a cultural shock going from California to Mississippi. I have less cultural shock when I go to Mexico than when I visit my relatives in Arkansas. I guess it's because I speak Spanish every day with my Spanish speaking wife and watch TV in Spanish every day. Don't talk every day with people with that thick Arkansas rural accent even though it's suppose to be English. Just kidding. jajajajajaja... Actually I like that southern U.S. accent and can speak it like a native. My mother and father are from Arkansas and so are all my other kin folk. Actually being able to speak another dialect of English helped me learn Spanish.

Sent you a PM, interesting information. I knew Mexico had states but I didn't know the language differed that much.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Difintur: The language doesn't change. It's only colloquialisms that change. Some uses of language are also influenced by the indigenous groups that speak another mother tongue than Spanish, but you can understand and be understood by any Spanish-speaker in Mexico.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@Difintur: The language doesn't change. It's only colloquialisms that change. Some uses of language are also influenced by the indigenous groups that speak another mother tongue than Spanish, but you can understand and be understood by any Spanish-speaker in Mexico.

Estoy hablando de los cambios en el acento sobre todo y tambien como tu dices los colloquialisms. Además, hay diferencias en como hablan las classes sociales. Alguien que vive en un pueblito o en un rancho en el campo hablará diferente a alguien de una ciudad grande. Alguien con mas estudios escolares que tiene mas vocabulario va a hablar differente de una personas sin preperacion ninguna. Es por eso que me gusta ver las telenovelas mexicanas porque muestran todo esto. Veo todo esto como una cosa interesante y positiva.

Además de estar en México mucho he estado en Cuba dos veces. Cuba es de 600 millas de largo y he estado en casi todas partes de Cuba a lo largo de esos 600 millas en carro/coche desde la Habana a Santiago. Después de pasar dos semanas en Santiago volví a la Habana con algunos parientes y tenía un fuerte relazation de la deferencia del acento entre los dos puntos extremos de Cuba. México es mucho más grande que Cuba por lo que tiene aún más cambios en el acento. Todo esto pasa en todos los paises del mundo. Por mi es la cosa mas interesante del los idiomas y sobre todo con el español. Hay por lo menos 21 countries de habla hispana asi que imaginate todo la variedad de como es hablando el español. Sin embargo es basicamente el mismo idioma en todas partes.

So I'm just talking about the changes in the accent above all and not the changing to another language.
All so social classes speak differently in any language. A Harvard graduate for an extreme example is going
to speak English very differently than a person who has never been to school or doesn't know how to read.
Same thing of course with Spanish. This is why I like to watch the Mexican novelas because they show all these
differences in how people speak the Spanish language.

Besides living and going to school in Mexico I have been to Cuba two times. Cuba is a small island
600 miles long but I was very surprised at how different the people in Cuba speak from one extreme
end of the island to the other. I noticed it as much as somebody might notice the difference between
the accent of Mexico and Argentina.

There are 21 Spanish speaking countries in the world. Each one of these countries as a variation of
how Spanish is spoken(accent above all but colloquialism too) even within each country so just imagine
the rich and interesting ways Spanish is spoken. All this is why I like the Spanish language all the more.

[Liquinn3]

I'm 99.% sure the Spanish word 'ruca' means hut.

Well, a place I go to practise Spanish is called 'la ruca/the hut'. XD.

[Rusty]

The word 'ruca' has several meanings. A good dictionary will help you to see this. All the other meanings given were correct. So is yours.

Many words have more than one meaning, in most languages. The meaning you're using only works in certain contexts. If you use it in other contexts, it doesn't mean the same thing.

[AMG]

Originally Posted by Villa

En mi casa se ​​habla español e inglés. Aveces solo español y aveces solo ingles pero algunas veces nos mezclamos español e inglés. Me preguntaba si alguno de ustedes hagan lo mismo.

At home we speak Spanish and English. Sometimes only Spanish and sometimes only English but sometimes we
mix both languages. I was just wondering if some of you do the same.

In linguistics, code-switching is switching between two or more languages, or language veraity, in the context of a single conversation. Multilinguals—speakers of more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other.

Among my friends that speak Spanish and Italian we mix those two languages.
Entre mis amigos que hablan español e italiano mezclamos los dos. (With English thrown in there. sometimes.)

They say that todo esto is very natural entre bilingual speakers.

Dicen que todo esto es muy natural entre los hablantes bilingües.
¿Qué les parecen? Have you heard of the term "code-switching"?
This is something done between bilingual or multilingual speakers.

Hiii! As I told you before, I did hear about it and I had seen it but I didn't know about the war you wrote about.
Personally, I love it, but of course I love my native language that, as you notice, isn't English.
Thanks a lot.

[Liquinn3]

Originally Posted by AMG

Hiii! As I told you before, I did hear about it and I had seen it but I didn't know about the war you wrote about.
Personally, I love it, but of course I love my native language that, as you notice, isn't English.
Thanks a lot.

No hay problema. El español es mi segundo lengua y es muy importante.

I like code switching in conversations. Creo que esto es normal para mí.