The Conyo Girl: An Analysis of Tagalog-English Code- Switching on TikTok Through Rain Matienzo’s Videos Mikaela Anne A. Laxa December 2020 Submitted to the Department of Language and Literature of Far Eastern University Introduction There are many possible reasons why Filipinos become multilingual, living in an archipelago with over 180 languages, having been colonized multiple times, and being a subject of globalization makes it more than common to acquire more than one language in their lifetime. Thus, it has also become imperative for Filipinos to master code-switching in order to smoothly alternate between the languages they speak in accordance with the situation. In this paper, I will be talking about Tagalog-English code-switching, which is a “very widespread predominantly spoken ‘mixed’ language variety, whose phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics have been greatly influenced by English and Tagalog” (Tangco and Ricardo 2002, p. 391 as cited in Lesada 2017). It can also be called “conyo” which originates from the Spanish word “coño” meaning “cunt”. As the Spaniards liked ending their sentences with “coño”, a Chilean patron once made a mistake of calling them “coño” instead of “Spaniards” and eventually has been picked up by Filipinos. Later on, the word had come to signify an upper middle-class person who has an extravagant background (Garvida 2012, p. 23). Presently, conyo does not in any way represent the original meaning of the world, but rather, refers to a person who code-switches between their native language and English—most common of which is Tagalog and English—much like how the Americans and Spaniards talked to native Filipinos back then (Garvida 2012, p.24). There are many stigmas regarding conyo people, such as them being “maarte” (pretentious, nitpicky) on the way they speak, or that they cannot speak English fluently and can only resort to code-switching.