Code switching o mixed code? Esiti del contatto a confronto in prospettiva storica

Among the studies flourished in the field of historical sociolinguistics, mainly in the strand devoted to English history, during its Medieval and early modern phases, multilingual texts had been analysed using theories and models coming from contact linguistics, thus applying synchronic models and approaches to the past. This is true also in the case of contact phenomena which would transcend the writing level involving the language systems implicated in contact processes, to the point of perceiving a new variety. However, the nature of this ‘mixed code’ is uncertain; this is the reason I focus on administrative-commercial textual genre, in which, according to some Scholars working in the field of historical code switching, a mixed code emerges. After analysing this genre and the type of multilingualism it contains, I will take stock of the assumed mixed code nature, comparing the characteristics found in this genre with modern assumptions. The aim is to evaluate the possibility to consider the switching forms as core elements of a mixed code, or whether such texts can be analysed from a switching perspective, applying a dynamic approach to the study of contact phenomena.