This paper discusses the relationship of swearing and slang to code-switching based on data obtained in a Basque–Spanish language contact situation. The study is based on 22 hours of recorded material of 22 Basque bilinguals, both L1 and L2 Basque speakers. In Greater Bilbao, even the bilinguals who do not frequently code-switch shift to Spanish to introduce slang or swear words to otherwise Basque discourse. The susceptibility of these elements to switching is examined from structural, discursive and sociolinguistic points of view. The phenomena are understood to strengthen one another: when different stylistic and stance-taking devices co-occur, they become even more salient, thus underlining the effect for which they were introduced to the conversation.

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This study examines the manifestations of purity and authenticity in 47 Basque bilinguals’ reactions to code-switching. The respondents listened to two speech extracts with code-switching, filled in a short questionnaire and talked about the extracts in small groups. These conversations were then recorded. The respondents’ beliefs can be characterized as considerably ambiguous. They see code-switching as an undesirable form of speech and as a threat to Basque. However, they admit using it in informal contexts. Although the respondents prefer the “pure” form of Basque without code-switching, and some of them favor translation as an alternative strategy, purity is not considered authentic or even possible in situations such as peer-group interactions. Furthermore, code-switching is interpreted differently according to the linguistic background of the speaker: if the speaker is considered a native speaker of Basque, code-switching is seen as natural, whereas in the speech of a non-native speaker it is considered to reflect a lack of competence in Basque.

This article analyses and compares the grammatical code switching patterns of 22 Basque- Spanish bilinguals. Ten of these are early bilinguals who have learned both of the languages in the natural environment of a bilingual community, and twelve of these are late bilinguals, ‘new Basques’, who have learned Basque as their L2 in a formal setting after the onset of puberty. The data is based on 22 hours of participant-observer recordings made in Basque Country in the years 2005, 2007 and 2011 and contain nearly 1500 examples of code-switching. All the informants are connected to the Bilbao Metropolitan area and were between 20 and 45 years of age at the time of the recordings. Differences between the two speaker groups are clear. Whereas the late bilinguals mainly use extrasentential and conventionalized types of code-switching, the early bilinguals present a variety of patterns. In the latter group, the intra-group differences are wide: some of the informants engage in highly intensive mixing, while others maintain the separation between the linguistic systems. These pattern differences might be attributed to different levels of bilingual language competence, but also to the degree of linguistic confidence of the speaker.