Code-Mixing as a Strategy Used by Radio Jockey’s on Radio-Mirchi 93.9FM (Pune)

Sunayana Chowdhury

Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Hojai Girls’ College, Hojai, Nagaon, Assam

Abstract

People in most parts of the world are either bilingual or multilingual. In India most of the people speak at least three languages, the regional language, the national official language- Hindi, and English. While using three different codes people very often mix word(s) of one code into another, resulting in ‘code mixing’. The Radio Jockey’s on Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F.M. (Pune) use different linguistic strategies like code mixing, code switching, and code-shifting.  The present paper focuses on the use of code mixing by the Radio Jockey’s of Radio-Mirchi 93.9

F.M. ) aired in Pune, Maharashtra. The data analysed has been collected during the period from October 2005 to February 2006.

Key words: code mixing, radio, multilingual

Introduction

Language is a very complex human phenomenon; all attempts to define it have proved inadequate, nevertheless, definitions of language are not difficult to find. Language is an ‘organized noise’ used in actual social situation. Language interacts with society in so great a way that a whole field of study is designed to it in the name of Socio-linguistics. Socio- linguistics is defined as “the study of language in relation to society”. It is the study of the way in which language structure changes in response to its different social functions and to the definitions of what these functions are. Language is used by the media in the society using different varieties of language to suit their purpose.

Language and Radio

Media is an inseparable part of society. There are different types of media like theatre, newspaper, television, radio, etc. Media plays a vital role in the society and for its purpose it uses language. Language of different media’s are different, as it can be found that there is a marked difference between the language of the theatre and the newspaper. There is also a difference between the language of the television and the radio. Media uses language to instruct, to inform, to entertain, etc. On radio, language is generally used to entertain and inform.

Radio-Mirchi is a private radio channel which is made for entertainment, and which uses language for the basic purpose to entertain people. Radio-Mirchi switches on at early morning 6

1. and entertains people throughout the day till 12 midnight. Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F.M. (Pune) is

one of the regional bands of Radio-Mirchi which is especially for Pune, a city which is growing faster into a cosmopolitan city. In Pune, majority of people speak Marathi, where as a large number of people share Hindi and English too. Radio-Mirchi has a wide range of listeners, its Radio Jockey’s are also very conscious about the basic purpose of its transmission, that is, to entertain, and so they use language accordingly. They use Hindi, English and sometimes Marathi. Radio-Mirchi uses the strategy of code mixing which is different from the use of single code on a traditional radio programme.

Code Mixing and Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F. M. (Pune)

Most of the countries of the world fall into the category which is called bi-lingual or multilingual. It’s a situation of using more than one language. And while using more than one language people use to shift from one code to another. A ‘code’ is normally used in place of speech variety, language or dialect. When an individual or a social group is habituated to use more than one language he often mixes one code with another or switches from one code to other. Code mixing involves the assimilation of linguistic elements from one language into another: a sentence begins in one language then makes use of word(s) and grammatical features belonging to another and comes back to the first code. Code mixing yields new collocations such as ‘fool banana’ (English adjective+Hindi).

The Radio Jockeys on Radio-Mirchi use language primarily to entertain. They know it well that they are to reach people who are from different strata of life. They cannot choose a single language like Hindi, English or Marathi to give a wholesome entertainment. Even if they use the regional language or the national language they go on mixing the different dialects, registers, etc. In order to give proper entertainment the Radio jockeys use to balance their language with code mixing. They use a few words of one language then word(s) of the other then come back to the first for a few more words, and so on.

Programmes on Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F.M. (Pune)

The programmes on Radio-Mirchi starts at 6 a.m. with Din hua begin and continue till 12 midnight. The programmes are presented in Table A, Table B and Table C.

Table A

(Programmes from Monday to Friday)

Table B

(On Saturday the programme timings are generally the same as Table A, but with a slight variation from 9 p.m. to 12 p.m. programme)

Table C

(Programmes on Sunday)

Radio-Mirchi uses a number of Radio Jockeys to transmit the programmes listed above. The names of the Radio Jockey’s are Prakriti, Nita, Bandana, Mir, Smita, Aditya, Suchi, Mandy, Charu, and Kho Kho Patil.

Analysis of Code Mixing on Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F. M. (Pune)

The analysis of the code mixing is done in the tables given below ranging from Table I to Table IX. The tables of analysis of code mixing contains the names of the Radio Jockey’s, day and date of the data selected for analysis, names of the programmes, and the structures of the data selected.

Table I

Prakriti mixes English word(s) within the basic structure of Hindi.

Table II

Nita mixes English word(s) in the basic structure of Hindi. She sometimes uses rhyming words, like passion and intension, as in example iii, Table II.

Table III

Bandana basically uses the basic structure of Hindi and mixes within it English word(s), with some structural variation in the basic structure as in example i, Table II.

Table IV

Mir generally uses basic structure of Hindi, but sometimes he uses basic structure of English too, example iii, Table IV.

Table V

Smita mixes English word(s) within the basic structure of Hindi.

Table VI

Aditya uses the basic structure of Hindi and mixes within it words from English.

Table VII

Suchi uses Hindi as basic structure and mixes word(s) of English, but sometimes she uses English as the basic structure and mixes Hindi word(s), example i, Table VII.

Table VIII

Charu uses basically one code, that is, Hindi. His use of code mixing is very rare but when he uses code mixing his basic structure remains, generally, Hindi. His use of language is mimic.

Table IX

Kho Kho Patil uses three codes, that is, of Marathi, Hindi and English. He also uses the dialectal variation of Hindi, commonly known as ‘Mumbaiya Hindi’.

From the analysis of code mixing in the tables above it can be seen that most of the Radio Jockey’s on Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F.M. (Pune) use code mixing as a major strategy of language use.

Conclusion

Language on ‘Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F.M. (Pune) is a new shift from the traditional way of using language on Radio. The Radio Jockeys on Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F.M. (Pune) use code mixing while making use of language to entertain through radio. The findings of the study are:

1. Most of the Radio Jockey’s, generally, use the basic structure of Hindi and mixes within it the word(s) from English.
   1. Some of them use the basic structure of English and mixes words from Hindi, as Suchi and Mir.
   1. Some Radio Jockey’s use the basic structure of Hindi and mix the dialectal variation of Hindi (‘mumbaiya Hindi’) as Kho Kho Patil.
   1. The  Radio  Jockey’s,  like  Kho  Kho  Patil,  use  three  codes  like  Hindi,  English,  and Marathi.
   1. While using English word(s) to mix in the basic structure of Hindi, some of them choose the words that rhyme, as Nita
   1. Some of the Radio Jockey’s do not follow the regular grammatical structure; instead they go for structural variation like inversion, etc., as Bandana.
   1. Some of them use only one code, which is generally, Hindi; and they rarely mix words from other codes like English, as Charu.

The Radio Jockeys use most of their utterances with Hindi as the basic structure. At the same time, they feed the need of English listeners with the words of English mixed within the basic structure of Hindi. But they do not forget the educated strata of Pune, and sometimes, use basic structure of English and mixes within it word(s) of Hindi. Nevertheless, they do even forget another majority of punekar’s who prefer the regional language, that is, Marathi. They use Marathi to cater the needs of the regional people—and make the punekar’s always happy. The strategy of language use by the Radio Jockey’s has made Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F.M as a daily need of the people.

Works Cited:

Crystal, D. (1971) Linguistics, Penguin: USA

— (1980) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Blackwell: Malden  Hudson, R.  A. (1980) Sociolinguistics, Cambridge University Press: U. K. Krishnaswamy, N. et.al (1992) Modern Applied Linguistics, Macmillan: Chennai. Lyons, J. (1981) Language and Linguistics, Cambridge University Press: U. K. Porter, S. (1950) Our Language, Penguin: New York

Programmes on Radio-Mirchi 93.9 F. M.