Dualking

Dualking is the sociolinguistic term for the practice of using two languages or two dialectal varieties within a single discourse episode. It encompasses both intra-sentential switching (within a sentence) and inter-sentential switching (between sentences) and is distinct from broader bilingual speech by its integrated, dual-voice character.

The term is used to describe how speakers manage meaning, identity, and audience in multilingual settings. It often arises in communities where two languages are widely used in daily life and can function as a social signal of group membership or solidarity as well as a tool for clarifying or emphasizing content.

In practice, dualking can involve mixing lexical items, phrases, or entire clauses. An example might be a speaker who starts a thought in one language and continues with another mid-sentence. Dualking patterns vary by context, language pair, proficiency, and sociocultural norms and may be influenced by factors such as formality, topic, and audience.

Differences from related concepts: code-switching is a broader umbrella term for language alternation; dualking emphasizes a dual-voiced, often intentional mode that persists across turns or within complex utterances. Some researchers view dualking as a stable register in bilingual discourse, while others see it as a dynamic strategy for negotiation of meaning and identity.

See also: code-switching, bilingualism, diglossia.