BISAL 2, 2007, 89-122 Subiko Welcome (Welcome to Everyone): Hindi/English Code-Switching in the British-Asian Media Penelope Gardner-Chloros * Birkbeck, University of London Reeva Charles ** Goldsmiths, University of London Abstract Studies among British-Asians have attested the pervasiveness of code-switching (CS) in this community. We examine Hindi/English CS on cable television in Britain, extending the type of analysis carried out on various language pairs to a new medium. CS on television mirrors CS in real life, with various qualifications. It is avoided at one extreme of the style/formality continuum, in news broadcasts and in children’s programmes-presumably for normative reasons. Its conversational functions are well-represented in the framing of different programme segments, and, unsurprisingly, where spontaneous speech / audience participation are involved. It is under-represented in dramas / soaps, which supposedly depict naturalistic speech, but where dialogue is actually highly stylised. We conclude that further studies should be carried out using spoken media material, which provides a fertile source of sociolinguistic data. We speculate on the legitimizing effect of the presence of frequent CS on television on the practice of speakers. Key words: code-switching, bilingual media, Hindi-English * E-mail address for correspondence: p.gardner-chloros@bbk.ac.uk ** E-mail address for correspondence: r.charles@gold.ac.uk