The document explores language variety and code choice in multilingual communities, highlighting how social contexts affect language use. It outlines different domains of language in Pakistan, including mother tongue, national language, official language, and religious language, and discusses concepts like code-switching and code-mixing. Additionally, it explains the functions of diglossia and its variations in communicative situations, emphasizing the influence of social factors in language interactions.

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Choosing your variety or code
Introduction:
There are many different social reasons for choosing a particular code or variety in a multilingual
community. in multilingual communities people speak more than one language. But what real choice is there for
those who speak lesser-used languages in a community as Punjabi where the people in power use a world
language such as English. While interacting with others a speaker chooses a code or a variety which is
appropriate to participants, topics and location. according to Janet Holmes the linguistic forms chosen by a
speaker is influenced by social context in which he is speaking. It matters who he is talking to (participants),
where he is talking (setting), what he is talking (topic), and what he is talking about (function of interaction). As
a result some messages may be expressed differently to different people.
Domains of Language Use:
Certain social factors that who you are talking, the social context of the talk, the function and topic of
discussion become very important for language choice in many speech communities. It has proved very useful
particularly when we describe code choice in a large speech communities. According to Stewart there are seven
different language domains in any multilingual community. These domains are given below:
1. Official: Official language is the legally recognized use of language. It is recognized and standardized
by the government for the different purpose.
2. Group: The use of language by members of an ethnic or cultural group.
3. Literacy: The Use of language for literacy and educational writing.
4. Technical: The Use of language for technical and scientific education.
5. Education: The use of language for educational purposes.
6. Religion: The use of language in connection with religious practices.

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7. Wider Communication: The use of language for communication with other communities (another term
for the language of wider use is lingua-franca).
In Pakistan mostly people use four domains of language in their daily routine. these domains are
discussed below.
1. Mother tongue: Mother tongue can also be called native language. It can be any of the regional
languages that are spoken in Pakistan. E.g. The mother tongue of the child of Punjabi speaking parents is
Punjabi language.
2. National language: The national language of Pakistan is Urdu language.
3. Official language: the official languages of Pakistan are Urdu and English. but English language is used
in official documents and for educational purposes.
4. Religious language: The language which is used in Pakistan for religious practices is Arabic. It is used
for reading Holy Quran and for saying prayers.
Code Choice:
The term code can be used to refer any kind of system that two or more people employ in order to
communicate with each other. Code choice deals with:
❖ Code-switching
❖ Code-mixing
❖ Diglossia
Code-switching:
Code-switching is one of the phenomenon of language which occurs in societies to make the
communication effective and meaningful. the term 'code-switching' is used by Uriel Weinreich in 1953 for the
first time in the first article "Language Contacts". According to the Oxford Dictionary "when two or more
languages are use in single conversation side by side and express an authentic form from both of the basic
languages is called code-switching". According to Gal "code-switching" is a conversational style used to cross

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or destroy group boundaries. It creates, evokes or change interpersonal relations among people. In simple words
we can say that code-switching is switching of one code to another code in order t create a new code.
Code-switching can be influenced by following factors:
➢ Participant, solidarity and status: It is used to give signals about the speaker's ethnic identity and
solidarity with addressee.
➢ Topic: Topic triggers a switch into a appropriate code.
➢ Affective function: It is used to express affective meanings rather than referential meanings.
Kinds of code-switching:
Code-switching can be divided into two kinds. these kinds are:
1. Situational code-switching
2. Metaphorical code-switching
a) Situational code-switching: "Situational code-switching occurs when the languages used change
according to the situations in which the conversants find themselves. They speak one language in one
situation and another in a different one"
b) Metaphorical code-switching: "When a change of topic requires a change in the language used we
have metaphorical code-switching". The choice of code adds a distinct flavour to what is said about the
topic. The choice encodes certain social values. Each of the codes represents a set of social meanings,
and the speaker draws on the associations of each.
Reasons of Code-Switching:
✓ To hide fluency and memory problems in 2nd language.
✓ To mark switching from informal to formal situations.
✓ To change the topic by using appropriate code.
✓ Due to influence of Western culture.
✓ to express someone's emotion.

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Code-mixing:
Code-mixing refers to the linguistic behaviour of bilingual speaker who imports words and phrases from
another language. it is a change of codes within a simple utterance without any associated topic change. it
occurs when you incorporate small units (words or short phrases) from another language. it is often
unintentional and is often at word level. the language codes are intra-sentential. in simple words code-mixing
can be defined as "a phenomenon of switching from one language to another in same discourse".
Types of Code-mixing:
a. Tag switching: I occurs at the end with question.
b. Intra word: A change occurs within a word.
c. Inter-sentential: A change takes place at the end of the clause or sentence.
d. Intra-sentential: A change occurs within a clause and sentence.
Reasons of Code-Mixing:
Express group identity.
Need of real lexical.
Talking about particular topic.
Used for clarification.
Being emphatic about something.
To soften or strengthen the request or command.
Diglossia:
The term Diglossia was first introduced in English by Charles A. Ferguson in 1959. It can be defined as "a kind
of situation where two variations of language happen in same time". it is not a dialect. if language is a dialect
then that language will not be called diglossia.
Variations of Diglossia:
The variation of diglossia can be show:

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Function of diglossia:
The function of diglossia is given below:
Standard (High variation) Non-Standard (Low variation)
Sermons. Instruction to servants.
Speech of parliament. Conversation with friends.
University lectures. Conversation in baazar.
Newspaper Editorial Conversation with children
Serious work in literature Folk literature.
Diglossia
High variety
Formal
Low variety
Informal
Official Professional VulgarSlangFriendly