A CORPUS-BASED COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH LEXIS BORROWING BY YOUNG & MATURE SARAIKI SPEAKERS IN DAILY CONVERSATIONS

Abstract

Language variation has been the epicentre of thoughts of few of the linguists. It was Sapir (1992: 147) who first stated, “Everyone knows that language is variable.” Changes occur in language on various levels like, on phonetic/ phonological level, on morphological/ lexical level and on syntactic level. Sometimes variation is intra-speaker that some person may alternate different elements in different time and situation (Meyerhoff, 2009: 203). So the language change can be changed on all linguistic levels. This research aims to construe the lexical change in Saraiki language. This research expounds corpus based lexical changes and the adaptation of new English words in daily conversation of young (20-30 Years Old) and senior (50-60 Years Old) Saraiki speakers. The daily conversation of both the selected groups has been compared and investigated either how new words in Saraiki language are being used these days by the young speakers and the senior Saraiki speakers; and this research answers the question: What type of borrowed words of the English Language have been used in daily conversation by the selected groups which shows the lexical change in Saraiki Language? And what is the frequency of the use of English words in the daily conversation of the young and senior Saraiki speakers? Substratum and Functional theories will be used as a theoretical framework for this research. Five young (20 to 30 Years Old) Saraiki-educated speakers from South Punjab (District Rahim Yar Khan) and five mature/senior (50 to 60 Years Old) Saraiki-educated speakers from the same region were selected as sample for this research. For the comparison of the developed corpus major dictionaries of Saraiki were also consulted. Dictionaries compiled by Juke O Brian (the first person who worked on Saraiki lexicon in 1900 and compiled a dictionary of Jatki language) which was spoken in Dera Ghazi Khan), Edward O’ Brein, Shaukat Mughal and Muhammad Makhmoor were also consulted for the verification of different words. The findings of the research verify that the frequency of English lexis borrowing was higher in young Saraiki speakers.