Lexical evidence for a redefinition of Paraguayan “Jopara”

Abstract Paraguay is characterized by a specific kind of bilingualism. More than 90% of the population does not use, in colloquial situations, only one of the official languages of the country, Spanish or Guaraní, but both of them in the same discourse. Continuous code switching is the main characteristic of this phenomenon, called “Jopara”. The article discusses the problem of the nature of this phenomenon and, moreover, gives lexical examples of the partial convergence of the two languages in contact. Speakers of Jopara distinguish the two linguistic systems, but are not always aware of the origin of some specific lexical items.