“Nous autres c’est toujours bilingue anyways”: Code-Switching and Linguistic Displacement Among Bilingual Montréal Students

Abstract

Code-switching (CS) is a linguistic phenomenon in which a bilingual speaker switches freely between their languages (codes) within a single utterance, conversational turn, or conversation. Linguists can often pinpoint a “we” code and a “they” code based on the speaker’s respective comfort levels with the two languages. This categorization is more complex in bilingual Québec, where English and French could be either “we” or “they” codes depending on whether the speaker is natively Francophone or Anglophone, or on the speaker’s national or political identity. This article presents an examination of CS patterns among Francophone students enrolled in Anglophone institutions and Anglophone students enrolled in a Francophone institution. These students’ (voluntary) linguistic displacement illuminates the way this phenomenon manifests among speakers outside of their linguistic “comfort zone.” This provides insight into more profound Québécois identity issues, such as the ways that English- versus French-speakers view their linguistic role in the province’s bilingual fabric.