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Submitted by:
Rabia Abid # 32
Amina Humayun # 42
Munazza Nadeem # 58
Submitted to: Dr. Irum
Course Title: Lexical Studies
BS (Hons.) English 6th Semester
Session 2016-20

Government College Women University Sialkot

 Pakistani English
(PINGLISH)
English is used in Pakistani setting where we observe it existing along with the regional languages
of that area that is vastly variable. We can say that English was transplanted in Pakistan, like most
African and Asian countries, during the colonial rule. Pakistan and English Being the language of
the foreign rulers, it was not welcomed by the masses, though the ruling class of Pakistan has had
a strong inclination towards this language since the very start. Secondly most of the areas included
in Pakistan were not directly under the influence of the British like Baluchistan, a large part of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and interior parts of Sind. As a result, English stayed alienated in the culture
of common people of these areas. It’s the result of this behavior with English that Pakistani dialect
is considered distinct from other dialects of English in the world.

Status and Role of English in Pakistan

English enjoys a superior status in Pakistan not only as an official language but also as an important
medium of instruction at schools, colleges and universities, especially at the level of professional
education. Many words or terms from Urdu, such as 'cummerbund', have entered the global
language and are also found in Pakistan. The heavy influence and penetration of American culture
through television, films and other media, especially computer, has brought in great glimpses of
American English that are in the process of making a complete picture out of it to fit in existing
British mode of Pakistani English. The contact between Urdu and English started from the
borrowing of vocabulary. This act of borrowing was mutual. Because of this bilingualism, the
borrowing of English into local languages, notably Urdu, was extended to larger units than
borrowing of words.
Pakistani English is undergoing the Process of Localization and the impact of local languages has
been the main cause of the language variation (Baumgardner 1993). The influence of Urdu
language on the lexical level has been distinct in Pakistani English. ‘Certain lexical items may
show a shift from their original Standard British English usage to Urduised meaning (Talaat
1993).’
Being a non-native variety, Pakistani English has manifested its independent individual linguistic
and cultural identity. This individual identity can be easily figured out throughout the language at
the lexical level, the phrase level and the sentence level. Needless to say, that it is natural result of
its regular contact with the Urdu language. ‘A large number of borrowings from Urdu and the
regional languages of Pakistan have entered in Pakistani English’

Specific Features of Pinglish (Pakistani English)

The slang term Pinglish is sometimes used as an informal synonym for Pakistani English. The
specific features include Vocabulary, Grammar, etc. Vocabulary of Pakistani English contains
many unique terms, as well as terms which are utilized somewhat differently in Pakistan such as
Shopper means a shopping bag, rather than a person who is shopping, the latter is referred to as a
customer.
Another prominent feature of ‘Pinglish’ is the use of obsolete words and expressions. Local
coinage is quite common. In some cases, this local coinage, though it may occasionally sound
legitimate, would be incomprehensible or even hilarious to native ears. Sometimes, the local
variety of the language sounds bookish (they ‘felicitate’, they don’t ‘congratulate’), too formal
(‘do the needful’, for instance) or even ‘Un-English’. Many terms and phrases used in this part of
the world are not part of the English language but have rather been ‘concocted’ and packed in a
phrase-like expression. For example: pin-drop silence, cousin-brother, cut piece and out of
station (away from one’s home town). Grammatical liberties are quite interesting and
pronunciation poles apart from what is known as RP (received pronunciation).
Phonological Differences
Pinglish or Pakistani English is not just getting the construction of the sentences wrong, but also
about pronunciation. Wrong pronunciation of English words as
“Heart” /ˈhɑːt/ /hɜ:rt/“School”: /skh uːl/ /iskh uːl/ “Pizza”: /ˈpiːtsə / /pi:za:/ “Matches”: /ˈmætʃɪz/
/ma:tʃi:s/ “Finger”: /ˈfɪŋɡə/ /fingər/ “Won”: /wʌn/ /wɔːn/ “Hour”: /ˈaʊə/ /haʊər/
According to Weinreich, words can be;
(a) borrowed
(b) semantically changed
(c) translated
(d) hybridized

Borrowing
Borrowing is from the register of Islamic culture and religion, the concepts and historical
experiences of Pakistani culture and Pakistani languages, Arabic and Persian. Borrowings from
these languages express culture-bound concepts. ‘English language in Pakistan represents Islamic
values and embodies South Asian Islamic sensitivities’ (Mahboob 2009: 188). Some of the
examples are as following.
Mujahideen leaders (Fighters in the way of God), Pir of Pagara (Pir means a spiritual guide in
Islamic mysticism), Maulana Tahir ul Qadri used to deliver the Khutba (Maulana is a Muslim
Priest and the Khutba is the ritual sermon in Friday’s prayers), A namaaz-e-Janaza was offered.
(Special prayers said at funerals), He made a madrasah here. (School meant to teach the Quran
and basic Islamic studies), the language of Kafirs (Unbelievers in Islam). Other words like Jihad,
Zakat (alms tax), shariat (Islamic jurisprudence) etc. are also commonly used.

Borrowing from the culture of subcontinent

In India the Muslims had settled down and a composite Indian Muslim culture had evolved through
the influence of the courts of the Mughal Kings and their officials. Following words show the
influence of this culture in the use English in Pakistan.
Zaban-e-Khalq, Zarb-i-Momin, Mehfile-Sama (The morpheme-e-has been used to create a
compound noun), Qawwali, Mushaira and shehnai e.t.c.

Pakistani Culture
Pakistan has some historical and cultural experience which can only be expressed through words
especially made to refer to them. Also, there are many regional customs and mores which did not
exist in the composite Indian Muslim culture but are found in areas now comprising Pakistan.
Some of these social realities and ideas are expressed in English as Teddy boys and teddy girls
(Teddy was used for people who wore tight fitting clothes and pointed shoes in the sixties), The
Pakki Pakai (Refers to the baked loaves which were mass manufactured in the seventies),
‘Hathora Group kills Two More’ (This group was supposed to murder people with a hammer
between 1983- 1986.), Mohajir dominated’ (Uses for Urdu-speaking people who came from India
as an aftermath of the Partition)

Pakistani Language
Jirga (the Pushto word for a council of tribal elders), Neevin Masjid in fact represents (the ground
level of the walled city) (Neevin [Punjabi] =low). Clerks had ‘gheraoed’ the National Assembly
building (Ghera [Urdu] = circle—used with the English-ed verb ending for surrounding somebody
or something.

Semantic Change
It deals with the change in the meaning of a word over time or multiple meanings get evolved as
the time passes. For example, Black (money) Used for illegal gain or buying something through
unlawful means., Chips Used for potato crisps as well as finger chips and floor chips, Colony
Used for an area of residence, Educated Class Used for the urban middle-class as an ingenuous
and euphemistic term for the newly emerging middle class which is much better off than the
working class, Hotel Used for a restaurant and not only for a place of lodging, Ticket Used for
stamps as well as bus and train tickets. Other usages of PE (Pakistan English/ Pinglish) are safety
(for razor), hippy (women with ample curves), getting sugar (for diabetes)
Shopper Plastic bag to hold items one has purchased. Burger A young person educated in an
expensive elite English medium school and belonging to the Westernized urban elite. Mummy-
Daddy type Same as above with the connotation of being sheltered, pampered and ignorant of
Pakistani cultural realities. Bun-Kabab The opposite of burger. Educated in a vernacular-medium
school and fully immersed in Pakistani culture. ABCD American-born confused desi. Booty
Material prepared for cheating in an examination. It probably comes from the Urdu word which
means a herb. Dish an attractive girl. Lift to encourage or give attention to someone (especially in
a romantic way). However, lift also means elevator and to allow someone to ride one’s car as a
favor.
Some of the other usages like ‘dish’ are not written but are only used in the informal company of
young men and boys. Another word used for attractive girls is ‘tight’ (pronounced /taet/) but it is
also an in-group term at par with teenage argot and not an accepted term in PE.
Translations
Simple and compound words may be translated verbatim (loan translation proper). The following
examples from PE, mostly identical to those found in IE, comprise some of these forms of
translations.
Keep fasts Roza rakhna (=fast keeping). What is your good name? apka isme grami kya h? (literal
translation) , Give examination Used for the taking of examinations by the students. (These verbs
are direct translations of Urdu/Hindi i.e. imtihan dena = examination giving.

Hybrids
Among the hybrids, Weinreich distinguishes between those in which ‘the item is transferred, and
a derivative affix reproduced’ and those in which, ‘the stem is indigenous and affix transferred.’
Some of the hybrids of IE are common to PE e.g. Lathi-charge (an attack by police with batons);
police thana (police station); zamindari system (system of ownership of land and collecting
revenue on it); goonda-looking (one who looks like a rough or 72 a hooligan); miss sahib (sahib
is an honorific used with many referents to show respect).
Hybrids used only in PE refer either to Islam or to distinctive aspects of Pakistani culture e.g. Ushr
tax (an Islamic tax on land); Zakat ordinance (a law meant to impose an Islamic tax); Nikah
ceremony (the marriage irtes according to Islam); Bismillah ceremony (a ceremony at which a
child starts learning how to read the Quran); Aqiqa ceremony (a ceremony at which a child is
named); Ittar bottle (a bottle containing a special type of scent); Eid card (a greeting card sent at
the festival of Eid); Goonda tax (illegal extortion of money through intimidation or force).
Innovations
Some lexical items are created by non-native Englishers. These are not always like the loan
creations defined by Weinreich as created ‘by the need to match designative available in a language
in contact’. Certain words are also coined through affixation (-ism, -ation such as mullahism or
Islamization).
Some others are Dickey the term was used for a spare passenger seat at the back of an automobile.
It is used in IE and PE for the boot of a car. Stepney Spare wheel of a vehicle. Tiffin Lunch also
used in compound words such as tiffin-carrier and tiffin-room.
Other Productive Devices
Other productive devices in PE Apart from borrowing from non-English sources, using obsolete
words of English and coining words in order to describe new experiences, speakers of PE as well
as IE make compound words by omitting the possessive prepositions ‘of’ or ‘for’ in NP1 +
OF/FOR + NP2 type of constructions e.g: Freedom of the press as Press freedom , Note of a
meeting as Meeting , A box of matches as Match-box, An address of welcome as Welcome
address and Timings for prayers as Prayer timings.
This device reduces a syntactic unit of a higher so that, according to Kachru, ‘at places where a
native speaker of English tends to use a group or a clause, an IE user might choose a unit of word
rank’.

Conclusion
PE differs from both BSE and IE in the lexico-semantic dimension. It differs from BSE in many
usages but from IE in only those which are related to Islam, Pakistani culture or Pakistani
languages. Pakistani English is an institutionalized non-native variety of English like Indian,
Singaporean or Nigerian English. This description of the three kinds of features of PE-
phonological, syntactic, lexico-semantic also brings out other similarities and differences between
it and other varieties of English. It has emerged that in most aspects of phonology and virtually all
of syntax, standard Pakistani English is identical to standard Indian English. However, in the
lexico-semantic dimension, PE is so 87 different from IE that the English written by Pakistanis for
use within Pakistan might be as unintelligible, at least in respect to some borrowed and translated
lexical items, to Indian as it is to other speakers of English.