Code-switching in Kurdish Radio Broadcasting

Abstract

This research examines patterns, functions, and sociolinguistic impacts of code-switching in Kurdish radio broadcastings. The aim of this study is to analyze how and why Kurdish-English code-switching occurs in radio media, and to identify its types and functions in sociolinguistic contexts. The significance of this study is to present code-switching as a communicative and strategic resource. Intra-sentential switching marks the highest level of bilingual ability and English dependence. Furthermore, inter-sentential switching is used for rhetorical purposes, while tag-switching serves stylistic roles.  Poplack's (1980) theoretical framework is adopted in the analysis of the data, focusing on three types: inter-sentential, intra-sentential, and tag-switching. The research chooses ten programs, with almost 300 minutes of recorded data as the corpus from different radio stations and fields including health, politics, education, technology, and entertainment. A mixed method (qualitative descriptive and quantitative) is used. The study concludes that code-switching between Kurdish and English is highly embedded in sociolinguistic processes motivated by audience expectation, topic specificity, and the spread of English as a global language. In addition, the study reveals that intra-sentential switching is the most frequently occurring type at 73.3% of all instances, while 16.3% inter-sentential switching, and tag-switching represents 10.5%. This distribution highlights intra-sentential switching as the dominant form within the dataset.