this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2025
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Makes sense if its people living abroad, but these people in particular were normal magrebis just on vacation lol. I've also never heard one speak in two different languages in the same sentence, not even loanwords, just going back and forth completely from both. Yet then again it's not everyday i meet one anyway, so i could just be clueless about this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Latvia is funny one, like speaking in Latvian with some English sparkles, greeting in Italian and cursing in Russian
Oh, and there's the infamous "ok labi davai čau" that manages to cram 4 languages into a goodbye when closing a phone call
The western Mediterranean is a huge mix anyways. Spanish has many words of Arabic origin. Darija has many word of Spanish origin. Spanish ojalá for instance is just inshallah. Italians and Spanish usually can speak with each other in their respective language. I had a conversation once with a Moroccan living in Italy using my poor level of Spanish. Southern French youth is increasingly using Arabic words learned from the Diaspora.
I wouldn't be surprised if the mix ends up with a new common language being formed in a few centuries.
It's called code switching and is extremely normal in bilingual communities.
It's called code switching, and apparently it's common in bilingual communities. On the topic of Arab code switching, rich Egyptian do it too but with English. Now that I think about it rich people not code switching is probably only an Arabian Peninsula thing.
I'm fortunate enough to [mostly] not meet any rich snobs, so i can't confirm or deny this 😆