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Abstract Several types of faulty language selection in polyglots are presented. In these, a speaker utters words in a language other than that he or she intended to use. In all cases, the error in production is not due to a lack of words or a linguistic deficiency. Indeed (with the exception of one curious case), the patterns in question could have been produced only by polyglots, i.e. speakers familiar with more than two languages. These, as well as the rarity of the patterns and the subjective sense of loss of control associated with them, distinguish interlingual shifts from bilingual code-switching. The various types noted suggest that the different languages in the mind of the polyglot are differentiated according to status: dominant language, foreign language and weak language. Constraints on the links between the different languages are also noted.
Benny Shanon (Tue,) studied this question.