Translanguaging as a Communicative Strategy in Hausa-English Digital Discourse: A Mixed-Methods Approach

This study investigates Hausa–English translanguaging as a communicative strategy in Northern Nigerian digital discourse, drawing on a mixed-methods analysis of 322 Facebook posts from the Hausa Digital Discourse Corpus (HaDiCo) (Umar, 2025). Moving beyond deficit-oriented models of “code-switching” and “interference,” the study adopts the translanguaging framework of García and Wei (2014) to examine how bilingual users strategically mobilise Hausa, English, and Nigerian Pidgin to construct identity, express stance, and negotiate solidarity online. Quantitative trigram analysis reveals recurrent Hausa-based constructions such as baza mu, yakamata mu, and dole mu yi, confirming Hausa’s role as the grammatical and ideological matrix of discourse. Conversely, English insertions such as mu yi a better job highlight instrumental and stylistic functions that signal precision, modernity, and affective alignment. Thematically, translanguaging practices express collective modality, institutional functionality, and interpersonal solidarity, illustrating that bilingual speakers employ language hybridity as a form of creative competence rather than linguistic instability. Overall, the study contributes to digital sociolinguistics by showing that translanguaging in Hausa–English online communication is a patterned, agentive, and socially embedded practice that reflects the dynamic multilingual realities of contemporary Northern Nigeria.