ABSTRACT
In the first part of this book (‘The “codes” of code-switching’) it was argued that alternation between stretches of talk that doubtless belong to two different ‘languages’ for linguists may not always be perceived as such by conversationalists, and that in such a case it might be misleading to speak of code-switching. It seems natural that such a state of affairs should be particularly likely for varieties such as Galizan and Castilian (see Example 4 in the Introduction, as well as Chapter 2) which are genetically and structurally very close, and whose status as languages is a matter of dispute even among linguists. The following chapter by Giovanna Alfonzetti shows that this is not necessarily true: just as mixing may occur between genetically and structurally very distinct languages (cf. the examples in Chapters 4 — Lingala/French—and 6 —Hebrew/English), clear cases of conversationally meaningful code-switching may be found in a context in which two closely related varieties are in contact. Alfonzetti’s example is Sicily, or more precisely the city of Catania.
