Code-switching and code-mixing : a case study of child bilingualism in Iraq

Abstract EN

The phenomenon of bilingualism is one of the most important characteristics of multilingual societies.

This study is concerned with code mixing and code switching that take place among Assyrian children at pre-school level.

The results of the study indicate that these children code-mix their mother language (Neo-Aramaic) with their native language ( Arabic) when interacting with their non-Assyrian playmates both on the phonological level and the semantic level.

They also code-switch across utterances.

The results of the study comply with similar results obtained from studies conducted in multilingual societies in which children show linguistic ability in differentiating two language systems at an early age.

The study concludes by stating that the close similarity between Neo-Aramaic and Arabic (as they descend from one ancestor which is the Semitic language) could be a factor that makes this phenomenon widespread among the bilingual children.