code-switching

code-switch·ing

(kōd′swĭch′ĭng)

n.

The use of two or more languages or markedly different varieties of a language in a single social interaction: "He chatted with taxi drivers and strangers about the drenching humidity or about which restaurants were good, casually code-switching to Taiwanese for jokes, Mandarin for information, and English for translation and one-word exclamations" (Ken Chen).

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code′-switch′ v.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.