Linguistic and pragmatic influence of English: Does Esperanto resist it?

Using English has become the dominant means of international communication in domains like science, politics, business, and the media (Crystal 2006). Due to its role as a lingua franca, it is a major source of language influence worldwide (Görlach, 2001; Furiassi et al., 2012). The enormous impact of English on other languages can be felt across all levels of linguistic systems. This article addresses the question of whether the character of a language and its speakers' attitudes have a bearing on the influence that English may exert. Specifically, the article explores the impact of English on Esperanto, a planned (or constructed) language, by focusing on a process that is indicative of speakers' inclination to incorporate other-language material in their language use: language alternation, or code-switching. The article is the first to have explored code-switching in a planned language. It is based on a corpus of authentic spoken data that were obtained in a variety of communicative settings (including speech events such as spontaneous everyday conversations, panel and working-group discussions, interviews and outings). Code-switching, including the insertion of English words and phrases, is shown to be used in a limited variety of pragmatic functions and to a considerably lesser degree than in other languages. This can be attributed to the speakers' developed metalinguistic consciousness, attitudes such as linguistic loyalty and shared community norms. The findings suggest similarities between Esperanto and minority or endangered languages.