French‐Dutch codeswitching in Brussels: Social factors explaining its disappearance

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on intrasentential codeswitching among locally‐born inhabitants of Brussels. The older Brusselers have the reputation of switching frequently between the local varieties of Dutch and French, but the younger generations switch much less often. The disappearance of intrasentential codeswitching is shown to be related to knowledge of standard Belgian Dutch, that is the southern variant of standard Dutch, among other factors. Informants who have a good knowledge of standard Dutch (for example because they have attended Dutch‐speaking schools) switch less often than those who do not master this code very well. Apart from this, intrasentential codeswitching is probably no longer a generalised practice in Brussels because ‘the codes involved symbolise social groups in conflict/competition with each other’, as Myers‐Scotton (1991) formulated it.

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