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An Analysis of the Vowel Sounds of Pakistani English

Abstract

English in Pakistan has gone through an evolutionary process over the last century. The stage of deviations, inter-language and deficient varieties are over, and Pakistani English (PE) has, now assumed its independent entity among other non-native varieties. This study investigates the vowel sounds specific to the Pakistani variety of English and for this purpose, a sample population comprising fifty subjects including both males and females between the ages of eighteen to twenty five, belonging to Lahore, was randomly selected to obtain speech samples based on lists prepared by the researcher. All speakers were ethnically Punjabis who spoke Urdu at home and in their workplace or institution. Vowels and diphthong phonemes were studied from the recordings obtained. The results of the study showed that the Pakistani variety of English has restructured the sound system of English to suit its own sound system. For similar sounds, the pronunciation is the same as in Received Pronunciation (RP) but for dissimilar sounds, near-equivalents from Urdu have been substituted. The overall pattern of pronunciation emerging from the study points strongly towards the existence of an educated Pakistani accent. It is closer to the British RP than any other native English accent. However, there are certain differences in the segmental and non-segmental features of pronunciation which need to be accepted as the distinctive characteristics of this variety.

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