Code-switching (Hebrew-English)

Also known as: mixed-language speech, Hebrew-English code mixing

Code-switching is the linguistic practice of alternating between two languages within a single conversation, sentence, or phrase. In Israeli business speech, Hebrew-English code-switching is the default register — a sentence might start in Hebrew, switch to English for a technical term, and finish in Hebrew. This is not 'broken Hebrew' or 'broken English' — it is the natural register of modern Israeli speech, especially in tech and professional contexts.

Voice AI agents that handle Israeli business calls must support code-switching gracefully or they fail at the first technical-vocabulary moment. A caller saying 'אני צריך לסגור meeting עם CEO שלי' is making a perfectly normal sentence in Israeli business Hebrew — an agent that detects 'English keyword detected, switching to English' and then asks them to repeat in English has failed the conversation.

Good handling of code-switching means the agent continues in the dominant language, understands the embedded terms in the other language, and may switch back if the caller does. Link Voice's Hebrew-English handling is built around this default rather than treated as an edge case.