Do readers exert language control when switching alphabets within a language?

• Readers of Serbian are fluent in two alphabets, Roman and Cyrillic. • This alphabet analogue of bilingualism reveals how linguistic codes interact. • The interference that arises between alphabetic codes is phonological in nature. • Local and global control constrain parallel activation of alphabetic codes in bialphabetism. • Some constraints are dynamic and others stable during an experimental session. We investigated language control in (within-language) between alphabet switching during comprehension by exploiting the overlap between the two character sets of Serbian. We compared recognition latencies to phonologically ambiguous and phonologically unambiguous versions of the same word (PAE – Phonological Ambiguity Effect) to obtain an index of interference between the two alphabets. Evidence for transient control arose from changing alphabets between trials within a block and the larger PAE when the alphabet of the target changed from the previous trial. Evidence for sustained control arose from presenting a single-alphabet block prior to a mixed alphabet block and the larger PAE when the target alphabet differed from the alphabet of the preceding single-alphabet block. We conclude that within-language alphabet switching exhibits effects of transient and global language control during comprehension. However, switching effects (and their temporal dynamics) were evident only when recognition was challenged by the presence of phonologically ambiguous word forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]