Blending Words, Bridging Cultures”: Code-Switching or Code-Mixing between Urdu, Punjabi, and English in Social-Media Chatting – A Study of Pakistani University Students

The code-switching behaviors of Pakistani university students in their regular social media conversations are investigated in this study. In order to determine language pair frequencies, switching forms, and communicative purposes, 50 bilingual and multilingual students' chat messages were examined both quantitatively and qualitatively using a corpus-based descriptive methodology. Participants' opinions regarding language mixing were also gathered using a Likert scale questionnaire. The results show that intra-sentential mixing is common and that the most common pairs are Urdu-English and Punjabi-English. The expressive functions of code-switching include clarification, comedy, social identity building, and emphasis. Students defend flipping as a natural communication technique that improves group cohesion and clarity while considering situational appropriateness. The study advances knowledge of Pakistan's multilingual digital communication dynamics.