A Linguistic Study of Lexical Borrowings from English in the Urdu Narratives of Early School Children

Authors

  • Uzma Shaukat Government Post Graduate College for Women, Gulberg, Lahore
  • Dr. Mubina Talaat The Women University, Multan, Pakistan

Keywords:

Urdu-English bilingualism, lexical borrowing, relexification, loan words

Abstract

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.

References

Androutsopoulos, J., 2007, Bilingualism in the mass media and the internet. In M. Heller (ed.) Bilingualism: a social approach: 207-227, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. (2010). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

De Houwer, A. (1990). The Acquisition of two languages from birth: A case study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Deuchar, M. & Quay, S. (2000). Bilingual Acquisition: Theoretical implications of a case study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Genesee, F. (1989). Early bilingual development: One language or two? Journal of Child Language, 16, 161-179.

Halmari, H. (2005). I’m forgetting both: L1 maintenance and code-switching in Finnish-English language contact. International Journal of Bilingualism, 9, 197–433.

Haugen, E. (1950). The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowings. Language 26, 210- 231.

Heath, J., 2001, Borrowing. In R. Mesthrie (ed.) (2001) Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics, 432-442, Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd

Hudson, R., 1996, Sociolinguistics (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kachru, B. (1986). The Power and Politics of English. World Englishes, Vol. 5, No. 2/3, pp. 121-140, Great Britain.

Kachru, B. (1994). Englishization and Contact Linguistics. World Englishes, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 135-154.

Lanza, E (1997). Language mixing in infant bilingualism: A sociolinguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

MacSwan, J. (1999). A Minimalist Approach to Intrasentential Code Switching. New York and London: Gargald Publishing, Inc.

McCabe, A., & Rollins, P. (1994). Assessment of preschool narrative skills. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 3, 45-56.

Merritt, D. & Liles, B. (1987). Story grammar ability in children with and without language disorder: Story generation, story retelling, and story comprehension. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 30(4), 539-552.

Mougeon, R., Edouard, B. & Daniel, V. (1985). Variation in the Phonological Integration of Loanwords in a Bilingual Speech Community. Toronto: Center for Franco-Ontarian Studies.

Myers-Scotton, C. (2006). Multiple voices: An introduction to bilingualism. USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Poplack, S., Sankoff, D. & Miller, C. (1988). The Social Correlates and Linguistic Processes of Lexical Borrowing and Assimilation. Linguistics 26, 47-104.

Rahman, T. (2005). Passports to privilege: The English-medium schools in Pakistan. Peace and Democracy in South Asia, 1(1).

Rassool, N. & Mansoor, S. (2009). Contemporary issues in language, education and development in Pakistan. In N.Rasool (ed.), Global Issues in Language, Education and Development: Perspectives from Post-colonial Countries, 218-244. New Delhi: Orient Longman

Sridhar, N. (1978). On the function of code-mixing in Kannada. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 6, 109-117. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/266697609162111557/

Downloads

Published

2021-06-30

How to Cite

Uzma Shaukat, & Dr. Mubina Talaat. (2021). A Linguistic Study of Lexical Borrowings from English in the Urdu Narratives of Early School Children. Pakistan Journal of Languages and Translation Studies, 9(1), 106–121. Retrieved from https://pjlts.uog.edu.pk/index.php/pjlts/article/view/10