A Sociolinguistic Study on the Diminishing Features of the Punjabi Lexicon

This sociolinguistic study strives to bring to light the linguistic changes that seem to have occurred over a few decades in the Punjabi lexicon in Pakistan. The researchers have adopted two research strategies for underlining the assumed changes. This study has tried to get insight into the diminishing features of Punjabi lexicon by juxtaposing the current Punjabi lexicon with the lexicon used in the old Punjabi movies and songs. This has involved gleaning lexical items which are no longer used in the current public discourses from the old and famous Punjabi movies (Heer & MirzaSahiba) and their songs. To further substantiate the findings of the study, the researchers got a questionnaire filled by 110 educated Punjabi speakers who aged 40-50. In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked about their opinion regarding the perceived changes in Punjabi lexicon of public discourses that have occurred over the past few decades. The findings of the study reveal that there have occurred noticeable changes due to social, educational, industrial and technological advancement, and particularly the spread of electronic media in the Punjabi community in Pakistan.


Nature of Language
Language is a universal characteristic of human beings.It is the faculty for communication through speech sounds.A language is a means of communication which is specific to a society.Thus, a language becomes an integral part of the culture of that society.Human beings are distinguished from other animals just because of an attribute i.e., language.The comprehension of the nature of language helps us to understand humanity as it is language that characterizes the human life and its power.The features of human language are not present in other species.The element of creativity in human language shows that it is modifiable and flexible to create new words and sentences.Thus human language is extendable.Language and society are interrelated.The culture of society always reflects in language and meaningful social relationships continue through the use of common language.Thus a language gives sense of relativity to a community.It transmits the culture of a language to the next generation.

Regional Languages of Pakistan
Pakistan enjoys unity in diversity as Pakistan is a multi-lingual country.Many regional languages and numerous dialects are spoken by the people here.Ahmad (2011) claims that there are five major native languages and 58 languages in Pakistan.The major regional languages have been shown in the following figure along with their respective area where they basically originate from.2013) have found out the causes which have played their role in making this shift with specific reference to Punjabi in the Sargodha region of Pakistan.They claim that economic, demographic and the status of language are the most significant factors which have caused the shift in Punjabi language in this particular area.They have also concluded that the more dominant languages have posed a threat to the existence of Punjabi because of the linguistic shame felt by its speakers and the absence of institutional support.Akmal (2013) has conducted a sociolinguistic study of Punjabi language usage in Multan.He explicates the causes which have contributed in the sacrifice of the Punjabi language at the altar of Urdu.According to the researcher, the elite of Pakistan raised the slogan of Urdu as a language of Muslim identity and it caused a number of social problems as the diversity of languages present in the country was suppressed in favor of Urdu.
While elaborating the factors involved in the Urduisation of Punjabi, he maintains that the people began to pay more attention to English and Urdu with the passage of time and economic stability and thus Urdu became a privileged language.A shift from regional language, Urdu and official language, English was made by the people as they considered them the prestigious languages because of the changed socio-economic scenario.It has also been analyzed in this study that the state-run schools have played a crucial role in the projection of Urdu.The role of Urdu as the medium of instruction has encouraged the Punjabi speakers to sacrifice their regional languages.This study also concludes that media, economic rise, socio-economic status, religious scholars and their rhetoric in Urdu, linguistic shame, inter-community marriages, and the notion of progress and futuristic approach of the parents have also encouraged the Punjabi speakers of Multan to pay respect to Urdu.Zaidi (2002) makes an elaborate and comprehensive analysis of the postcolonial sociolinguistics of Punjabi in Pakistan and finds out that it has been in trouble since the very inception of Pakistan.Rehman ( 2002) also seems to second this stance when he maintains that Punjabi was associated with the Sikh community and this perception developed an attitude of negligence towards this language.Mirza (1985) also substantiates his thesis (stance) about the sad plight of the Punjabi language by pointing out the governmental approach towards.Zaidi (2002) rounds off his discussion with the note that the Punjabi language has very little economic staus in Pakistan.These socio-economic and socio-cultural factors have also contributed in this respect as it has never enjoyed state patronage in the history of Pakistan.In spite of the fact that the Punjabis are more than any other ethnolinguistic group, Punjabi is going to be a minority language.He also laments that Punjabi does not also enjoy any institutional support whatsoever.Even the education policies in Pakistan have never acknowledged the real status of the Punjabi language.
Akram & Yasmeen (2011) have also studied different attitudes towards English and Punjabi and have found that the Punjabi language which has a large number of native speakers is socially neglected and has been marginalized.
They have conducted their study in different educational institutes of Faisalabad (Pakistan).Their study has explored that the Punjabi language has low economic, social and educational value and its learning is not a guarantee of a good job as this language has never been a bread winning language.Moreover, it has also become a cultural shame for the people.That's why the people are hesitant to own this language.
Smith & Pryce ( 2013) round off their study by maintaining that media especially television is also an important factor in language change.They claim that linguistic diffusion occurs rapidly because of engaging with a favorite TV programme as it plays the role of an additional expediting factor.

Research Methodology
The present research is quantitative and qualitative in nature.This study consists of a questionnaire and a list of gleaned Urduised lexicon of Punjabi language.

Questionnaire
On the quantitative level, the data collected through questionnaire consisting of nine items have been analyzed in the tabular form and the same data have been given percentage, too.The questionnaire was designed so that the research question might be corroborated.While on the qualitative level, some of the issues raised in the questionnaire have been discussed qualitatively.

A List of Gleaned Urduised Lexicon of Punjabi
The theoretical framework of the present study is the Punjabi Old movies and songs of the sixties and seventies and the data consist of the words (of the Punjabi language) which are no more the features of the current public discourse.All the words have been gleaned from the above mentioned sources which constitute the corpus of the study.The list containing these gleaned Urduised Lexicon of Punjabi has been arranged into different categories.
The Urduised lexical items have also been given with their English equivalent in the list.The first question "Which language do you speak with your children?" has varied response.For instance, it reveals that out of 110 respondents 36% speak Punjabi, 40% speak Punjabi and Urdu while 23% speak Urdu with their children.The analysis of the second question "Which language do you speak with your spouse?" of the questionnaire shows that 55% of the respondents speak Punjabi, 25% speak Punjabi and Urdu whereas 20% speak Urdu with their spouses.The analysis of the data collected through the first two questions shows that 36% educated Punjabi speakers speak Punjabi with their children while 55% of them speak the same language with their spouse.It can easily be inferred that the majority avoids speaking Punjabi with their children.To get insight into the issue if there has occurred any change in the Punjabi language spoken in the past and that of the present day, 75% of the response is in the affirmative while 25% is in the negative.Ninety-one percent of the respondents have claimed that there have occurred changes in the language of Punjabi public discourses over the three or four decades whereas 9% of them disagreed to this opinion.This study has also made probe into the fact that Punjabi language has been Urduised owing to various factors including education.To this end, 93% of the respondents have given their response in the affirmative while 7% of them opined in the negative.
The present study has also strived to find out the role of media in diminishing the features of Punjabi language.
In this respect, eighty-seven percent respondents have answered that media has influenced the language of Punjabi public discourse.Thomas et al. (2004) believe that the more the access of the people to media is widening the "more programmes are dedicated to the voice of the ordinary people".They have also claimed that the media are a powerful site in the process of producing and maintaining dominant discourse.Media also play a very crucial role in establishing a dominant discourse by making use of specific linguistic choices and in representing things in a particular way.Same is the case in our scenario where the lack of Punjabi progrmms on electric media and the rarity of print media in Punjabi language is also leading to the language shift.So the impact of media on the Urduisation of communication in Pakistan is quite defining and decisive.Media is projecting the image of Urdu and English as prestigious languages of the masses.The television and film idols also show an inclination towards Urdu and English.
In response to the role of urbanization in changing the language of public discourses in Punjabi culture, 96% of the respondents say that urbanization has greatly changed the language of public discourses in Punjabi culture and 4% of them seem to disagree with this opinion.It has also been tried to find out if economic conditions have affected changes in Punjabi lexicon of public discourses.Seventy-eight percent respondents substantiate the hypothesis that economic conditions have brought about changes in Punjabi lexicon of public discourses and twenty-two percent think that the economic conditions have nothing to do with the changes occurred in the Punjabi lexicon.Seventy-four percent of the respondents think that migration after the partition has influenced Punjabi language in one way or the other whereas twenty-six percent of the respondents believe that it is not so.
The list comprising of the diminishing features of Punjabi lexicon shows that lexical items related to culture, dress, relations, body and various other fields of life have been Urduised because of those factors which have exercised a pervasive effect on the discourse used by the educated Punjabi speaking people of Pakistan.These factors include media, urbanization, spread of education and better economic conditions.Apart from these aforestated factors, other factors like age, culture, social culture, time, loss word and social status are no less pervasive in their effect in language shift and lexical change.Lishandi & Refnaldi (2013) consider age, culture, social culture and time such factors as cause lexical change.Their study has found out that loan words and borrowing words also bring about lexical change.Moreover, loss word is also one these factors.The findings of the present study have been corroborated by those of the study conducted by Lishandi & Refnaldi (2013).

Conclusion
After analyzing the data collected through questionnaire and by juxtaposing the current Punjabi lexicon with the lexicon used in the last four to five decades, the researcher has found out that the Punjabi language has changed to a great extent.The lack of the governmental interest towards it is also has also played its role in diminishing the lexical features of Punjabi.It is also a lamentable fact that Punjabi does not enjoy any institutional support whatsoever.Even the education policies in Pakistan have never acknowledged the real status of the Punjabi language.This study has also explored that the Punjabi language has low economic, social and educational value and its learning is not a guarantee of a good job as this language has never been a bread winning language.Moreover, it has also become a cultural shame for the people.That's why the people are hesitant to own this language.Owing to the afore stated factors, it can safely be concluded that Punjabi language is undergoing the process of Urduisation and thus losing its purity as a result of its diminishing lexical features.

Table 2 .
Results of the questionnaire