Code-Switching and Code-Mixing Among Igbo and Sesotho People in Bloemfontein *

As the world economy becomes increasingly competitive, people move from one place to another. These movements lead to contacts between people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. There has been a mass drift of people, including the Igbo to all the cities in South Africa since 1994 with the end of apartheid. The study assessed the language background of the participants, and the kind of code-switching that exists in the inter-communication among the Igbo and South African Sesotho people in Bloemfontein. The data for the study were collected through questionnaire, interview, and recording of natural interactions in five different contexts (at shop, hospital, church, among friends, and at a family dinner). The results of the study showed that words/phrase switches are more common in the interactions among Igbo and Sesotho people than sentence switch. The most common reasons for their switching are for convenience, identification with the dominant group, and appreciation.