EFFECT OF THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE OF BRITISH MIRPURIS ON THE VOCABULARY OF NATIVE PAHARI SPEAKERS OF MIRPUR AND APPLICATION OF PAHARI PLURALISATION RULES ON BORROWED ENGLISH WORDS

Abstract

Majority of people from Mirpur district in Azad Kashmir is living in England. While no accurate statistics are available, an estimated 60 to 70 percent of British Pakistanis in England have origins in the Mirpur District. Mirpuris in Britain are still in touch with family back home in Azad Kashmir as remittance is sent back to them to help fund farmland and family businesses. These British Nationality holders mostly visit their relatives in Mirpur after every one or two years. The study sets to explore the effect of the spoken language of British Mirpuris on the vocabulary of Mirpuri Pahari language. This research unfolds the fact that the British Mirpuris (when visiting back their relatives in Mirpur) introduce a new type of vocabulary which is neither English nor Mirpuri. The research further aims at knowing views of native speakers regarding this change in vocabulary. This exploratory study has been carried out in both quantitative and qualitative method. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher to collect data. Total thirty native speakers of Pahari language from students, uneducated and professional class were chosen randomly. Participants were divided into three age groups. A group from the Facebook community was also kept in observation. This study is a contribution to the Sociolinguistic study of Pahari and English. This aspect of the mutual effect of both languages on one another is not explored before.