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Mixed-language 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 integrates multiple languages throughout its structure

Detailed Definition
A mixed-language poem integrates two or more languages throughout its structure, using code-switching, loanwords, or parallel phrasing to reflect the poet’s multilingual reality; such works challenge monolingual literary norms and often explore themes of hybridity, displacement, or cultural fusion.
Example
Example in poetry:
Gloria Anzaldúa’s “To Live in the Borderlands Means You”; Agha Shahid Ali’s Call Me Ishmael Tonight; Kamau Brathwaite’s The Arrivants trilogy mixing English and Caribbean dialects; multilingual poems by Nathalie Handal blending Arabic, French, and English
Additional Notes
Mixed-language poem: A poem that systematically uses more than one language; overlaps with multilingual poetry (10117) and hybrid poem (10125).
Also Known As
Bilingual composition Translingual lyric Polyglot verse Language-fused poem Macaronic poem
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