Code-mixing and issues of prestige in Bangladeshi English

Abstract

Since the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971, the national language policy, and especially the Language Act of 1987 has stipulated the introduction of Bengali (Bangla) in every sphere of life (administration, education, law, media and business and commerce), in opposition to the continuance of English as a post-colonial language. Bengali has indeed made great headway in many domains, although the process of implementation has been difficult. Various social, political and economic factors have affected the smooth replacement of English by Bangla. This in fact has led to the gradual emergence of a particular code-mixed variety of English which we may call Bangladeshi English. Some features of this new variety will be discussed. Samples of Bangladeshi English and the special nature of the use of English in primary documents will be examined. My paper will focus on the phenomenon of code-mixing at different levels and issues of prestige English. The complementary use of English and Bengali in written documents constitute a more stable variety of code-mixing than the spontaneous and more unpredictable one in the spoken language, and this reveals an unusual linguistic situation. A detailed discussion of code-mixing in different domains shows the complex interactions and co-existence of English with Bengali in Bangladesh today.