ABSTRACT
This chapter uses sociovariationist analysis to determine if, among OZC informants, the flagging of other-language strings is indicative of linguistic (dis)fluency, as is often assumed in literature on bilingual mixed speech. Results will show that there is indeed a statistical link between flagging and language proficiency, but not in the expected way. Results show that flagging is associated with immigrant generation, education and English language proficiency, such that as English increases in its social dominance from one generation to the next and with more years of education, Spanish speakers, under increasingly well-developed monoglossic and standard language ideologies seem to be English-origin material from their discourse, a sort of diachronic deborrowing process.
