Sadif Rahman

• The Syntax of Codeswitching in the Bangla Verbal Domain
• BA Hons English Language and Literature

Mixing Bangla and English, or codeswitching, is an everyday behaviour in Dhaka. Sociolinguistic interviews and a judgement task conducted with 8 young Dhakaiyya found that societal pressures against “Banglish” are weaker than claimed in previous literature. We also found that Banglish uses grammatical structures distinct from both English and Bangla. While English typically uses ‘simplex’ verbs, Bangla typically uses a vector verb like kora ‘to do’ with a coverb to specify the action. However, Banglish uses an English coverb plus kora plus a Bangla ‘light’ verb (1; also Chatterjee 2012):

(1). Subject Adverbial                Coverb Vector verb                Light verb
Skillset o                                    match korte                           hobe
Skillset as-well match do.INF     happen.FUT.3sg
“The skillset must match as well.”

Our data also confirms that English simplex verbs cannot be inflected with Bangla morphology. In sum, Banglish has a unique grammar and is socially important for young Bangladeshis.