Code-Switching and Language Ideology in a Northern Dene Community

Abstract

This study explores the occurrence of and motivations for code-switching between Dene Sųłiné and English on the Buffalo River Dene Nation, a small community in northern Saskatchewan. The complex history of social scientific research in indigenous communities in North America, together with the bodies of scholarly literature on the language and language family, and on code-switching and language shift, provide the background and context for this study. A fusion of linguistic (language documentation and conversation analysis), ethnographic (participant observation) and sociolinguistic (semi-structured interviews) research methods is described. Evidence of language shift in the community is discussed, along with community members’ awareness of it and their responses to the current language situation. It is argued that while code-switching appears to be connected to language shift in this community, it also functions more basically at the level of interaction, serving to contextualize communication between speakers in a meaningful way. Speakers show masterful use of two grammatical systems as they switch between languages in the natural flow of conversation. Conversational functions of code-switching such as reiteration, interjections, topic change, the marking of direct quotations, and others are discussed, as well as the use of code-switching as a marker of identity. Code-switching is, therefore, not considered merely a symptom of language loss, but rather a rhetorical tool by which speakers achieve a particular depth of meaning in conversation. Furthermore, it is suggested that in a community where members are acutely aware of the tension between maintaining their heritage language and participating in the English-dominated culture around them, an understanding of and appreciation for current code-switching practices may provide insight concerning the use of these two languages in the future.