A short presentation of relevant results from multilingualism research is followed by a discussion of some results from the project "German-Turkish language variation and the development of communicative styles in young immigrant groups in Mannheim", which is being carried out at the Institut für Deutsche Sprache. The discussion focuses on a description of a selection from the speech and communication repertoire of a Turkish immigrant group, the Powergirls. The in-group communication in this group is characterised by German-Turkish mixed forms, in which elements of the German and Turkish are joined to-gether, sometimes in close linkages. On the other hand, in multilingual conversations the immigrant youths use a simplified form of German as their means of communication. Examples from the conversations are used to illustrate both forms of language use and to describe them in form and function.

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