4. CONTENTS
• What is meant by Indigenization?
• Indigenization of English in Pakistan
• Linguistic Levels of Indigenization
1. Lexical Level
a) Urduization
b) Islamization
2. Morphological Level
a) Conversion
b) Affixation
3. Phonological Level
• Conclusion
5. What is meant by Indigenization?
The term ‘Indigenization’ is used to describe
when locals take something from the outside and
make it their own.
It means to bring something under the control,
dominance or influence of indigenous people.
(Oxford Dictionary)
The process of language nativization or
indigenization implies the adaption of the
language to fit the communicative needs of those
adopting it.
(Platt and Lian)
6. Indigenization of English in Pakistan
English from the outset began to absorb many of
the indigenous linguistic and cultural traits of its
subcontinental users.
English in Pakistan has forged its own linguistic
and cultural identity. This identity is most evident
in the large number of loan words from Urdu and
the regional languages.
Pakistani English has borrowed freely from the
indigenous domains of food, clothing, government
administration, politics, education, art, and music.
In order to comprehend fully Pakistani English,
one must be familiar with Urdu words.
7. Linguistic Levels of Indigenization
1. Lexical Level
Lexical indigenization of English language takes
place at two levels:
a) Urduization
The process of inclusion of Urdu or other regional
languages’ words into English lexicon is called
Urduization.
Examples:
• ‗Hathora Group kills Two More‘ [D, 15 Nov 1986]
[Hathora [Urdu]= hammer)
• As for the increasing biradari politics … [Herald,
Oct 1990] (biradari [Punjabi, Urdu)= clan).
8.
9. b) Islamization
The inclusion of Islamic Terms into English
lexicon is considered as the Islamization of
English language.
The register of religion (Arabic lexis) permeates
Pakistani English.
Examples:
• This is what the Mujahideen leaders tell me [M,
19 Oct 1990]
• He made a madrasah here [M, 12 Oct 1990]
• A namaaz-e-Janaza … was offered … [ M, 12 Oct
1990]
10. 2. Morphological Level
Morphology is defined as the study of word
structure and word formation.
There are various processes of word formation.
a) Conversion
A change in the function of a word, as, for example,
when a noun comes to be used as a verb, is
generally known as conversion.
Other labels for this very common process are
‘category change’ and ‘functional shift’.
Urdu nouns act as verbs in English language.
11. Example:
Five feet high wrought Iron gates that lock in the
night are chowkidared during the day.
(The Star, 24 May 1988)
b) Affixation
Addition of a morpheme to a stem or head word.
Some affix forms are added to the beginning and
some to the end of the word and are called
prefixes and suffixes respectively.
12. In Pakistani English, affixes are attached to the
bases of both English and Urdu words.
The most productive prefix in Pakistani English is
de-, as in de-notify, de-load, de-shape etc.
Some productive suffixes in Pakistani English are
-er, -ee and -ism, as in words like Morninger, ad-
hocee and ad-hocism.
Example of Prefix:
Good News for woolies! No more stretching and de-
shaping of your woolen clothes. (Classic Cleaners)
13. Examples of Suffixes:
• (-er), History-sheeter
Notorious history-sheeter….. and his maternal uncle
…. were detained under MPO for 30 days. (Dawn, 14
Feb, 1988)
• (-ee), Ad-hocee
Headline in The Muslim on 13 Oct, 1987
“Regularization of Ad-hocees”
14. Examples of English Suffixes with Urdu Bases:
• Goondas
• Jirgas
• Waderas
• Biradarism
• Goondaism
• Waderaism
• Ziaism
• Shariatization etc.
15.
16. 3. Phonological Level
Pakistani English speakers feel difficulty in the
pronunciation of initial consonant clusters.
The phonotactics of background languages leads
to difficulties for speakers with initial clusters of
English.
To tackle this problem, Punjabi speakers break
up initial clusters, whereas Urdu speakers add an
epenthetic vowel to the beginning of clusters.
Because of the lack of initial fricative series in
many languages, initial /f/ can be replaced by /pʰ/.
17. Examples:
• School
/sku:l/ (Standard British English)
/sₔku:l/ (Punjabi)
/ɪsku:l/ (Urdu)
• Fool
/fu:l/ (Standard British English)
/pʰu:l/ (Pushto)
18. Conclusion
English in Pakistan has modified its linguistic
features according to the needs of people
adopting it.
It has borrowed indigenous vocabulary items
and their structures.
Pronunciation of English in Pakistan has also
been modified from that of Standard British.
Indigenization of English is the resultant of its
contact with regional languages.
Last but not the least, English has undergone
indigenization across the globe but also attained
the status of Global Language.
