Dental Linguistics
I love my Hollywood dentist, because he is not stingy with the novocaine. When I leave there I’m numb from nostril to earlobe, and that’s how I like it. Last time I went, he shot me up with so much of the stuff, I couldn’t feel my right temple. And that’s good.
Normally, I’m so full of terror I’m oblivious to anything in the dentist office. I just huddle, my arms wrapped around myself, brooding on the coming horrors. But today as I let the novocaine seep through my jaw, while my tongue swelled up I listened to my dentist and his receptionist talking.
It’s not eavesdropping because they weren’t speaking English. Well, not completely. They were codeswitching, and the pattern was interesting. It sounded rather like this:
He: So, ah, lebaneselebaneselebaneselebanese?
She: Yes, but … lebaneselebaneselebaneselebaneselebanese.
He: Well, you know, lebaneselebaneselebanese.
She: I know! I know, I know, but lebaneselebaneselebaneselebaneselebanese!
He: Okay, but lebaneselebaneselebanese.
She: I know.
Well, this was fascinating. I started paying closer attention. When the assistant came to stick the temporary crowns on my teeth, I assumed she was Lebanese too. But lo, a moment later, another assistant stuck her head in and they conversed in brisk Spanglish.
What was interesting is that the codeswitching was different. Rather than initial opening remarks followed by a steady stream of the other language, this was true Spanglish, with sentences that were half and half, fluidly switching from one to the other. It sounded rather like this:
Asst: I’m going to take the españolespañol and see if I can español español it. If yes, I can español español Vons, but if no español, español, so…
If I remember correctly from my long ago sociolinguistics classes, the degree and style of codeswitching has to do with how bilingual one is. Obviously in this case the Spanish speakers were more instinctively bilingual than the Lebanese speakers. I wanted to ask whether they were picking up any of each other’s languages, but by this time my tongue felt like a big, fuzzy, rolled up sock, and I couldn’t. Alas.
