Code Switching and Style Shifting

All speakers and writers have linguistic choices to make about which level of language to use in a particular situation. Linguistic appropriacy is key as it dictates which form of language is suitable or appropriate for a given situation. However, because of the centrality of ethnicity to many people's linguistic identity, switching and shifting between different forms of a language - or even totally different languages in the case of bilingual speakers - perhaps carries a greater significance.

Code mixing refers to the occasional insertion of vocabulary items from one language into another, while code switching can be used to describe how speakers move from one language to another for more extensive periods of time. For example, in Gautum Malkani's novel Londonstani, a speaker shifts from English to Punjabi at the end of the utterance: 'Even if he doesn't die, the wedding insurance covers serious illness. Koi gal nahi.' This is the equivalent of saying 'no worries' or 'touch wood' as a way of commenting on what has gone before.