Social stratification of /n/ and /J/ in Lahore
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Date
2012
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Publisher
University of Management and Technology
Abstract
The following study is an investigation of language within the social context of the
community in which it is spoken, carried out in 2011 in a region with a particular
linguistic background, Lahore, the capital of Punjab, Pakistan. The study examines the
objective pattern of language behavior to be correlated with the overall social pattern of
differential reaction to social pressures.
This research investigates and examines the stratification of nasal variants /n/ and/J/in the Lahore city, relating social parameters of age, education, gender, geographical background and social class. The study is concerned with presence or absence of /J/a retroflex nasal flap that frequently occurs in the speech communities of various parts of rural and urban Punjab.
A structured interview was administered in order to examine this issue of social
stratification by language. In this regard, this study becomes a Labovian methodological
replica in the present context. The results show several statistically significant differences in linguistic usage among different groups of people residing in Lahore city. The Labovian concept of rhoticity in the 70s brought significant changes in the field of sociolinguistics. This concept of social stratification is supposed to be equal in the context of nasal variants /n/ and /J/ in the present research.
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Keywords
Social Stratification, Applied Linguistics, Social Science