M. A. I english P. C3 & C6 Modern Linguistics title pmd

Bilingualism/ 
Multilingualism: 
In 
the 
limited 
geographical 
boundaries, generally people are monolingual i.e. they speak only one 
language. When speakers of two or more languages come in contact 
with each other, people try to learn languages of other people. People 
become bilingual if they learn two languages i.e. they learn one more 
language other than their first language or mother tongue. If they 
come in contact with more than two language, they become 
multilingual. 
b) 
New Language Formation: When two languages come in contact 
with each other, the speakers come at unconscious consensus of 
using certain words and structures for effective communication. These 
structures and words are easy and are used repeatedly. This is a new 
marginal language called ‘pidgin’. When pidgin acquires a community 
of speakers, it becomes a ‘creole’.
c) 
Diglossia: It is a result of two forms of the same language. For 
example formal and informal Marathi spoken in different parts of 
Maharashtra. Formal Marathi that we learnt in schools and colleges 
differs from the Marathi we speak at home. The differences are both at 
the level of structures and vocabulary. Many a times we notice that 
some members of our family do not understand some formal terms 
and sometimes we do not understand some used by some elderly 
person. However, we are able to cope up with both the situations and 
we do not mix them.
d) 
Code Switching/ Code Mixing: While speaking, we use words or 
sentences from other language which is very common these days. 
When we switch between two languages, it is called code switching. 

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8 
Here, we use one language for a while and suddenly start using other 
language. After some time again we use the first language and so on. 
This is called code switching. On the other hand, while speaking in 
Marathi, we use several English and Hindi words. This is an example 
of code mixing.