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Code-switching poem

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A poem that alternates between languages in a manner reflecting natural bilingual speech patterns

Detailed Definition
A code-switching poem is a multilingual composition that alternates between two or more languages according to sociolinguistic context, speaker identity, or expressive intent; such poems often reflect the fluid linguistic practices of bilingual communities and explore themes of belonging, alienation, or cultural negotiation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Julia Alvarez’s “Bilingual Sestina” shifts between English and Spanish to explore identity; “So I won’t speak Spanish / so I won’t speak English” in a poem by Pat Mora; “Mami says ‘habla inglés’ but abuela sings ‘canta en español’” in a poem about generational language loss; poems by Urayoán Noel that mix Spanglish and political commentary
Additional Notes
Code-switching poem: A poem that alternates between languages or dialects, often reflecting the speaker’s multilingual identity or social context; see also language mixing (10126) and multilingual poetry (10117).
Also Known As
Translingual poem Language-shifting lyric Bilingual narrative verse Macaronic poem
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