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In:Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US
Edited by Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo, Catherine M. Mazak and M. Carmen Parafita Couto
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 11] 2016
► pp. 83–105

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Hablamos los dos in the Windy City

Codeswitching among Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and MexiRicans in Chicago

 | DePaul University
ORCiD logo with link | University of Illinois at Chicago
Published online: 7 September 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.11.04tor
This chapter offers an analysis of codeswitching in Latino Chicago. The data were collected in one-hour, Spanish language sociolinguistic interviews with 64 Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and MexiRicans from three generational groups. We argue that codeswitching is a shared practice in the Chicago bilingual community that is utilized by Puerto Rican, Mexican and MexiRican speakers who have a solid proficiency in both languages and also by speakers for whom codeswitching may be a sign of language shift in process. The frequency of codeswitching varies by ethnolinguistic group and generation, and codeswitching has differing functions for speakers with varying proficiency levels in the same community.
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