Code-Switching: A Sociolinguistic Study of Bade-Hausa Bilingual Speakers

Citation: Musa Tela MUSA PhD, Adamu ABDULSALAM, PhD & Musa BABAYO (2022). Code-Switching: A Sociolinguistic Study of Bade-Hausa Bilingual Speakers. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 10, Number 1. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660

CODE-SWITCHING: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF BADE-HAUSA BILINGUAL SPEAKERS

By

Musa Tela MUSA, PhD

Adamu ABDULSALAM, PhD

Musa BABAYO

Abstract

Code-switching is a widespread phenomenon in bilingual speech,and it is therefore not surprising that a great proportion of research on bilingualism focus on. Thus, many researchers have been concerned with its sociological interpretation. Switching from one language to another during discourses by bilingual speakers appears to be a normal and pervasive phenomenon. The major focus of this paper is to examine how Bade-Hausa bilingual speakers, speak with a lot of code-switching in their day to day discussions. Hence, this work will consider how Bade-Hausa bilingual speakers, switch in constructing phrases and sentences in both languages. Data for the study were gathered through spontaneous recordings of bilinguals’ conversations at various domains. Furthermore, the accumulated evidences were analyzed using the Matrix Language Framework of Myers-Scotton (1993). The result shows that Bade-Hausa bilinguals usually code-switch to quote a statement made by someone. They also normally do code-switching to reiterate a statement or to clarify it or to make some objective comments during a conversation. The bilinguals also engage in code-switching in order to share their common identity or when addressing a different audience or if they lack an appropriate term to use in one language. The paper finally reveals that the act of switching between the codes entails social values and not linguistic dominance since both languages can come as either the Matrix or the Embedded Languages depending of the circumstances and the domain.

Introduction

There are many scholarly definitions of code-switching; Gumperz (1982, p. 59) defined code-switching as “the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of belonging to two or more grammatical system or subsystem”. Milroy & Muyskem (1995, p, 7), stated that code-switching is the alternative use by bilinguals of two or more languages in the same conversation. Also MacSwan (1999, p. 37) claimed that code-switching is a speech style in which fluent bilinguals move in and out of two languages. And other scholars such as, Gort (2012, p, 45-75), Lipski (1985, p. 43), and MacSwan (2004, p. 283-311) say that code-switching is a divergent and discrete language behaviour that bilinguals exhibit as a function of their communicative competence. Then, Gingrὰs (1974, p. 167-174), Pfaff (1979, p. 291-318) and Timm (1975, p. 473-482) define code-switching as a sophisticated, rule-governed and systematic communicative behaviour used by linguistically competent bilinguals to achieve a variety of communicative goals.

Poplack (1988, p. 215-224) defines code-switching as the alternation of two languages within a single sentence or constituent. Code-switching also occur in speech communities where a diversity of languages exist and when speakers alternate between languages and language varieties in the same conversational episode (Al-Masaeed 2013, p. 13) and (Bensen 2014, p. 69-82). It can be affirmed that code-switching refers to language swapping, dialectal variations, stylistic alternation in spoken and written forms in different contact situations.

In a similar vein, Romaine (1994, p. 59) described code-switching as a communicative option available to a bilingual member of a speech community on much the same basic as switching between styles or dialects is an option for the monolingual speaker. Cook (2001, p. 174) defines code-switching more clearly as the process in which bi-multilingual keep going from one language to the other in mid-speech when both speakers know the same two languages.

Code-switching may become an integral element of bilingual speech, when there is no functional differentiation between two languages in contact or restriction on their use. Where languages in contact have significant place in socio-economic context, code-switching may lead to the evolving of a new language (Christopher, 2004, p. 32)

From the definitions cited above, code-switching by definition describes a sociolinguistic phenomenon that relates to language switches, dialectal variations and stylistic, pragmatic alterations and syntactic or structural variation at word, phrase or sentence levels. This paper examines how Bade-Hausa bilingual speakers, speak with code-switching in their day to day discussions. It considers how Bade-Hausa bilingual speakers, switch in constructing phrases and sentences in the both languages.

Linguistic Relation of Hausa and Bade

Hausa and Bade languages have the same origination according to the currently categorized African languages phylum which is conducted purposely for the genetic comparative study. In accordance with the tradition of scholarly work such as Abba (2011), Greenberg (1963,), Jaggar (2001), Newman (1977, 2000), Ruhlen (1987), Schuh (1982,), Shu’aibu (1991), and Tela (2006, 2014, 2021) both languages belong to the Chadic family under the Afroasiatic phylum. Even though they are categorized into Western Chadic (A) and (B), where Hausa, Kare-kare, Bole and Ngamo languages are in group (A); while Bade, Ngizim and Warji are in group (B). All these languages are spoken in Northern Nigeria.

Literature Review

Sociolinguistics is the study of the ways in which language varies according to social context, e.g. who is speaking, the social situation, the occasion and purpose, factors associated with a person’s provenance, education, gender and socio-economic class influence, the variety of language they speak (Howard, 2007, p. 81). In addition, in the words of Geraldine (2007, p. 50-51) and Tarni (2008, p. 8) sociolinguistics is an investigation into the relationship that exist between language and society and the outcome of such relationship. It studies the way language use differs under different contexts of use. And in sociolinguistics, language is discussed in term of variation which could be on individual differences (idiolect), geographical differences (dialect) or style formality and informality.

Gumperz & Cook-Gumperz (2008, p. 532) defines sociolinguistics as “the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society’s effect on language”. Both researchers discriminated between sociolinguistics and the sociology of language as two different constructs, yet related disciplines of theoretical linguistics. Then, other scholars like; Paulston, Bratt & Tucker (2003, p, 445) explain that sociolinguistic relates to the anthropology of language, and therefore, it focuses on research that investigates into the differences between language varieties and registers as used by different human group who are distinguished from each other on such variables as genders, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, educational status, religion, demographic etc. Therefore sociolinguistics focuses on research that investigates idiolects, sociolect and variations of language use among social classes, ethnic group and different races.

Moreover, sociolinguistics focuses on language uses and variations of these uses from one place to another, from one social class to another and from one language to another. Sociolinguistics is a discipline of linguistics that focuses its investigations on the linguistic and social behaviour of speech community. That is, it researches into how a distinct group of language users will use their mother language or a foreign language they learn besides their native language in a unique way mutually understandable and acceptable between the individuals of this speech community.

Bilingualism

Is the ability to produce complete meaningful utterances in the other language (Haugen, 1950). Other Scholarly definition says a bilingual speaker is a person who speaks two languages. Although the term bilingualism can be used for situations, people may became bilingual either by acquiring two languages at the same time in childhood or by learning a second language, sometime after acquiring their first language. Many bilingual people grow up speaking two languages. Often in America such people are the children of immigrants; these children grow up speaking their parents’ native language in the childhood home, while speaking English at school. Children can also become bilingual if their parent(s) speak more than one language to them, or if some other significant person in their life (such as grand parent or caregiver) speaks to them consistently in another language. Sometimes a child will grow up in household in which each parents speaks different language, in that case, the child may learn to speak to each parent in that parent language.

Bilingualism is a major fact of life in the world today, people who are brought up in a society were monolingualism and uniculturalism are promoted as the norm, often think of bilingualism as a rare phenomenon.

According to Crystal (1987) about two-third of the world children grow up in bilingual environments. In fact, as Weir (2000, p. 98) assert, one in three of the world’s population routinely uses two or more languages for work, family life and leisure. Then, Edwards (2006, p. 31) asserts that everyone is bilingual; that there is no one in this world, who does not know at least a few word in languages other than the maternal variety. The concept bilingual, according to Weir (2000, p. 22) has broadened since the beginning of the 20th century, bilingualism was long regarded as equal mastery of two languages. Lastly, Harmers and Blank (2004, p. 370) defines bilingualism as the individual capacity to speak a second language based on the patterns and structures of that language than the pattern of the first one.

Theoretical Frame work

This paper uses the theories of Matrix Language Frame-work of Carol Myers-Scotton. Matrix Language-Frame model is the dominant model of insertional code-switching. The MLF model posits that there is a Matrix Language (ML) and an Embedded Language (EL). In this case, elements of the EL are inserted into the morphosyntactic frame of the ML. The hypotheses are as follows (Myers-Scotton 1993, p. 7):

The Matrix Language Hypothesis states that those grammatical procedures in the central structure in the language production system which account for the surface structure of the Matrix Language + Embedded Language constituent (linguistics) are only Matrix Language based procedures. Further, the hypothesis is intended to imply that frame-building precedes content morpheme insertion. A Matrix Language can be seen as the first language of the speaker or the language in which the morphemes or words are more frequently used in speech, so the dominant language is the Matrix Language and the other is the Embedded Language. Also, a Matrix Language island is a constituent composed entirely of Matrix Language morphemes.

According to the Blocking Hypothesis, in Matrix Language + Embedded Language constituents, a blocking filter blocks any Embedded Language content morpheme which is not congruent with the Matrix Language with respect to three levels of abstraction regarding sub categorization. Congruence is used in the sense that two entities, linguistic categories in this case, are congruent if they correspond in respect of relevant qualities.

The three levels of abstraction are:

·  Even if the Embedded Language realizes a given grammatical category as a content morpheme, if it is realized as a system morpheme in the Matrix Language, the Matrix Language blocks the occurrence of the Embedded Language content morpheme. (A content morpheme is often called an "open-class" morpheme because they belong to categories that are open to the invention of arbitrary new items. They can be made up words like ‘smurf’, ‘nuke’, ‘byte’, etc. and can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, and some prepositions. A system morpheme, e.g. function words and inflections, expresses the relation between content morphemes and do not assign or receive thematic roles.

·  The Matrix Language also blocks an Embedded Language content morpheme in these constituents if it is not congruent with a Matrix Language content morpheme counterpart in terms of the theta role assignment.

Congruence between Embedded Language content morphemes and Matrix Language content morphemes is realized in terms of their discourse or pragmatic functions.

Analysis

Based on the definitions of code-switching by different scholars Kachuru, (1983, p. 193), Bokamba (1988, p. 21) and Muyskem (1989, p. 56), we can now divide it into three types such as:

i. Tag switches

ii. Intrasentential switches

iii. Intersentential switches

Tag switches

Tag switches normally include the insertion of a tag or a short expression like discourse markers or fillers [such as ‘you know’ or ‘I mean] in one language into a sentence in the other language. It happens to Bade bilingual speakers in Hausa when they are short of an appropriate word in the other language or when they want to stress a point. 

 

S/no	Tag switches	Normal sentence	Glossary
1	Matar Bala jawo ne?	Matar Bala ta dawo ne?	Did Bala’s wife return?
2	Mamar Suleh kuru xarau ne?	Mamar Suleh ta qi maganar ne?	Suleh’s mother rejects the discussion?
3	Bata ekfawo gidan Hajara	Bata ta shigo gidan Hajara	Bata entered Hajara’s house
4	Gyaran kasonja muke yi	Gyaran xakinmu muke yi	We are decorating our room
5	Sun yi masa chaftan fa bara	Sun yi masa gidauniya fa bara	They crowd-funded him last year.
6	Jakar Bulama patuu da yamma	Jakar Bulama ta vata da yamma	Bulama’s donkey got missing in the evening

Intrasentential switches

These switches take place within clause boundaries inside a sentence or even within the word boundary. In other words, intrasentential switches are within the sentence, from single morpheme level to higher level. This means that both languages may be used within the same turn [in either Bade or Hausa contexts]. It involves a high syntactic risk because due to the effort of blending two or more linguistic system in the same mainstream discourse. However, this is classically looked upon as the worst type of code-switching being practiced out of indolence or imperfect or insufficient language competence.

 

S/no	Intrasentential switching	Normal sentence	Glossary
1	mun shigo dhiyee jiya da duuwar	mun shigo jiya da yamma	We arrived yesterday in the evening
2	Yaran sun saviyee kaamon jiya da safe	yaran sun sassabe gonar jiya da safe.	children have cleared the farm yesterday morning
3	Binta tana kauya kose amnyak-makvu da sassafe	Binta tana xana qosai a qofar-gida da sassafe.	Binta is frying bean cake in front of the house early in the morning
4	Agwagwa ǝbsuu a duuwa xazu da rana	Agwagwa ta yi iyo xazu da rana	The Duck swam not long ago in the afternoon.
5	Sun kafa sikpagan jiya duuwar	Sun kafa rumfa jiya da yamma	They installed a shade yesterday in the evening.

Intersentential Switches

This type of code-switching takes place at sentence boundaries, where the speaker says a full sentence in one language then switch to another and also make a full sentence. This means that all phrases in one turn may be produced in Bade and Hausa context. And it requires a greater fluency and deftness in using both languages than tag-switching.

 

S/no	Intersentential Switching	Normal Sentence	Glossary
1	Ba za mu zo ba kənci taam?	Ba za mu zo ba, me kake so?	We would not come what do you want?
2	Motar tasu ce, kənci vi?	Motar ai tasu ce, kana so ne?	They are the owners of the car, do you want it?
3	Salamatu ta qi shiga gida Binta yee vuru.	Salamatu ta qi shiga gida Binta ta fit.	Salamatu refused to enter the house and Binta went out.
4	Sama’ila ya mamaye gidan akci go cinik jluwi.	Sama’ila ya mamaye gidan ba su da gurin zama.	Sama’ila has occupied the house; they have no place to stay.
5	Salisu ya nome gonar, Bala kuruk əngmau	Salisu ya nome gonar, Bala ya ki biya.	Salisu weeded the farm, Bala refused to pay.

Bade as Matrix Language

Here the Embedded Language content morphemes are inserted into the Matrix Language frames. In this case, only content morphemes from Hausa that are congruent with the morpho-syntactic specification of Bade language are allowed.

 

S/no	Code-switched	Normal phrase or sentence	Glossary
1	ὰbzííyú sai púdkú.	ὰbzííyú púdkú nά.	let it be early in the morning.
2	Nǝ jάάwó tun ǝkdάάnè.	nǝ jάάwó ǝkdάάnè dhíyè.	I came long time ago
3	Har éé tìnάά gǝ jάάjâm.	tínάά mân gǝ jάάjâm.	Still you did not go.
4.	Sάk-Síyάú jú kuma dâgwzè.	Sάk-Síyάú jú tù dâgwzè.	Saksiyau went and came back.
5	Nάάnὰ amma nâgwzάyim.	Nάάnὰ yè nâgwzάyim.	I will go and I will not come back.
6	Kada gíí yâgwzάyim.	yâgwzάyi nάi pùm.	Don’t come back.
7	Garba ko gǝncú yὰyè nâbrígìm.	Garba gǝncú yὰyè tò nâbrígìm.	Garba even if you like, I wil not give it to you.
8	Sὰnάά pùdkúú kuwa ὰkcí ὰnὰyíí.	Sὰnάά pùdkúú yὰu ὰkcí ὰnὰyíí.	They will come early tomorrow morning.
9	ὰwùùn άkfάyíí klὰpíyὰ dai?	ὰwùùn άkfάyíí klὰpíyὰ yάu?	Is your entering safe at all?
10	άwùùn qirga tù víí?	άwùùn nάάkcí víí?	You counted them?

According to the data above, the constituents that comprise the functional elements are all in Bade, thus making it the Matrix Language in all the examples. Hausa only provided content words which are mostly emphatic particles such as sai, tun, har, kuma, ko, kuwa, and dai. Example 5 and 6 contain a conjunction amma and a negative imperative kada respectively. The last example is a verb qirga (to count). Since the functional elements such as the person marker, ὰkcí, the tense marker, tù and the stabilizer víí etc. are all from Bade, the data above shows it as the Matrix Language, and Hausa becomes the Embedded Language.

Hausa as Matrix Language

The Matrix Language in these examples can be identified by the syntactically relevant system morphemes which are slightly different from closed class items. Here, the content morphemes of Bade as the Embedded Language are inserted into the Hausa language frames.

S/no	Code-switches	Normal phrase or sentence	Glossary
1	Idan ban zo ba yάάyè.	Idan ban zo ba ma.	Even if I did not come.
2	Kun vὰrârkòò mu ne	Kun ziyarto mu ne?	You visit us!
3	Ban je ba dhíyèè.	Ban je ba fa.	I did not go.
4	Bala ya shigo dǝk buta.	Bala ya shigo da buta.	Bala entered with a kettle.
5	Ya je shi xάάjὰ jiya.	Ya je shi garinmu jiya.	He went to our town yesterday.
6	Ka je kὰrnèè ne yau?	Ka je unguwa ne yau?	Did you go out today?
7	Kun je ὰkôk bὰὰgὰ ne?	Kun je bayan gari ne?	Have you gone to the outskirt of the village?
8	Mun shigo kὰὰsòn fa.	Mun shigo xakin fa.	We have entered the room.
9	Yau akwai xὰrὰn dhíyè.	Yau da labari.	There is a story today.
10	Binta ta ǝntú kwârgúnǝn jiya.	Binta ta shanye maganin jiya.	Binta finished the medicine yesterday

According to the table above, Bade language provided only the content morphemes – yaààyè vírârkò, dhíyèè, dǝk, xaaja, kárnè, ákôk-báágà, kάάsôn etc. – which are inserted according to the syntactic specification of Hausa. All these Bade items, in themselves also constitute the Embedded Language Islands since the content words are constrained by the Embedded Language grammar.

Conclusion

The major focus of our analysis in this paper was how Bade-Hausa bilingual speakers, speak with code-switching in their day to day interactions. We considered how Bade-Hausa bilingual speakers, switch in constructing phrases and sentences in the both languages. Data was sought through spontaneous recordings of bilinguals’ conversations at various domains. We used the Matrix Language Framework of Myers-Scotton (1993) and analyzed our data. The result showed that Bade-Hausa bilinguals usually code-switch as a mark of social values not to show linguistic dominance of one language over the other.

References

Abba, T. (2011). Linguistic influence of the Kanuri language on Bade. Harshe 5 Journal of African Languages.

Al-Masaeed, K. (2013). Functions of Arabic-English code-switching: sociolinguistic insight from a study abroad program. [Doctoral Dissertation]. The University of Arizona,

Bensen, H. & Çavusoglu, C. (2014). Reason for the teachers uses code-switching in adult EFL classroom. Hasan Ali Yucel Egiitim Fakultesi Dergisi, 2 (20), 69-82.

Bokamba, E. (1988). Code-mixing, language, language variation, and linguistic theory: Evidence from from Bantu language. Lingua, 76, 21-62.

Christopher, N. M. (2004). A small voice in the market place. A paper presented at the West African Language Congress on Globalization and African Indigenous Language, held at the University of Ibadan Conference Centre.

Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge University Press.

Cook, V. (2001). Second language learning and teaching (3rd Ed.). Oxford University Press.

Edwards, J. (2006). Foundation of bilingualism. In T.K. Bhatia & W.C. Ritchie (eds.) The handbook of bilingualism (pp 7-31). Blackwell.

Geraldine, N. E. (2007). An Introduction to General linguistics. John Jacob’s Classis Publishers.

Gingras, R. (1074). Problem in the description of Spanish-English intra-sentential code switching. In G.A. Bills (Ed.), Sourthwest areal linguistics (pp. 167-174). Institute for cultural Pluralism.

Gort, M. (2012). Code-switching pattern in the writing-related talk of young emergent bilinguals, Journal of Literacy Research, 44(1) 45-75.

Greenberg, J. H. (1963). The languages of Africa. IUP.

Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Language and social identity. CUP.

Gumperz, J. J. & Cook-Gumperz, J, (2008). Studying language, culture and society: sociolinguistics or linguistics anthropology? Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12 (4): 532-545.

Harmers, J.F. & Blanc, M.H.A. (2004). Bilinguality and bilingualism (2^nd ed.). CUP.

Haugen, E. (1950). The analysis of linguistic borrowing. University of Wisconsin Press.

Howard, M. (2007). Sociolinguistic variation in contemporary French: Insights from the spoken language of the media. Revue Parole 43/44.

Jaggar, P. (2001). Hausa. John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Kachuru, B. B. (1983). On mixing. In B. Kachuru (Ed), The indianization of English: The English language in India (pp.193-207). Oxford University Press.

Lipski, J. (1985). Linguistic aspect of Spanish-English language switching. Arizona State University, Center for Latin American Studies.

MacSwan, J. (1999). A minimalist approach to intrasentential code switching. Garland publishing.

MacSwan, J. (2004). Code-switching and grammatical theory. In T.K Bhatia and W.C Ritchie (Ed), The handbook of bilingualism (pp.283-311). Maiden, MA: Blackwell.

Milroy, L. & Muysken, P. (1995). One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspective on code-switching. Cambridge University Press.

Muysken, P. (1989). Language contact and bilingualism. Edward Arnold.

Myers-Scotton, C. (1993). Duelling languages: Grammatical structure in code-switching. Clarendon.

Newman, P. (2000). Hausa language: Encyclopedic reference grammar. Yale University Press.

Newman, P. (1997). Chadic classification and reconstruction. Afroasiatic Linguistics 5.

Paulston, Christine Bratt and G. Richard Tucker (2003). Sociolinguistics: The essential reading. Wiley-Blackwell,.

Pfaff, W. (1979). Constraints of language mixing : Intrasentential code-switching in Spanish/English. Language, 55,291-318.

Poplack, S. (1988). Contrasting patterns of code-switching in two communities. In M. heller (Ed), Code-switching: Anthropological and sociolinguistic perspectives (pp. 215-224). Mounton de Gruyter.

Ruhlen, M. (1987). A guide to the world’s languages, Vol. I Classification. SUP.

Schuh, R.G (1982). The Hausa language and its nearest relatives. In Harsunan Nijeriya XII, Centre for the study of Nigerian Languages: Kano: Bayero University, Nigeria.

Shuaibu, I. (1991). Bade Verbal Morphology. [ B.A. Project], Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Maiduguri.

Tarni, P. (2008). A course in linguistics. Prentice-Hall of India Private, India.

Tela, M. M. (2006). Gado da aro tsakanin Hausa Da Badanci, [B.A Project], Department of Nigerian and African Languages. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria

Tela, M. M. (2014). Kwatancin ginin kalmar Hausa Da na Badanci, [M.A Thesis] Department of African Languages And Cultures, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria

Tela, M. M. (2021). Harxantawa a samuwar kalmomin Badanci, [ Ph.D Dissertation] Department of African Languages and Cultures, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria-Nigeria

Timm, L. (1975). Spanish-English code-switching. Elpor quey how-not-to. Romance philology, 28 (4), 473-482

Romaine, S. (1994). Language in society. Oxford University Press.

Weir, L. (2000). Dimensions of Bilingualism. In Wei, L. (ed.) The bilingualism reader (Pp 22-50). Routeledge.