Volume 35, Issue 2 - Special Issue: Multilingual practices in contemporary and historical contexts: Interfaces between code-switching and translation, Guest Editors: Leena Kolehmainen and Janne Skaffari

This article serves as an introduction to a collection of four articles on multilingual practices in speech and writing, exploring both contemporary and historical sources. It not only introduces the articles but also discusses the scope and definitions of code-switching, attitudes towards multilingual interaction and, most pertinently, the interfaces between code-switching and translation. The article shows that code-switching and translation share a number of features, yet have rarely been treated together. However, as there is a definite need to examine code-switching phenomena – particularly bilingual reiteration, which not only helps crossing language boundaries but also has other functions – from a variety of perspectives, including translation and interpreting studies, the article encourages closer collaboration between code-switching research and translation studies. It is possible to envisage a continuum of multilingual processes and products, with completely monolingual, untranslated text at one end and multilingual material with code-switching but no reiteration at the other. Along this continuum are a number of intermediate stages characterized by different types of inter-textual and intra-textual translation.

This study examines the manifestations of purity and authenticity in 47 Basque bilinguals’ reactions to code-switching. The respondents listened to two speech extracts with code-switching, filled in a short questionnaire and talked about the extracts in small groups. These conversations were then recorded. The respondents’ beliefs can be characterized as considerably ambiguous. They see code-switching as an undesirable form of speech and as a threat to Basque. However, they admit using it in informal contexts. Although the respondents prefer the “pure” form of Basque without code-switching, and some of them favor translation as an alternative strategy, purity is not considered authentic or even possible in situations such as peer-group interactions. Furthermore, code-switching is interpreted differently according to the linguistic background of the speaker: if the speaker is considered a native speaker of Basque, code-switching is seen as natural, whereas in the speech of a non-native speaker it is considered to reflect a lack of competence in Basque.

One of the most studied forms of multilingual language use is code-switching , the use of more than one language within a speech exchange. Some forms of code-switching may also be regarded as instances of translation , but the relation between these notions in studies of multilingual discourse remains underspecified. The present article examines the intersection of code-switching and translation by exploring multilingual reiteration , the phenomenon most clearly intertwined with both code-switching and translation. We reflect on the analytical treatment of reiterations as occasions of code-switching and/or translation by reviewing the use of related terms in previous studies and by examining two sets of data. We analyze multilingual contemporary conversations and early modern drama by employing two separate functional approaches: conversation analysis/interactional linguistics and pragmaphilology/historical socio-pragmatics. Instead of viewing reiteration primarily as a type of code-switching or translation, this study considers it more broadly as an act of repetition, with each case possessing its individual, context-sensitive properties. In particular, the study investigates multilingual reiteration from the point of view of the organizational features of repetition within the larger context of action and discourse.

In the multilingual history of England, the period following the Norman Conquest in 1066 is a particularly intriguing phase, but its code-switching patterns have so far received little attention. The present article describes and analyses the multilingual practices evinced in London, British Library, MS Stowe 34, containing one instructional prose text from c. 1200, Vices and Virtues . This religious treatise contains numerous instances of code-switching into Latin and also reiteration of the Latin content in English. Reiteration of this type is referred to as support here, which not only captures the reiterative character of the English wording accompanying the Latin, but also explicates its main function: to facilitate understanding of the incorporated Latin terms and quotations which appear throughout the text with the global function of authorising the teaching imparted by the author. While both the Latin switches and their support derive from sources familiar to the author, the exact origin of the supporting expressions is difficult to pin down, although parallels exist in older literature. Together, code-switching and support deliver both a sense of authority and direct access to religious teaching.

Translating multilingual texts is still a new field of inquiry. Transplanting a text where the function of embraced multilingual practices is strongly related to local ethnic identities can provide challenges for translators and readers alike. This study discusses the translation strategies adopted by second-year translation students on an assignment to translate part of Patricia Grace’s short story “The Dream” into Finnish. The strategies for dealing with the Maori passages in the story varied, both in terms of how many of the Maori passages were preserved and how much intratextual translation was included in the text. The strategies were investigated both in the translations themselves and in the accompanying translation comments the students produced. The degree to which the translators showed an in-depth understanding of the nuances relevant to the representation of an ethnic minority of another culture varied. There was more sensitivity to a Finnish reader’s insufficient familiarity with the Maori language and culture than to the meaning of the representations of Maori language and culture in the original text.