Bilingualism

Lauren Jung, Grace Lee, Sharii Liang, Felicity Ryan, Christina Tan

In an increasingly global society, the presence of loanwords, also known as words adopted from a foreign language, is more common than not. However, these words often lose their original pronunciation in the process due to incompatible phonemic inventories. But what if a person is bilingual in both the origin language and the adoptive language? Which pronunciation should be elicited? We see bilinguals answer this question daily, picking and choosing between the native and adapted pronunciations of loanwords in conversation. In this article, we analyze the reasons behind their decisions to code-mix versus phonologically adapt through the lens of group identity. Specifically, we investigate the potential role shared ethnic identity has on English-dominant L1 speakers and heritage speakers of Mandarin Chinese and Korean. Utilizing a structured double interview format, our work simultaneously corroborates and revises an existing theory about the purpose of code-switching with larger implications about perceived belonging in today’s society.

Keywords: group identity, code-switching, community, bilingualism

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Introduction

The ways in which speakers structure their speech is very much linked to their conversational environment. Driven by social factors like linguistic identity, ethnicity, and societal perceptions of status or education, interlocutors alter aspects like phonology or prosody to improve communication or address societal expectations. For example, in a room full of children, we might speak in a higher pitch and with significantly less expressive (read: expletive) speech. This extremely common phenomenon is known as linguistic adaptation. When it comes to bilinguals, this can manifest as phonological adaptation in even the most basic of interactions:

Unfortunately, as seen in the above images, such adaptations are not always well-received. So how do bilinguals decide the most fitting pronunciation for any given situation? In this project, we notice that it is often not a choice by the interlocutor but a reaction to the listener.

Background

Code-switching (CS) is a phenomenon observed in multilingual speakers defined as “the process of mixing two or more languages within a discourse, or even within a single utterance” (Wintner et al., 2023). From a phonological perspective, CS has the potential to evoke certain attitudes toward the speaker as it is correlated with lesser perceptions of possible education level, income, citizenship status, etc. depending on the demographic of the interlocutor (Carr, 2014). For these reasons, people may or may not choose to code switch and instead opt for phonological adaptation (PA). Defined as the alteration of a loanword’s phonemes to fit into the existing sounds of the recipient language, it is often more than a simple response to phonemic inventory limitations; PA can also be in response to pressures like social context and the need for more efficient communication (Lubyan and Dale, 2016).

At UCLA, some of the most spoken non-English languages are Mandarin Chinese and Korean. Of the 6,300+ undergraduate international students alone, 52% speak Mandarin Chinese while only 9% speak Korean. These students not only make up a large proportion of the international student population but the domestic population as well. Thus, despite the English-dominant setting of an American college campus, it is not rare to hear Mandarin Chinese or Korean spoken between classes. Yet, within the classroom, Mandarin Chinese and Korean bilinguals resort to PA more than CS even when discussing personal topics like their hometown. 

Despite increasing research on bilingualism and code-switching, the majority of the work has centered around the effects of code-switching. One of the proposed functions of CS is to mark “speakers with others in specific situations (e.g., defining oneself as a member of an ethnic group)” (Johnson, 2000, p. 184, as cited in Gudykunst, 2004). Our project aims to address the other side of the conversation: the causes of code-switching. Considering the sociopolitical relationships between the U.S. and China, which is generally negative, and the U.S. and Korea, which is generally positive,bilinguals may actually be influenced towards CS or PA based on their perception of rapport with the listener. More specifically, how does the social and linguistic identity of the listener modulate the interlocutor’s rate of code-switching? In this project, we argue that CS is more likely when the interlocutor perceives the target as being a part of their ethnic identity, showing that CS is more of a reaction than an action.

Methods

Our work discussed personal topics such as food, place, and cultural identity with 17 English-dominant bilingual UCLA students. Group members asked questions such as “What city are you or your family from?” and “Do you have any cultural foods you miss/enjoy?” 9 spoke Mandarin as the other language, and 8 spoke Korean. Each participant underwent two identical, 5-10 minute virtual interviews in English but with different interviewers. Conducting the interviews with cameras off allowed our interlocutors to use aliases. After each interview, we sent a survey discussing which language was most dominant in their daily lives and their perception of the interviewer’s approachability. Because of the lack of video, this perception would be based solely on the alias. 

This design allowed us to focus on the differences in CS frequency within participants (i.e. a single participant’s elicitations between interviewers) and between groups (i.e. the average elicitations of Chinese bilinguals compared to Korean bilinguals). As a part of our focus was beyond purely linguistic research, we also looked to tie our results into sociopolitical tensions and societal feelings about certain nationalities. Our participants consisted of both heritage speakers and L1 speakers of Chinese or Korean. The diversity of our participants provided multifaceted insights into the factors driving CS by also noting the impact lifelong language dominance has and how that ties into the interplay between linguistic and social identity.

Results and Analysis

Our results were quite explicit about the positive correlation between increased societal standing and frequency of CS. We observed a clear difference between Chinese and Korean bilinguals in their rates of CS in the monolingual condition as reflected in the two interview snippets below:

Bolded = CS

Chinese Bilingual

| PARTICIPANT: My family is from Hunan.

| INTERLOCUTOR 1: Hunan? Ooh, okay.

Korean Bilingual

| PARTICIPANT: Um, I believe they were born in Seoul, the capital. 

| INTERLOCUTOR : Seoul. I see.

When speaking to a monolingual, Korean bilinguals had a tendency to code-switch and then translate or explain the word. In comparison, Chinese bilinguals favored phonological adaptation. When that would not work, often seen with naming their favorite cultural dishes, they resorted to direct translation and had to be prompted by the interviewer for the Chinese name:

Chinese Bilingual

| PARTICIPANT: I really like… uhm, sweet and sour pork.

| INTERLOCUTOR 1: Sweet and sour pork? Is there a word or specific name for it in Chinese?

| PARTICIPANT: Yea, it’s called tang cu pai gu.

In the bilingual interviewer conditions, we saw increased amounts of CS for L1 and heritage speakers of all groups. However, the largest change could be seen in the L1 Chinese speakers with an average 33% increase in code-switching. Using a paired t-test, we identified if these differences in the frequency of CS between the monolingual interviewer and the bilingual interviewer conditions per language group were significant. 

Because of the higher tendency to CS in Korean bilinguals, there was no significant difference found between the first interviewer and the second interviewer for both heritage and L1 speakers (p = 0.085):

However, Chinese bilinguals were significantly different between interviewers (p = 0.029): 

Due to our post-interview survey, we could isolate linguistic and social identity factors to see if there was any correlation. In terms of linguistic identity, participants rated their daily use of the non-English language on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being daily and 1 being almost never. They also rated their own fluency on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being fluent or native. Korean bilinguals averaged higher on both usage and fluency (4.625 and 3.75, respectively) compared to Chinese bilinguals (4.14 and 3.28, respectively), illustrating a trend where more frequent usage and higher fluency contributed positively to the utilization of code-switching. These are important factors that play a role in an individual’s perception of their own linguistic identity.

Socially, we asked participants to vote on the approachability of their interviewer and provide a brief rationale for their answer. The following word clouds revealed trends about factors that matter the most to Chinese and Korean bilingual speakers that may have modulated, whether consciously or unconsciously, their pronunciations:

English Monolingual Interviewer

Chinese Bilingual Interviewer

Korean Bilingual Interviewer

For the monolingual English interlocutor, mentions of an understanding of the participant’s ‘culture’ were equal to mentions about disposition. 7/14 voted ‘YES’ to the interviewer being approachable. For the Chinese interlocutor, there was a heavier focus on disposition. 6/6 that voted ‘YES’ mentioned how ‘nice’ the interviewer was. For the Korean interlocutor, there was a heavy focus on cultural understanding. 7/8 voted ‘YES’ to the interviewer being approachable.

These patterns and the sharp uptick in approachability rating for the bilingual interlocutors, solely through a name change, signal that the social identity, specifically the ethnic identity, of the listener seems to play a larger role in code-switching than previously thought.

Discussion and Conclusion

By changing the interlocutor’s alias to align more with the participant’s social identity, we found that code-switching did occur to mark group membership, as previous literature has theorized, but that it occurs as a reaction to a fellow group member who has already come out rather than as an action to identity oneself and find similar members. This may be why Mandarin Chinese and Korean are heard so abundantly outside of the classroom. Students establish friend groups with similar social identities and revert back to the language that marks them as a member of said group and excludes most outsiders.

While the results observed in our research thus far have been promising, there are still several considerations to be made. One limitation arose in the fact that we failed to anticipate other ways participants may respond to questions. We framed them in a way that would most likely evoke a response in a non-English language, but interviewees would sometimes directly translate answers or use cognates. In the below example, the participant opted to use colloquial terms to describe the food, and only referenced the term in Korean when prompted. 

BOLDED: Code Switching

Korean Bilingual

| INTERLOCUTOR: Do you have any cultural food you miss or enjoy besides Sundubu? 

| PARTICIPANT : I would probably say, when I am craving it, it would probably be kimchi stew
      that my mom makes, yeah. 

| INTERLOCUTOR: And what’s the, what would be the name of that in Korean? 

| PARTICIPANT: Kimchijiggae

Additionally, the hope would be to represent the population of Mandarin Chinese- or Korean-speaking bilinguals at the University of California, Los Angeles, but we must take into account the low external validity of our study. We did not randomly sample the 17 participants; we instead relied on direct connections and snowball sampling. Apart from the sampling method, this sample size represents only a fraction of the total number of students that speak Mandarin Chinese or Korean at UCLA. Reasons for this include the smaller number of Korean speakers on campus with only 9% of 6,300+ undergraduate international students speaking the language, even when not accounting for non-international undergraduate students, and the narrow framework we used to define L1 speakers. We did not consider those who had learned Chinese or Korean as their L1 but lost the language growing up to be L1 speakers for the purposes of our analysis. A future study can make note of and address these limitations in a variety of ways such as implementing a different sampling method with more discretion given to the participants’ complex language background and potentially narrowing the participant parameters so as to be able to draw clear correlations. Furthermore, we would want to ensure that there is an even balance between participants in each condition with random assortment of ages and gender to prevent any confounding.

It is important to note that our research, while on the surface an introductory envoy into the world of codeswitching and sociolinguistic research, seeks to begin to tackle the real world impacts on communication that have been foisted upon non-English speaking individuals and  communities as a result of xenophobia and racism. It builds upon the work of researchers like Dr. Okim Kang and Dr. Donald L. Rubin who investigated the presence of reverse linguistic stereotyping in environments where the only factors at play were the speaker’s ethnicity – as surmised by their given name and visual appearance (Okim & Rubin, 2009). Unlike linguistic stereotyping which is based on the observed differences in one’s speech, RLS is the assumption of perceived linguistic deficiencies based solely on the speaker’s ethnicity, name, and/or appearance. 

Dr. Kang and Dr. Rubin’s research was a more formal version of what Dr. Baugh from Emory was trying to investigate in his informal research into linguistics stereotyping, in his case in the context of acquiring housing (Baugh, 2019, 08:28). See his TedxEmory Talk for real world impacts. While our own research participants were in a relatively low-stakes environment, speaking with someone of similar age, they still chose to make phonological adaptations in order to be better understood or perhaps to not risk the occurrence of any manner of linguistic stereotyping. Without further research, we are not able to draw any direct conclusions but the correlations do begin to emerge which makes us wonder what can be done to inhibit such stereotyping and ensure that people of all levels of language proficiency are not discriminated against? 

In conclusion, our research sheds light on the intersection of culture and language. Language choices can be used to mark membership of a group via both inclusion and omission. Although people often reference culture, language, and race in a way that seems interchangeable, all three are facets of individual identities. Even well-meaning individuals can appreciate one or two while not acknowledging another. This is the importance of both social and linguistic justice. 

Our work demonstrates that even as minority cultures become more mainstream, bilinguals still require a sense of community and safety before fully expressing themselves in their non-English language. For more on the importance of linguistic justice and representation, see this TedX talk by Malaka Grant: Why language shapes identity (more than race).

Ultimately, our findings stress the importance of diverse representation on English-dominant campuses and environments in general, particularly for groups whose ethnic and national identities are sociopolitically at odds with one another, so that we may all live in a more linguistically and socially just society.

References

Antoniou, M., Best, C. T., Tyler, M. D., & Kroos, C. (2011). Inter-language interference in VOT production by L2-dominant bilinguals: Asymmetries in phonetic code-switching. Journal of Phonetics, 39(4), 558–570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2011.03.001 

Baugh, J. (2019, February). TEDxEmory: The Significance of Linguistic Profiling [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/john_baugh_the_significance_of_linguistic_profiling

Chang, C. B. (2012). Rapid and multifaceted effects of second-language learning on first-language speech production. Journal of Phonetics, 40(2), 249–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2011.10.007

Charisse, R. (2017). One margarita, please! Language attitudes regarding pronunciation in the language of origin. Voices, 2(1). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jk6z6tt  

Gudykunst, W. B. (2004). Bridging differences : effective intergroup communication. Sage Publications.

Hwang, J., Brennan, S. E., & Huffman, M. K. (2015). Phonetic adaptation in non-native spoken dialogue: Effects of priming and audience design. Journal of Memory and Language, 81, 72–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.01.001  

Kang, O & Rubin, D. (2009). Reverse Linguistic Stereotyping: Measuring the Effect of Listener Expectations on Speech Evaluation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 28. 441-456. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X09341950

Lupyan, G., & Dale, R. (2016) “Why Are There Different Languages? The Role of Adaptation in Linguistic Diversity.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 20, no. 9, Sept. 2016, pp. 649–660, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.005 

Shore, P. (2026, January 22). Authenticity of pronunciation. Language Log. https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72656

Shore, P. (2026, January 19). A better pronunciation of “Davos”. Language Log. https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72643

Stollznow, K. (2026, February 26). It’s never too late to learn a language – adults and kids bring different strengths to the task. TheConversation.https://doi.org/10.64628/AAI.d4nryq5fw  

TEDx Talks. “Why Language Shapes Identity (More than Race) | Malaka Grant | TEDxGeorge.” YouTube, 22 Dec. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nKPLdZx8RY.

Wintner, S., Shehadi, S., Yuli Zeira, Osmelak, D., & Nov, Y. (2023). Shared lexical items as triggers of code switching. Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 11, 1471–1484. https://doi.org/10.1162/tacl_a_00613  

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Junyu Gong, Avneet Gosal, Ryan Hannani, Yana Jiang

Language is not just simple way to communicate but it is one of the most significant signs of an identity. The blog is concerning language practices and phonetics of the young Kazakh people in China so as to assert their culture within a bilingual environment, which is dominated by the Mandarin Chinese. According to the interviews conducted with 3 youths, in participant observation and phonetics, the study reveals that the language selection varies greatly with the various social contexts such as family, schooling, employment and internet. Even though the impact of the Kazakh culture on the individuals is inarguable, phonetic features of the language are increasingly influenced by the Mandarin, and certain alterations are present, which also involve: erosion of the vowel harmony, and the simplification of the consonant complexes. The changes also mirror wider sociolinguistic processes in which language can be used according to the practical communication demands and affiliation to the culture. This case demonstrates that language is a fluid social resource, which responds to pressures but still, it is a symbol and it depicts the bargain between language ideology and identity amongst minority youth.

Keywords: Mandarin, Chinese culture, identity, Kazakhs, bilingualism, sociolinguistics

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Introduction

The language plays a crucial role in the perception of the individuals in the society. The interaction between language and identity has become a problem that young Kazakh people in China struggle with because of the bilingual world that is dominated by Mandarin. This blog dwells on how these youths practice the language and negotiate their cultural belonging by use of these phonetics. Basing on the research proposal, the argument is that language choice and pronunciation is not neutral but is strongly connected with the identity expression that both honors the culture and the assimilation to the social forces. To the minority youth, languages may indicate the association with a group, education and ambitions. Therefore, understanding the ways of young Kazakhs to manage their linguistic repertoire can shed light on other more broadly discussed questions concerning cultural continuity, assimilation and resistance (Stanlaw et al., 2018).

Image: Kazakh cultural event to demonstrate the traditional customs and the social environment the language, identity and community are preserved among the Kazakh people.

Background

Kazakh is a language of Turks that is characterised by a vowel harmony, and complex consonant groups (Shoibekova et al., 2016). It is used as an important transmitter of culture and ethnicity. However, in China, Kazakh is used in coexistence with Mandarin Chinese, which is much more powerful in the institution. Such an imbalance promotes the use of the bilingual behavior among young speakers, who can use different languages depending on the situation. Although bilingualism expands the communication field, the less usage of the Kazakh language in the formal spheres creates some concerns about the decline of the language and the loss of identity. These processes depict how language ideology shapes the process of using and appreciating their language (Urban, 2020).Language attitudes are influenced by other policies that promote Mandarin in the education sector and media (Zhou, 2023). According to Aydar (2015), the studies of the Kazakh language in China usually focus on the necessity of maintaining the linguistic tradition and allowing the economic inclusion. Learning about phonetic changes and language practices is thus crucial towards cultural planning.

Methods

Semi structured interviews, participant observation and phonetic analysis are used as methods to understand these dynamics of the study (Roulston & Choi, 2018).  Interviews with 3 youths helped investigate language preferences and identity perceptions and observations were conducted in areas like family interaction, school, work and social media and phonetic analysis can investigate aspects like vowel harmony and consonant clusters. It is concerned with the practical applications of language in the real world and not the technical measurement (Bauer and Gaskell, 2000). The observation was conducted over a period of a two weeks which allowed the researcher to observe the use of language during a diversity of events and occurrences both in family gatherings and on the internet. Phonetic analysis entailed the transcribing and matching of the use of vowels and consonants with the standardised phonology of the Kazakh language.

Results and Analysis

The use of language is different significantly. The conversations in the family predominantly involve Kazakh language with high phonetic memory, which upholds ethnicity. One of them said, “in the house we always speak Kazakh, it is like we are acting as ourselves.” This brings out how Kazakh is used as an indicator of real cultural identity in the personal level. Within the family setting, elders tend to preach the strict compliance to the Kazakh pronunciation as a method of imparting the cultural ethics. School communication is characterized by the code switching between Mandarin and Kazakh; phonetic retention is mediocre and identity expression ambivalent. One of the interviewees mentioned, “that in school I mostly use Mandarin since I need to succeed”. This is an ideology of institutional language as the Mandarin is linked to education and mobility. Mandarin is the dominant language in work environments, the phonetic retention is low and the expression of identity is less idealistic. Language usage in the social media is dynamic. Incorporating languages creatively, the youth are transliterating the words of the Kazakh language using Latin or Cyrillic scripts, and borrowing Mandarin slang; the mixing up tends to create hybrid identities. These trends are summarised in Table 1  and 2.

Table 1: Change in the language choice, phonetic retention, and identity expression among diverse social contexts.

The frequent code switching is a process of sociolinguistic adaptation (Liu, 2020). According to phonetic analysis, young people tend to weaken vowel harmony and lighten consonants under the influence of Mandarin (Huang, 2003). 

Table 2: Phonetic difference in the speech of young Kazakh speakers and its connection to the expression of identity.

The changes are not accidental, they register social positions and preserving the Kazakh phonetics is an indicator of cultural originality, but acquiring the Mandarin characteristics can be the indicator of assimilation (Podesva, 2016). There is a sense of tension in identity since speakers are faced with the issue on one hand of cultural pride and social integration. One of the participants has said that “sometimes he feels that he is losing his Kazakh identity when he speaks too much Mandarin”. It demonstrates identity tension, the explanation of which is in the sociolinguistic study. Those who have a higher phonetic retention level have a higher ethnic identity; those who are more dependent on Mandarin tend to have an ambiguity about belonging to a specific culture (Liang, 2014). 

Discussion and Conclusion

These results indicate that one of the main processes that help in identity building is language. The young Kazakhs have a strategic approach to languages by using them as a means of negotiating the two worlds of culture and socio economic development. Mandarin is an educational and work associated language whereas Kazakh is a language of heritage and community. The phonetic transformations depict how one adapts to language contact without necessarily losing their identity (Zharkynbekova et al., 2025).  This research has merged the principles of indexicality, sociolinguistic variation and language ideology in order to demonstrate that a high level of cultural affiliation can be accompanied by linguistic change. Ethnic solidarity or political opposition may be communicated through the use of Kazakh in places of publicity as well as modernity or economic aspiration through Mandarin (Burkhanov & Chen, 2016). The variation of dialect can be realized when speakers borrow the features of two or more varieties; therefore, rural interviewees have more traditional phonetics compared to their urban counterparts, as they are closer to the cultural practices.

Formal sphere and respect of the bilingualism is the key to the preservation of cultural diversity (Xu et al., 2025). This study highlights how educational and policy efforts are necessary to honor and incorporate minority languages into the life of society, and not sidelining them to the personal realm. Finally, as the Mould of Kazakh case reminds us, identity is created by making mundane linguistic decisions based on the social situations, and linguistic anthropology can provide methods to comprehend and help the interaction between language and identity. Future studies would examine how the policies of language and digital media still determine these processes in the quickly evolving social settings.

References

Bauer, M. W., & Gaskell, G. (Eds.). (2000). Qualitative researching with text, image and sound: A practical handbook for social research. Sage.

Burkhanov, A., & Chen, Y. W. (2016). Kazakh perspective on China, the Chinese, and Chinese migration. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(12), 2129-2148.

Huang, X. (2003, November). Minority language planning of China in relation to use and development. In Conference on Language Development, Language Revitalization and Multilingual Education in Minority Communities in Asia. Bangkok, Nov (pp. 6-8).

Liang, S. (2014). Language attitudes and identities in multilingual China: A linguistic ethnography. Springer.

Liu, H. (2020). A socio-cognitive approach to code-switching: from the perspective of a dynamic usage-based account of language. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

Roulston, K., & Choi, M. (2018). Qualitative interviews. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data collection, 233-249.

Shoibekova, G. B., Odanova, S. A., Sultanova, B. M., & Yermekova, T. N. (2016). Vowel Harmony Is a Basic Phonetic Rule of the Turkic Languages. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(11), 4617-4630.

Xu, J., Zhou, C., & Liu, H. (2025). Cultural heritage as a key motivation for sustainable language protection: a case study of the Suzhou dialect protection project. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 46(9), 2930-2947.

Zharkynbekova, S. K., Tazhibayeva, S. Z., & Filchenko, А. U. (2025). Problems of Preserving the Kazakh Language in China: Threats of Extinction and Ways of Solution. Журнал Сибирского федерального университета. Гуманитарные науки, 18(3), 502-515.

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Maegan Abutin, Nicole Li, Melani Matian, Dev Patel

“It helps me understand and relate to people and situations better” and “provides a sense of community and support, especially in spaces we’re underrepresented,” one participant explained when describing their use of code-switching. Our research focuses on bilingual students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), examining how they use code-switching across public and private campus settings. Many of these students come from immigrant communities and culturally diverse familial networks, where language is closely tied to identity and relationships. This study asks for and why bilingual students choose to switch between languages in different contexts. Drawing on qualitative data from surveys and interviews, we analyze how language use reflects identity, social identity, and institutional expectations. Our findings suggest that code-switching is not random, but rather a strategic practice shaped by setting and audience. While English is often used in academic and professional spaces, other languages are more common in social and cultural interactions with friends and roommates. Code-switching occurs most frequently in casual conversations with other bilingual peers, where crossing languages express emotion, humor, and connection. This study highlights how bilingual students navigate identity and structural power through everyday language practice.

Keywords: Bilingual, code-switching, identity, UCLA students

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Introduction & Background

Universities across the U.S. are linguistically diverse spaces, but on a campus as diverse as UCLA, students regularly navigate between multiple languages in their everyday interactions. English often functions as the dominant institutional language in academic and public settings, leading our group to pose the question: how do bilingual students decide when to switch between languages? The motivation for this study comes from the idea that language choice is not random. While previous research shows that code-switching expresses identity, our group seeks to highlight how bilingual students regulate their language use in response to social and institutional expectations. This study explores this gap, showing how these students adjust their language choices to navigate identity and structural power in everyday campus settings. We argue that multilingual speakers strategically regulate code-switching across private and public settings in response to audience comprehension and institutional language norms, revealing how language choice negotiates identity, accessibility, and structural power.

Methods

This study examines code-switching among bilingual undergraduates at UCLA across diverse social contexts. The study focuses on 14 undergraduate students at UCLA who speak two or more languages and report having used them for a long time. These languages included Armenian, Farsi, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, and Arabic. Participants were selected through convenience sampling from the researchers’ personal networks, consisting of a close-knit group of friends. Thereby facilitating access to individuals familiar with the campus environment and daily student interactions, both in private and public settings. The research examines both public settings (such as classrooms, campus areas, and academic interactions at UCLA) and private or informal contexts (including conversations with family and close friends, within friend groups, and dorm rooms). This method aligns with the principles of linguistic anthropology, which examines daily interactions as a fundamental site for constructing social meaning, in which language use reflects broader cultural and social dynamics (Dingemanse & Floyd, 2014).

Short questionnaires and casual interviews are used to get participants to talk about their own language use. The analysis does not focus on formal linguistic structure; instead, it examines observable elements in communication, such as code-switching, participants’ identities, and motivations for switching, including the expression of identity, humor, emotion, or clarification. This method is based on conversation-based techniques that examine how to design an audience, how to take turns, and what people mean when they talk to each other in real life (Bahtina, 2026A).

Patterns are identified in all participants’ responses by categorizing analogous behaviors and interpretations. This is a common way to link participants’ social contexts to their interactions (Bahtina, 2026B). Close attention is paid to how language use changes across different settings, such as family, friends, and school, and how these changes reflect societal and institutional expectations for how people should act (Bahtina, 2026C).

The objective of this methodology is not to produce results that could be generalized at a statistical level; rather, it is to uncover significant patterns in the manner in which UCLA bilingual students govern language usage in everyday campus life, as well as the ways in which these choices reflect identity, social connections, and structural factors. Therefore, the goal of this methodology is to produce generalizable results.

Results/Analysis

Figure 1. What comes to mind when students talk about code-switching. This word cloud is based on responses from 14 UCLA bilingual students, with larger words reflecting ideas that came up most often.

The following quotes are drawn from our data and grouped by recurring themes in students’
code-switching experiences.

1. Identity
   “Switching between languages is just part of who I am.”
   “It reflects both sides of my identity.”
   “I feel like I’m a different version of myself depending on the language I use.”
2. Community & Belonging
   “When I hear other people switching, it makes me feel like it’s okay for me to do it too.”
   “It creates a shared understanding between us.”
   “It makes conversations feel more natural and comfortable.”
3. Humor & Expression
   “Some jokes only work in one language, so I switch.”
   “It’s the only way to make it sound right.”
   “Certain phrases just hit better in another language.”
4. Emotion
   “There are things I can say in one language that don’t feel the same in another.”
   “I feel more comfortable expressing emotions in one language.”
   “Some emotions are easier to express in my other language.”
5. Institutional Pressure
   “In class, I usually stick to English—it just feels expected.”
   “It feels more appropriate to use English in academic settings.”
   “I don’t want people to think I’m unprofessional.”
6. Naturalness
   “It just happens naturally—I don’t really think about it.”
   “Switching languages feels automatic.”
   “It’s just how I talk.”
7. Audience Awareness
   “It depends on who I’m talking to.”
   “I switch based on whether the other person understands.”
   “I adjust my language depending on the situation.”
8. Family vs Campus
   “At home, we usually stick to one language.”
   “On campus, I switch more because people are bilingual.”

Code-switching socially during in-person communication is frequent in conversations with bilingual friends, casual conversations, joking or storytelling, and emotional conversations. This was connected to people hearing others code-switching, which encourages them to do so as well; it creates a shared understanding, feels more natural, and signals that both languages are acceptable, per participants’ answers.

More code-switching occurs on campus because students come from diverse linguistic backgrounds and many are bilingual. Shared spaces including dorms, restrooms, and study rooms help students be comfortable switching between languages. As one participant explained, “Some academic terms feel more natural in English, while certain emotions or cultural references feel more authentic in Chinese,” providing more information behind when and why students code-switch. At home, families often speak one main language, so there is less switching and more focus on that language. This contrast suggests that code-switching is shaped by one’s linguistic environment and audience (Zentella, 1997; Duranti, 1997).

English is used primarily in academic and professional settings, while other languages are mainly used in family and cultural environments (Gumperz, 1982; Zentella, 1997). Code-switching, however, occurs more often in casual social situations, especially with bilingual friends who speak the same language. Hearing others code-switch often makes people more comfortable doing it themselves. A participant in our study wrote, “At work and during clinical, I also code switch when helping translate for staff who don’t speak Spanish and patients who do. Being able to move between languages is important because it helps with communication and makes patients feel more understood and supported. It’s not just social, it’s something that has a
real impact in healthcare settings.” This shows the power of language and the role that codeswitching plays in and out of social communities, crossing institutional barriers and structural power. It also conveys how code-switching functions not only as a social practice, but as a communicative resource, allowing speakers to build trust and navigate systems where language differences might otherwise create misunderstanding.

Discussion & Conclusion

In healthcare and legal settings, our findings suggest the possibility to prevent “linguistic profiling,” ensuring that patients and defendants are understood based on their meaning rather than judged by their accent or dialect. Our data also portrays when bilingual students utilize code-switching it provides a further sense of support and cultural connection, especially in academic spaces where students may feel underrepresented. Future studies can sample a larger population in different locations to further study language choice and narrow the study to specific locations such as, restaurants, office workplaces etc.

By recognizing that every word we use has power, we can move beyond stereotypes towards a deeper shared understanding. We show that our words are never just about grammar; rather, they are primary sites of identity construction and a form of cultural contestation. We move beyond simple definitions to reveal that alternating between languages and combining languages, using dialects and different registers, are not barriers or signs of deficiency; they are high-level communicative competencies used to navigate the social world. We validate performative identity as we recognize that we don’t just “have” an identity, we perform it into existence through our daily linguistic choices and interactions. Furthermore, we build community by demonstrating how code-switching functions as a “we-code,” allowing us to establish solidarity to create a safe, inclusive environment for bilingual speakers.

Works Cited

Bahtina, D. (2026A). 6A: Conversation. UCLA Anthropology M150 Course Lectures.
Bahtina, D. (2026B). 8A: Practical work. UCLA Anthropology M150 Course Lectures.
Bahtina, D. (2026C). 7B: Multilingualism. UCLA Anthropology M150 Course Lectures.
Dingemanse, M., & Floyd, S. (2014). Conversation across cultures. In N. J. Enfield,
P.Kockelman, & J. Sidnell (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic anthropology.
Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139342872.021
Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Auer, P. (2013). Code-switching in conversation: Language, interaction and identity. Routledge.
Zentella, A. C. (1997). Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York. Blackwell.

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Cia Evangelino, Saffiya Haque, Allie Kuo, Emma Montilla, Renee Rubanowitz

In music, switching between languages isn’t just linguistic— it’s poetic. Spanglish is in the studio, and it’s topping the charts. This study explores how bilingual artistry harnesses code-switching as a creative tool as it reshapes the landscape of contemporary music.

Code-switching typically signals affiliation or belonging in a community or conveys language-specific ideas, but it evolves into a deliberate stylistic choice in music and art. However, does creative liberty coincide with linguistic constraints? Our research investigates whether song lyrics, as a form of poetry, prioritize meaning over grammatical perseverance.

This article examines how bilingual artists implement code-switching into their lyrics, analyzing their use of borrowing and blending through the lens of Code Copying Framework and Poplack’s constraints.

We focused on the bilingual lyrics of Rosalía and Kali Uchis, two Spanish-language musicians with distinct bilingual backgrounds. Our analysis revealed that Rosalía, as an L2 English speaker, predominantly uses shorter borrowings and code copies to preserve English-specific semantic nuances, often refraining from full code-switching. In contrast, Kali Uchis, a simultaneous English-Spanish bilingual, employs/favors longer, fluid borrowings at clausal boundaries, seamlessly switching between two languages line by line. We hypothesize that these differences in their approach to bilingual lyricism come from their dominant language preferences and differing linguistic proficiencies.

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Introduction and Background

In today’s world, bilingual music is a new and exciting way for artists to express their identity and connect with different groups of people. Look at Rosalía or Kali Uchis, for example: they both switch seamlessly from Spanish to English, often in the middle of their lyrics. What’s really happening when these artists switch languages so effortlessly? Is it just a trendy way to mix things up, or is more happening beneath the surface?

This blog delves into how bilingual artists navigate the linguistic restrictions surrounding code-switching in music. We will test if certain constraints governing spoken Spanish and English also apply in a musical context. Specifically, we will look at whether Johanson’s (2011) code copying framework and Poplack’s constraints (1980) still hold up in a lyrical format.

To understand what happens when bilingual artists code-switch in their lyrics, it helps first to unpack what code-switching is. Code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two languages within or between sentences. For example, Kali Uchis has a song lyric that goes, “That’s the only thing que me da alegría,” which means “That’s the only thing that brings me joy.” Here, she casually switches from English to Spanish mid-song.

According to Poplack (1980), there are some crucial grammatical constraints that bilinguals tend to follow when switching between languages, including the free morpheme constraint, which suggests that bilinguals are more likely to switch languages when one of the languages is a free morpheme. This helps to ensure that the switch does not disrupt the sentence’s grammatical structure. However, Timm (1975) argues that not all code-switching follows strict rules. Some switches and combinations of words may sound ungrammatical to bilingual speakers. Timm states that bilinguals make code-switching decisions based on the context and what feels natural in the conversation. In other words, code-switching is as much about communication goals and cultural expression as it is about grammar. However, there is another layer to all this, which is that of music. Lyrics are more than just spoken language; they are a form of artistic expression, so they have more leeway to break the “rules” of language and grammar regarding creativity. In music, artists like Rosalía and Kali Uchis often code-switch between English and Spanish to communicate and express their identity, emotions, and cultural background. In this context, code-switching may not always conform to the strict linguistic rules established by Poplack and others. These two artists’ flexibility in language reflects their different bilingual experiences and how they shape how they mesh languages in their songs.

Methods

To understand and answer our research question, we analyzed the lyrics of two prominent Spanish-English artists, Rosalía and Kali Uchis. We chose these two artists for their unique linguistic and cultural backgrounds and active use of code- and language-switching in their music. In terms of similarities, both artists are of a similar age and release Latin/Spanish music of similar genres. We thought this genre of music in particular, would be insightful to focus on, as the informality and structure of their song lyrics are a contrast from previous code-switching examples we have looked at through this course. Both women have also each built an alternative, trend-setting brand image and self-identities that hinge largely on themes of confidence, sex positivity, femininity, and empowerment.

Rosalia, photo via Europa Press News                            Kali Uchis, photo via Felipe Q Noguiera

Beyond these similarities that allow for standardization of our data collection, we chose Rosalía and Kali Uchis because they also represent two distinct types of bilingualism and cultural experiences, providing a rich contrast for analysis. Rosalía, born in Catalonia, Spain, is a sequential bilingual who grew up speaking Spanish and Catalan as her native languages before learning English later in life — we categorized her as an L2 English speaker. While she began her music career with a strong focus on Flamenco and traditional Spanish music, Rosalía recently transitioned into Latin and alternative reggaetón-inspired pop. Kali Uchis, in contrast, is a simultaneous bilingual born in the United States to Colombian parents. Growing up, she was exposed to both Spanish and English equally, having spent significant time in both Virginia, USA and Colombia. This dual-culture childhood is reflected in the blending of the two languages in her songs. Her discography began predominantly in English but has recently shifted to more Latin music. By examining these two artists, we hoped to explore how their bilingual backgrounds shape their distinct approaches to code-switching and linguistic creativity and how their different upbringings may have manifested themselves into their music.

We collected data by identifying ten songs from each of these two artists. We used the metric of the number of Spotify streams per song to choose their most popular music. In our data filtering, we only ensured to include tracks where the artists held writing credits, as this guaranteed that the observed code-switching and linguistic patterns came directly from their creative process rather than external songwriters that we would not know their linguistics backgrounds. Because of this in mind, we chose to include collaborations and feature songs, such as New Woman (LISA feat. Rosalía) and SI NO ES CONTIGO – REMIX (Cris Mj feat. Kali Uchis & JHAYCO), as these song features tended to be 1) highly streamed, and 2) written by the artists themselves. Then, to narrow our focus to bilingualism in music, we excluded songs entirely in Spanish or English, as these songs were not tailored to our interests and would not illustrate instances of bilingual code-switching. Lyrics were sourced from Genius, a widely used database for accurate song transcription, translations from the Genius community comments, or from members of our group who are beginning L2 Spanish speakers.

Example of songs taken from Rosalia’s Spotify artist profile, including streams

After selecting 23 songs for our dataset, we parsed each song, compiling lines of lyrics in which a language switch occurred. To identify these switches, we applied the established definitions of intra- and inter-sentential switching and the structure of the code-copying framework. These lyrics were documented and later analyzed on a robust spreadsheet.

Song Selection Data Samples
Kali Uchis
Song: SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY Remix – Feature   2021 Release 461.5m Approx. Spotify Streams	Lyric: Yeah, you’ve been starin’ at me (¿Por qué me miras?) That’s the only thing que me da alegría Yo quiero sentirte inside of me
Song: Moonlight   2023 Release 829.8m Approx. Spotify Streams	Lyric: I just wanna get high with my lover, Veo una muñeca cuando miro en el espejo
Song: telepatía   2020 Release	Lyric: If you want it, you could take a private plane, a kilómetros estamos conectando

1.2b Approx. Spotify Streams	Y me prendes aunque no me estés tocando
Song: Igual Que Un Angel   2024 Release 332m Approx. Spotify Streams	Lyric: You should’ve seen the way she looked, igual que un angel Heaven’s her residence y ella no se va a caer
Rosalia
Song: Despecha   2022 Release 1.1b Approx. Spotify Streams	Lyric: Hoy salgo con mi baby de la disco corona, corona, yeah
Song: New Woman – Feature   2024 Release 223m Approx. Spotify Streams	Lyric: Puta, soy la Rosalía, solo sé servir
Song: TKN   2020 Release 465m Approx. Spotify Streams	Lyric: Zoom en la cara, Gaspar Noe
Song: Besos Moja2   2022 Release 442.6m Approx. Spotify Streams	Lyric: To’ me queda bien con una white tee To’ me quieren casar, soy una wifey

Results and Analysis

In total, we collected data from 23 different songs released between 2019 and 2024, with 10 being songs by or featuring Rosalía and 13 by or featuring Kali Uchis. From these 23 songs, we extracted 19 (38.7% of data) data samples from Rosalía and 30 (61%) data samples from Kali Uchis – resulting in 49 data samples. Generally, most code-switching occurs as an intersentential switch, which means it happens at clausal boundaries between sentences instead of within a sentence.

The results we discovered while gathering our data prove some interesting differences between how sequential and simultaneous bilinguals code-switch. For example, Rosalía, a sequential bilingual who primarily makes her music in Spanish within the Flamenco musical style, is more likely to code switch in her music when in the Latin context or if she appears as a feature on songs with Latin artists. Meanwhile, Kali Uchis, a simultaneous bilingual, is more likely to code-switch in her music in general. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we could not investigate how heavy of a correlation each artist’s background influences their code-switching/code-coping tendencies. Still, based on the data, we can tell each artist has a preference on how bilingualism is written into their music. We expected a vast majority of code copying to occur within our data. Still, only 40.8% of data resulted from code-copying versus code-switching, with an overwhelming majority of code-copying data samples from Rosalía (80% of code-copying samples). Comparatively, Kali Uchis heavily favors code-switching, with 80% of her data samples containing some form of code-switching. She tends to favor longer phrases of code-switching instead of single-word copies. The data table below shows examples of the different types of code-copying occurring with a song from each artist.

Song Lyric Data Analysis Samples
Igual Que Un Angel – Kali Uchis Kali Uchis, Peso Pluma – Igual Que Un Ángel 0:20-0:30
Lyric: You should’ve seen the way she looked, igual que un angel Heaven’s her residence y ella no se va a caer	Translation: You should’ve seen the way she looked like an angel Heaven’s her residence and she’s not gonna fall	Analysis: Selective copying: igual que un angel mirrors the English structure to retain meaning while adapting to Spanish syntax
fue mejor – Kali Uchis Kali Uchis – fue mejor feat. SZA 1:00-1:10
Lyric: Y me fui en el Jeep a las doce The backseat donde yo te conocí	Translation: And I left in the Jeep at twelve The backseat where I met you	Analysis: Global copy example: “Jeep” and “the backseat” are English words with all properties preserved and integrated into the lyrics
Besos Moja2 – Rosalia

Wisin & Yandel, ROSALÍA – Besos Moja2 2:22-2:33
Lyric: To’ me queda bien con una white tee To’ me quieren casar, soy una wifey	Translation: It looks good on me with a white tee They all want to marry me, I’m a wifey	Analysis: Global copying: the English phrases white tee and wifey are borrowed intact and function within the Spanish sentences without alteration
New Woman – Lisa feat. Rosalia LISA – NEW WOMAN feat. Rosalía 1:48 – 1:52
Lyric: Puta, soy la Rosalía, solo sé servir	Translation: Bitch, I’m Rosalía, all I do is serve	Analysis: Selective copy example: semantic meaning of “serve” is preserved, directly translated from English to Spanish

The types of copying that we came across in our data are:

• Global copies (taking words in their unaltered form and using them within a sentence).
• Selective copies (the structure of a word or phrase is kept while adapting to another language’s syntax).
• Mixed copies (switching between one language to another within a sentence or phrase). From our data, a majority of the data uses mixed copying, accounting for 40% of the examples. Global copying accounted for 36% of our data, while selective copying accounted for 16%.

Discussion and Conclusion

From our corpus of lyrics, we concluded that code-switching in music tends to deviate from standard grammatical constraints and, therefore, does not strictly follow Poplack’s Constraints. Instead, code-switching in music more closely aligns with and reflects the artists’ bilingual background. Rosalía, a sequential bilingual, is more deliberate in her switches when using English in songs to identify specific concepts like “wifey” or “to serve.” On the other hand, Kali Uchis, a simultaneous bilingual, is more spontaneous in her use of code-switching; her fluidity between Spanish and English is representative of the dual integration of both languages in her identity. Still, we observed both global and selective copying in the artists’ lyrics and could conclude that global and selective copying are common and focal aspects of bilingual lyricism.

Nonetheless, we acknowledge the limitations of our investigation. Due to the temporal constraints of the quarter system, our project timeline was very restricted, and we could not expand the scope of our exploration and means of data collection. Thus, our focus on two artists and reliance on public information could have been a more comprehensive elicitation of analyses.

Revisiting our initial research questions: If certain constraints apply in spoken Spanish when code-switching to English, do they transfer over the same way into language in a musical context? What types of copying, following the code copying framework, will be found in song lyrics?

The integration of multiple languages in music has far-reaching implications for linguistic research, cultural understanding, and artistic expression. Understanding code-switching in creative language use provides insights into how language patterns manifest in nontraditional language contexts, namely under the influence of the artistic nature of lyricism and songwriting. Code-switching in music also enhances artistic expression by encouraging dynamic wordplay and rhymes across languages. It provides insights into the differences between different levels of bilingualism and types of multilingualism. Moreover, bilingual lyrics serve important cultural functions, as they represent the juxtaposition of cultures, promoting linguistic and cultural diversity, expressions, and communication. Within the music industry, multilingual music can unite different listeners’ cultures and expand the reach of artist audiences.

Although our research yields valuable insights, it needs to be more broadly generalizable to all Spanish-English or other language bilingual musicians. Future expansions of our study will include a larger sample of bilingual artists with a more extensive range of lyrical repertories from more diverse language backgrounds. It would be ideal to have direct access to artists’ accounts of their language to better understand their use and relationship with their respective languages as well as their creative processes.

An important consideration to account for in our investigation is the existence of code-switching patterns for Spanglish that do not necessarily apply to varieties of Iberian Spanish. The present investigation focused primarily on code-switching conventions within a musical genre rather than a dialect, assuming that an artist from Spain would adapt to Latin American dialectal features in this context, but dialectal differences may still occur. We are interested in understanding competing factors of bilingual acquisition and regional norms to further develop our research from this investigation, specifically, the influences of sequential and simultaneous bilingualism and regional norms for language in Latin American versus peninsular Spanish varieties. Additional research directions would look across different genres and investigate the reception of code-switched lyrics among monolingual and bilingual listeners, considering the linguistic influence of lyricism more broadly in language communities.

References

Cris MJ, Kali Uchis & JHAYCO – Si No Es Contigo (remix). Genius. (n.d.-a). https://genius.com/Cris-mj-kali-uchis-and-jhayco-si-no-es-contigo-remix-lyrics

Duran, R. P. (1984). Latino Language and Communicative Behavior. The Modern Language Journal. Exposito, Suzy. “Pop Loner Kali Uchis on Growing up Punk in Colombia and the Struggle to Stay Bilingual.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 13 Sept. 2019, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin/kali-uchis-isolation-colombia-interview-2018-7 00772/.

Gonzalez-Cruz, M. I. (2017). Exploring the dynamics of English/Spanish codeswitching in a written corpus. Alicante Journal of English Studies, 30 (2017), 336-361.

Johanson, L. (2011). Contact-induced change in a code-copying framework.

Lisa (ft. Rosalía) – New Woman. Genius. (n.d.). https://genius.com/Lisa-new-woman-lyrics Lipski, J. M. (2008). Varieties of Spanish in the United States. Georgetown University Press.

Loaiza, K. M. “Kali Uchis”. Lyrics to “ORQUÍDEAS” [Album]. Geffen Records, 2024. Genius, genius.com/albums/Kali-uchis/Orquideas.

Monteagudo, M. (2020). Spanglish code-switching in Latin pop music: functions of English and audience reception. https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/79796

Poplack, S. (1980). Sometimes, I’ll start a sentence in Spanish Y TERMINO EN ESPAÑOL: toward a typology of code-switching¹. Linguistics, 18(7-8), 581-618. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1980.18.7-8.581

Sayre, A. A. (2022). “Rosalia is unafraid to pull from every corner of the world.” NPR, NPR, 24 April 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/04/24/1094491641/rosalia-is-unafraid-to-pull-from-every-corn er-of-the-world

Timm, L. A. (1975). Spanish-English Code-Switching: El Porqué y How-Not-To. Romance Philology, 28(4), 473–482. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44941606

Villa Tobella, R. ‘ROSALÍA’. Lyrics to “Motomami” [Album]. Columbia Records and Sony Music, 2022. Genius, genius.com/albums/Rosalia/Motomami.

Rosalía. (2022). Motomami [Album]. Columbia Records. Uchis, K. (2024). Orquideas [Album]. Geffen Records. Uchis, K, and SZA. “Fue Mejor.” Genius, Genius Media Group, n.d., https://genius.com/Kali-uchis-and-sza-fue-mejor-lyrics

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Monique Tunnell, Lori Garavartanian, Marlene Ortiz, Melina Darlas

In the world of TikTok, where creativity knows no bounds, young Latinx creators are redefining what it means to connect through language. Spanglish skits on TikTok combine Spanish and English, making a perfect mix of hilarity and relatability. But these skits do more than just make us laugh, they create a sense of belonging for bilingual audiences navigating their cultural identities in a digital space.

Our study dives into the art of Spanglish code-mixing in TikTok skits to uncover how these creators build community through humor. By analyzing videos tagged with hashtags like #Spanglish and #Humor, we explore the linguistic features behind these skits—inter-sentential alternations and intra-sentential alternations. Focusing on Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects, we explain how these tools aren’t just random word choices; they’re powerful markers of identity and in-group solidarity. We see how viewers react to these humorous takes on bilingual life by looking at comments, likes, and shares and find that these skits are sparking conversations and fostering connections that stretch across the digital Latinx diaspora.

This research sheds light on why certain Spanglish patterns hit harder, gain more traction, and resonate deeper with audiences. Whether it’s through a hilarious Chicano slang twist or a clever Puerto Rican phrase, Spanglish on TikTok proves that humor isn’t just entertainment—it’s a bridge connecting identities, cultures, and people one laugh at a time.

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Introduction and Background

Code-switching is a linguistic phenomenon that has consistently signaled community and group membership, in diasporas or otherwise. It is a feature of language that has often been used to show solidarity with other members of a marginalized group or to signal generational comradery. Persistent usages of code-switching have given rise not only to unique means of language usage, but to what some would consider entirely new languages. This can be seen not only through academic observations of bilingual speakers, but also through the lived experiences of those speakers. One particular space where both academic and personal reflections are abundant is regarding the usage of “Spanglish,” a unique combination of Spanish and English used by many in the Latinx community.

Previous research on Spanglish has found that in cities like New York City, Spanish-English bilingual youth have consistently reflected their cultural belonging and showcased their understanding of bilingual cultural norms through code-switching (Montes-Alcalá, 2024). These findings have helped build an understanding of how Spanglish is evoked as a cultural and social tool, rather than simply a linguistic phenomenon.

Personal narratives have also reinforced this perception of Spanglish as a cultural device. In speaking about her Spanglish usage during a Ted Talk, high school student Alondra Posada (2018) states that Spanglish helps people communicate, especially when they are struggling to learn both Spanish and English at the same time. She also states that Spanglish is a strong representation of both her American and Latinx communities, indicating that it helps her connect and feel comfortable within both elements of her identity. Spanish professor Dra Meduri Soto (2021) reinforces this concept when speaking about the U.S. Latinx community’s usage of Spanglish. She states that her relatives in Mexico usually admired Spanglish when they heard it spoken. She emphasizes that it was hard, if not impossible, to teach them Spanglish because she had acquired it organically as part of her American Latina identity. Generally, Spanglish speakers’ own conceptions and accounts of their Spanglish use reinforces its usefulness as a communication device that brokers understanding and a sense of cultural belonging.

Other studies have added onto this conversation by exemplifying how Spanish-English bilinguals have adapted their usage of Spanglish to other spheres, for example by using online content like memes to resonate with each other and with a broader Latinx audience (Dickinson, 2023). In the digital age, this usage of online resources has become increasingly significant, prompting one to wonder how community building via code-switching and Spanglish has been altered by social media apps and forums, as well as how digital connectedness has molded and shaped code-switching as a whole. These questions and qualms come at a time where content posted on Tik Tok specifically has taken the world by storm, allowing young people a new platform on which to gain popularity and connect with others. Existing research (Daulay et al, 2024) has already shown that code switching in Tik Tok and Instagram comments can shift subjects and showcase bilingualism between app users. Therefore, there is some basis to assume that platforms such as Tik Tok are already being used to create community and solidarity. However, not much is known, at present, about how specific linguistic strategies, such as intra-sentential switches or inter-sentential switches, function in TikTok’s humor-driven environment to build and sustain community connections. These key terms, as well as code switching as we use it in our research, have been defined in the following index:

This study seeks to fill the gap in knowledge regarding social media code-switching tools by analyzing Spanglish TikTok skits, focusing on Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects, to uncover how creators use language to entertain, unite, and resonate with bilingual audiences. By examining linguistic patterns and audience engagement, this research sheds light on how humor and language intersect to strengthen cultural identity in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Ultimately, the research poses the question of exactly how Spanglish in Tik Tok skits is building humor and community in the Mexican and Puerto Rican online communities and how engagement metrics are reflective of this.

Before formally addressing this question, we had four personal hypotheses. For one, we believed inter-sentential switching would occur more often than intra-sentential switching. Next, we believed many videos would have both intra and inter-sentential switching. Third, we anticipated seeing many comments with personal pronouns and “humorous” emojis. Finally, we hypothesized that comments, likes, and shares would differ more than views when inter versus intra-sentential switching was used. These hypotheses were supported at varying degrees throughout our data collection process, as we will address.

Methods

To understand how bilingual people use Spanish and English in humorous TikTok videos, we picked eight content creators aged 18 and above who use skits and hashtags such as #Spanglish and #comedy. We watched eight videos where these creators mix languages, a practice we’ve already defined as code-switching. We counted how often they switched between languages and looked at two types of code-switches, both of which have also been defined above: intra-sentential switching and inter-sentential switching.

We studied how people responded to these particular videos by checking how many likes, comments, and shares each got. For example, we looked at what kinds of jokes people found funny, how many people saved the videos, and if they shared their own, often extremely similar, experiences in the comments. This helped us see which type of code-switching typically works best to make people laugh and relate to creators. We also noticed how creators used their language background, like “Spanish de rancho” and Puerto Rican Spanish, to connect with their audiences. By studying these videos, we aimed to learn how language blending can be a tool for creativity and connection.

Data Collected: Figure 1 showcases video analytics for a subset of the eight TikTok videos we analyzed for our results analysis. Figure 2 highlights types of code switching and examples of code switches utilized within the same videos. The five videos selected were the first five observed. Additionally, they included the videos with the highest numbers of code-switching, serving as valuable data to showcase.

Video Number	Dialects	Views	Likes	Comments	Top Comment Themes
1	“Spanish de Rancho” & American English	511.9k	68.5K	1283	1) Shared experience 2) Comedic effect, including mentions of laughter
2	Puerto Rican Spanish & American English	263.5k	67.3k	205	1) Shared experience
3	Puerto Rican Spanish & American English	92.4k	7626	101	1) Comedic effect, including usage of “cry” and “laugh” emojis
4	Mexican Spanish & American English	7.8M	1M	4599	1) Shared experience, particularly in familial settings
5	Mexican Spanish & American English	1.1M	156.5k	857	1) Shared experience 2) Comedic effect, including usage of “cry” and “laugh” emojis

Video Number	Dialects	Number & Types of Code-switches	Example of code-switch
1	“Spanish de Rancho” & American English	Total: 28 22 intra-sentential 6 inter-sentential	“I told my patient ‘encuerate’”
2	Puerto Rican Spanish & American English	Total: 5 3 intra-sentential 2 inter-sentential	“Estamos buscando una pillow”
3	Puerto Rican Spanish & American English	Total: 8 6 intra-sentential 2 inter-sentential	“I cannot live in a caliente place”
4	Mexican Spanish & American English	Total: 3 2 intra-sentential 1 inter-sentential	“How to say ‘to tag’ in spanish”
5	Mexican Spanish & American English	Total: 15 15 intra-sentential	“I speak spanglish of course cuando se me olvida..”

Tik Tok Analytics:

Tik Tok analytics were collected for various reasons. We wanted to see, more generally, how many views, likes, and comments Spanish-English creators were getting for their “Spanglish” centered skits and videos. More specifically, we wanted to be able to compare analytics between videos that used intra-sentential and inter-sentential switching to see if any one of them helped creators gain more popularity than the other. Within the eight total TikTok videos we observed, some words and ways of talking did seem to make videos more popular, garnering more likes and comments. It seemed as though solely using intra-sentential switching was less successful in pulling in likes, relative to the amount of views videos garnered. Figure 3, seen below, exemplifies this. As a note, the average ratios were calculated by taking the ratio of likes to views for each of the eight videos assessed and subsequently taking the mean amongst videos

As can be observed within the figure, videos with both types of switches were over two times as successful at gaining likes when compared to their counterparts with only intra-sentential switches. The videos with both inter and intra-sentential switching often used both types of switches to mirror instances between Spanish speaking parents and bilingual children, occasions which likely evoke relatability. On the other hand, the TikTok videos where people mix Spanish and English in the same sentence didn’t get as many likes or saves, perhaps because they were harder for the audience to follow.

A more qualitative analysis of the video comments also revealed that the Tik Tok audience often uses words in the comments like “I”, “myself”, and “me”, because they are relating to experiences showcased in the videos. They additionally use emojis like “😂” and “😭” to show laughter or emotion. Sometimes, the audience even mixes Spanish and English themselves.

Other Results: After assessing our eight selected Tik Tok videos, we found the following, displayed in Figure 4:

We borrowed methodology previously used in an analysis of code-switching in Instagram videos (Wiraputi et al, 2021). This method looks at not only the number of code switches, but also what percentage of code switches are of a certain type. The methodology we copied had “tag-switching” as well, an extra-sentential type of switching where a speaker inserts phrases from one language into another, but we did not notice the occurrence of tag-switching within our videos and omitted it as a result. The results that we did find showed a few interesting phenomena:

1. When Spanglish Tik Tok creators code switch in videos, they typically do so more than once. In fact, the average across eight videos was 9.25 code switches per video.
2. Intra-sentential switching dominates code switching occurrences, taking up over 77% of the code switching we witnessed.
3. Co-occurrence was in fact common. Only two of eight videos or 25% of content observed did not have both inter and intra-sentential switching.

Having analyzed all our quantitative and qualitative data on video analytics, comments, and occurrence of code-switches, our results yielded the following consequences as far as our hypotheses are concerned:

Discussion and Conclusion

This study of Spanglish humor on TikTok revealed that young adult creators frequently use intra-sentential code-switching, particularly in Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects, to enhance the comedic and relatable quality of their content. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, intra-sentential switching was more prevalent than inter-sentential switching, indicating that the integration of Spanish and English within sentences may occur more commonly with bilingual audiences. Another key insight we came across was the ways in which community and identity building proceeds amongst the Latinx community in the United States. Prior to our studies, we had understood that Spanish varieties, such as that spoken in Los Angeles, are often characterized by convergence, borrowings, and switches (Sánchez-Muñoz, 2017). We had been curious about the role that convergence played on social media and on Tik Tok specifically and whether the blends we witness in real life translate to online spheres. Our analysis pointed us towards the observation that Spanglish serves as a vital tool for expressing cultural identity and fostering community solidarity online, making humor a bridge between bicultural experiences. We also noticed while studying engagement patterns that videos that incorporate both intra and inter-sentential switching see higher engagement, pointing to the idea that utilizing many different linguistic patterns within the same video boosts performance.

Some considerations we have for future research into this field is the generalizability of our findings. Since our findings are specific to TikTok and its user demographics, they may not apply universally across all digital platforms or linguistic communities. Comparative studies across different digital platforms and research completed over a longer period of time could explain how digital code-switching presents itself in other contexts. In essence, the study underscores the importance of linguistic flexibility in digital content, which not only entertains but also strengthens community ties among bilingual Latinx viewers.

References

Dickinson, K. V. (2023). What Does It Meme? English–Spanish Codeswitching and Enregisterment in Virtual Social Space. Languages, 8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374657133_What_Does_It_Meme_English-Spanish_Codeswitching_and_Enregisterment_in_Virtual_Social_Space

Hamidah Daulay, S., Husein Nst, A., Randia Ningsih, F., & Berutu, H. (2024). Code Switching in the Social Media Era: A Linguistic Analysis of Instagram and TikTok Users. Humanitatis Journal of Language and Literature, 10. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383171193_Code_Switching_in_the_Social_Media_Era_A_Linguistic_Analysis_of_Instagram_and_TikTok_Users

Montes-Alcalá, C. (2024, April 15). Bilingual texting in the age of emoji: Spanish–English code-switching in SMS. MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/9/4/144

Sanchez-Munoz, A. (2017). Tempted by the Words of Another: Linguistic Choices of Chicanas/os and Other Latinas/os in Los Angeles. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345124311_Tempted_by_the_Words_of_Another_Linguistic_Choices_of_Chicanasos_and_Other_Latinasos_in_Los_Angeles

Soto, Dra. M. (2021, September 15). We Speak Spanglish ¿Y qué? World Outspoken. https://www.worldoutspoken.com/articles-blog/spanglish-its-who-we-are

Sanchez-Munoz, A. (2017). Tempted by the Words of Another:: Linguistic Choices of Chicanas/os and Other Latinas/os in Los Angeles. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345124311_Tempted_by_the_Words_of_Another_Linguistic_Choices_of_Chicanasos_and_Other_Latinasos_in_Los_Angeles

TEDx Talks. (2018). Spanglish is a Language Too! | Alondra Posada | TEDxYouth@UrsulineAcademy. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N8Zk_EY6G8

Wiraputri, D., & Sultara, K. (2021). Code switching found in cinta laura’s video on her instagram tv. Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics.

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Existing literature has long since supported the idea of a perceived personality change that occurs in bilingual individuals when switching between which languages they speak in. In this study, we interviewed ten Chinese-speaking Asian American university students by asking them surface level questions related to their daily life to discern additional patterns in the demographic. Ten people were interviewed in total, once in English and once in mandarin, with a period in the two between to allow for a mental “reset.”

Ultimately, we found there to be a strong pattern of Chinese being the more concise language, with the participants being able to organize their responses in a more effective manner and taking a shorter amount of time to respond to the questions. There also exists a contrast between the formality of the two languages, but the associations are dependent on the individual, finally, we observed differences in approaches to question answering, including different thought patterns and interpretations.

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Introduction and Background

Bilingualism/multilingualism is a common phenomenon globally, though the U.S. does lag behind the rest of the world in terms of that trend. Language and how we use it is deeply influenced by social forces, like interpersonal dynamics, institutional context, and cultural association. All of this leads to the intriguing phenomenon within bilingual communities of a perceived “personality change” when speaking in a different language other than their mother tongue. While previous research has documented this perceived shift in personality, especially amongst bicultural speakers, much of the literature focuses on the confirmation of this phenomenon instead of questioning the reasons behind individual manifestations of this change. What our studies do is take qualitative data from various Chinese-speaking bilinguals and record in detail the changes that occur when they are answering the same questions between English and Chinese. We analyze these results with a sociocultural lens to discover how life experiences and background can manifest in the way they unconsciously carry themselves across languages.

Literature Review

The change in personality in bilingualism is well documented phenomenon (Chen, S.X., & Bond, M.H. 2010) and one largely informed by culture, as seen in the way that is observed only in those who are exposed to the culture of both languages (Bene-Martinez et al., 2002), in other words, it is as much a result of biculturalism as it is bilingualism. People cannot perform a frame switch without having both, which is a bilingual switch between culturally rooted self-concepts depending on the language they are using (Ross et al., 2002) and is a huge contribution to what people perceive as a change in personality. As an extension of that, the language used can directly affect the emotional state of the person with the culturally informed perceptions it brings (Zhou et al., 2021), resulting in different reactions to the same thing, which is what our research design is set out to test. And finally, to add onto the differing emotional reactions that come with language, the language used in a conversation can change a person’s logical interpretation of the situation. (Li et al., 2004) find that those who learned English later in life change their way of interpreting information depending on the language used, going from categorical in English to relational in Chinese. While those who learned at an earlier age in a singular culture where both languages are used officially by their country are observed no change in logical reasoning. Ultimately, showing that the culture of a language influences the thinking process of an individual, and that is then what causes a perceived change in their personality.

Our findings differ significantly from precious literature, as Chinese is a clear efficient language for most participants. Responses are shorter, more organized, direct, and confident. This is even true for participants who use English to communicate daily in an academic setting. On the other hand, English is perceived as a casualness, narrative and hesitation language. This informality is often accompanied by markers of uncertainty, like filter words： “um, like” etc., and more abstract or indirect wording.

Some participants stated that Chinese individuals process the ability to express emotions in formal settings such as family interaction. In contrast, influenced by educational background and social interactions primarily occurring in English-speaking environments, responses in English exhibit informality, emotional vulnerability, and lower confidence. This is mainly because for most of our participants, Chinese is typically the language of family, home and even primary identity formation. In this environment fosters directness, emotional boldness, and clarity; conversely; English is primarily the language of academic institutions, an environment that can both encourage casual peer interaction and create pressure and hesitation. Therefore, the shift in personality is less about moving from Chinese culture to American culture and more about transitioning from home self to the university self.

For example, one of the participants, Yunhan, expressed thoughtful uncertainty when saying in English: “I really want to be someone who brings value to society.” while expressing greater decisiveness and clarity when simply saying in Mandarin: “I hope to become a journalist.” Another participant also pointed out that English is emotionally causal but socially uncomfortable compared to Mandarin.

What is particularly noteworthy is our research challenges the widely held assumption that Chinese inherently promotes modesty and English promotes confidence. On the contrary, participants consistently associated Mandarin with clarity, confidence, and family comfort, while English represented education and social formality, but also elicited informal emotional expressions shaped by language insecurity and contextual associations.

Methods

Our target population is Chinese-English bilingual individuals who regularly navigate between Chinese and English language environments regardless of their perceived fluency in either language. This group includes individuals with different backgrounds and introductions to their spoken languages.

The interview asked the participants for reflection, analysis, and description of personal relationships and goals across six questions.

1. What are your hobbies and interests? (你的爱好和兴趣是什么？)
2. How has your week been? (你这周过得怎么样？)
3. Do you like the school going to (你喜欢这所学校吗？)
   1. What do you like/dislike about it? (你喜欢/不喜欢它什么？)
4. What do you think of your teachers this quarter?  (你觉得本季度的老师怎么样？)
5. How’s your academic progress so far? (到目前为止，你的学业进展如何？)
6. Tell me about your career plan. (跟我说说你的职业规划吧。)

Results and Analysis

• Patterns
  • Chinese is the more concise and emotionally open one, the one they use with family and friends. Not formal settings. But also, cultural association tied to it
  • English: the language they use in schools and has formal associations with it depending on the person, but also cultural associations that make it feel more casual. Lack of proficiency can lead to lower confidence and less organization in speech

Table of Bilingual Interview Summary

Interview	English Expression	Chinese Expression	Key Contrast	Relevant articles	Example quotes
Catherine	Causal, personality-focused, uncertain tone	Academic, confident, concise	Interpretation changes based on different languages	Li et al. (2004), Ross et al. (2002)	Eng: ‘They’re really friendly… I love them all’ Chi: ‘I feel they performed well’
Yiwen	Self-disclosure, humorous, confident	Formal, calm, respectful	Switching from casual to respectful	Benet-Martínez et al. (2002), Zhou et al. (2021)	Eng: ‘8 a.m. class is a pain’ Chi: ‘I like the academic atmosphere’
Jiang Jing	Reflective, hesitant, expressive	Direct, conflict, structured	Tone and clarity shift sharply by language	Chen & Bond (2010), Ross et al. (2002)	Eng: ‘I really want to bring value to society’ Chi: ‘I want to be a journalist’
Zekun	Hesitant, casua l, repetitive ‘uh’	Confident, simple, more decisive	Confidence and clarify increases in speaking Chinese	Chen & Bond (2010), Zhou et al. (2021)	Eng: ‘Uh, parking is hard… uh’ Chi: ‘Just want to make money, step by step’
Tsam	Polite, indirect, academic tone	Blunt, humorous,emotionally bold	Shift in criticism and tone	Ross et al. (2002), Benet-Martínez et al. (2002)	Eng: ‘I really don’t like him… confusing’ Chi: ‘Feels worse than a dog’

This analysis is based on the method of bilingual interviews, thereby constituting a qualitative content analysis. We see the effects of language on the personality of Chinese American speakers in everyday conversations expressed in the conversations that are bilingual. In every study case, interviewees were more careful and polite, as well as showing their emotional restraint, when they were speaking in English. They would frequently have to stuff their speech with language fillers and monitoring, which would not be the case with them speaking Chinese since they were more confident, direct, concise, and expressive in emotions.

A case in point is Catherine’s example, where the participant felt an emotional professional distance when she spoke Chinese, due to the way she “liked the professor”. Li and colleagues (2004) captured this in their study, as they too reported that the thought processes of bilinguals vary with their languages’ usage. That testified in all that the study cases put together, the participants went frame switching and speaking individualist, casual English tones, but collective, what-respected Chinese tones in a similar manner. The discrepancy in emotional tone from calm or uncertain in English to sure or strong in Chinese matches what Zhou et al. (2021) found: bilinguals adjust their approach to emotions in accordance with what is seen as culturally appropriate in the corresponding language. Furthermore, the differences in tone and formality within a language and evaluation style of different languages (Chen & Bond, 2010) found that bilinguals do not have one single identity but instead show different characters as they switch languages.

For instance, Tsam’s case study shows the frame switching with being hesitant and polite when the participant speaks English but emotionally blunt when she speaks Chinese. It demonstrates how language shapes different national selves (Ross et al., 2002; Chen & Bond, 2010). It is also found that language cues cause changes in how bilingual and bicultural people think, feel and act that are rooted in their culture.

Discussion and Conclusion

Our research team is composed of Chinese-English second language speakers who are mostly UCLA students. We learned that bilingual Chinese Americans also have a different sense of self when answering English compared to Mandarin Chinese. When they answered in Mandarin, the answers of the participants were shorter, more organized, and stronger. Their tone was more serious or formal too. When answering in English, however, people’s answers were more emotional, nervous, or unconfident. We also learned that people would be more courteous or deferential in some languages and more relaxed or blunt in others. These are not accidents, they are tied to diverse cultures, experiences, and selves that are embedded within each language. This means that language does not simply change the way we talk but also changes the way we think and feel. Our project allowed us to observe how bilinguals switch between different versions of themselves depending on context and language.

This character and expressive change reveal how much language can impact human behavior and identity. In most bilingual Chinese Americans, Mandarin speech will tie them to family, tradition, and cultural expectations, perhaps encouraging more formal or goal-directed responses. English, however, is often identified with their lives in school, in social settings, and in American society, where casual and emotional expression is more common and acceptable. These cultural associations partially explain why participants altered not only their tone but their modes of thinking according to the language. Some even reported that they “felt like a different person” when they switched languages, replicating how language can activate different cultural states of mind. By observing how bilinguals react to the same questions in both languages, we could witness exactly how malleable and dynamic identity can be. What our project illustrates is that bilingualism is not an issue of translation of words but one of constantly negotiating between two cultural worlds with two sets of expectations, emotions, and ways of presenting oneself.

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