Chapter published in:
Language Contact in the Territory of the Former Soviet Union
Edited by Diana Forker and Lenore A. Grenoble
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 50] 2021
► pp. 289–314

Why do two Uralic languages (Surgut Khanty and Erzya) use different code-switching strategies?

| Universität Hamburg
| Ludwig Maximilian University

In this paper, we study the code-switching types occurring in two contact situations, in Surgut Khanty–Russian and in Erzya–Russian bilingual utterances. Using Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame Model (1993, 2002, 2006), we analyze the subtypes of insertion in narrative texts and semi-structured interviews. It might be assumed that the code-switching types would be similar in the two contact situations, as Surgut Khanty and Erzya share many structural properties (e.g. the lack of gender as a grammatical category). Our results show that most Russian elements do occur in both cases as insertions, but the distribution and frequency of these types differ. This discrepancy can be attributed to the history and length of the contact situations. Finally, we use Auer’s 1999 continuum model to portray these differences.

Keywords: Surgut Khanty, Erzya, Finno-Ugric languages, Uralic languages, Russian, code-switching, insertion, alternation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The contact situations
  • 3.Structural characteristics of the minority languages involved
    • 3.1Surgut Khanty
    • 3.2Erzya
  • 4.Data and methods
  • 5.Code-switching patterns
    • 5.1One-word switches and short EL islands
    • 5.2Russian ML
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.50.10jan
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