A Linguistic Study of Lexical Borrowings from English in the Urdu Narratives of Early School Children
Keywords:
Urdu-English bilingualism, lexical borrowing, relexification, loan wordsAbstract
The research investigates the internalization of English vocabulary in the Urdu language in Pakistan. The data for the research was collected through the Urdu oral narratives of one hundred school children from class 1 to class 5 in the city of Multan, Pakistan, by showing them a picture and recording their narratives. The analysis was done both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative analysis revealed that there were 1360 English words used in Urdu narratives produced by children. The qualitative analysis suggested that the children used technical English vocabulary related to the domain of medicine or food in the absence of their Urdu equivalents. However, the words were borrowed not only for the concepts related to the medical field but also those used in everyday common conversation. Thus, the study showed the growing internalization of English vocabulary, not only of technical and medical terminology but also everyday common vocabulary, which may have its roots in the status of English in Pakistan, which is considered to be the language of power.
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