Code-Switching in Saint Levant’s Trilingual Music: Language, Identity, and Cultural Expression

This study examines the code-switching (CS) practices in the music of Saint Levant, focusing on how these linguistic choices reflect his complex cultural identity and engage a multilingual audience. The research aims to understand the motivations behind these practices using Myers-Scotton's Markedness Model as a theoretical framework. A qualitative analysis of selected songs from Saint Levant's discography was conducted to identify both inter-sentential and intra-sentential CS patterns. The analysis was informed by interviews and contextual data, providing insights into the artist’s cultural background and the sociolinguistic dynamics at play. The findings reveal that Saint Levant’s use of CS encompasses both inter-sentential and intra-sentential shifts, serving as deliberate strategies for identity construction and audience engagement. The study highlights how these marked linguistic choices reflect broader intercultural dynamics and reveal the complexities of navigating multiple cultural spaces. Saint Levant’s music exemplifies how artists navigate and articulate complex identities through multilingualism. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of language in constructing shared intercultural identities and emphasizes the significance of CS as a form of artistic resistance to monolithic identity narratives.