LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 10 : 8 August 2010
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         K. Karunakaran, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.

HOME PAGE

AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT

  • We seek your support to meet the expenses relating to the formatting of articles and books, maintaining and running the journal through hosting, correrspondences, etc.Please write to the Editor in his e-mail address languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com to find out how you can support this journal. Thank you. Thirumalai, Editor.

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Contributors from South Asia may e-mail their articles to
    B. Mallikarjun,
    Central Institute of Indian Languages,
    Manasagangotri,
    Mysore 570006, India     mallikarjun@ciil.stpmy.soft.net.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and booklength reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2010
M. S. Thirumalai
 
Web www.languageinindia.com

Lexical Borrowing: A Study of Punjabi and Urdu Kinship Terms

Tahir Ghafoor Malik, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate

Abstract

This paper investigates the phenomenon of borrowing of the kinship terms from one language to another. The languages under inquiry are Punjabi and Urdu in an area where both the languages are spoken as the major languages. It is natural for languages to adopt words from other languages due to their contact with each other.

The paper explores the contact situation of Urdu and Punjabi with particular focus on the phenomenon of the borrowing of the kinship terms. A sufficient amount of literature is reviewed on language contact, loanwords, borrowing kinship terms between Urdu and Punjabi.

In order to investigate the matter quantitatively, thirty subjects were selected, whose first language (L1) was Punjabi. A questionnaire was made containing kinship terms of Urdu language and the subjects' knowledge of the Punjabi kinship terms was checked.

In a community where the speakers are bilinguals with Punjabi and Urdu languages, the study shows that Urdu kinship terms are preferred over Punjabi kinship terms to such an extent that the speakers use Urdu kinship terms even when they speak their mother tongue, namely, Punjabi.

Introduction

Lexical borrowing can be defined as the adoption of individual words from another language. It happens when two languages are in contact and one language borrows lexical items from the other language. According to Matras and Bakker (2003), lexical borrowing concerns about 'the incorporation in one language of content words from another language'.

Kinship terms are the terms used to label the family relationships in human society. All human societies have the same family relationships, contracted through birth and marriage, in common. Different societies, however, group these relationships together and label them in linguistically different ways (Trudgill 1992).

Borrowing is the process which requires language contact. It means there should be at least a certain degree of bilingualism for some people with the donor language and the recipient language.

In this study the donor language is Urdu and the recipient language is Punjabi and the lexical items which are analyzed are the kinship terms.

Objectives

The paper aims to:

  • Compare the Urdu and Punjabi kinship terms as they are used in isolation;
  • Explore the borrowing of the kinship terms when the speakers of a community use Urdu and Punjabi languages;
  • Investigate the influence of Urdu on Punjabi in urban areas with particular focus on the kinship terms; and
  • Discuss some of the factors that might be involved in the borrowing of the kinship terms between the two languages.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ethnic Relations and the Media - A Study of the Malaysian Situation | Lexical Borrowing: A Study of Punjabi and Urdu Kinship Terms | Novel as Contemporary Indian History - A Glimpse of Works by Manohar Malgonkar,
His Contemporaries, and Precursors | Gender Issues in Teacher Training Materials of ELTIS (English Language Training for Islamic Schools) - A Study from Indonesia | Mind Your Vocabulary! | Semantic Variations of Punjabi Toneme | Contemporary Indian Women Writing in English and the Problematics of the Indian Middle Class | Thought Boundary Detection in English Text through the 'Law of Conservation of thought' for Word Sense Disambiguation | Theme of Isolation in the Select Works of Canadian Women Playwrights | Developing an ESP Course for Students of Applied Sciences in Pakistan | Socio-cultural Context of Communication in Indian Novel - A Pragmatic Approach to Inside the Haveli | Socio-cultural Context of Communication in Indian Novel - A Pragmatic Approach to Inside the Haveli | An Overview of Face and Politeness | Technical Language Lab and CALL - A Descriptive Report | Teaching Composition to Adult Learners of ESL - Strategically Bridging Learner Deficiency and Metacognitive Proficiency through Emotional Intelligence - A Case Study of Indian and Libyan Situations | A Comparison of Students' Achievement in the Subject of English - A Pakistani Context | Code Switching and Code Mixing in Arab Students - Some Implications | A Descriptive Analysis of Diminishing Linguistic Taboos in Pakistan | "Who's that Guy?" - A Discourse Representation of Social Actors in a Death | Contributions of Anna to Tamil Culture and Literature | Ignorance - A Maiden Spoilsport in Thomas Hardy | Classical Language Issues for Teulugu and Kannada | A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF AUGUST 2010 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT. This document is better viewed if you open it online and then save it in your computer. After saving it in your computer, you can easily read all the pages from the saved document. | HOME PAGE of August 2010 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR

Tahir Ghafoor Malik, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate
Department of English (SSS&H)
University of Management & Technology (UMT)
C-II, Johar Town
Lahore- 54770
Punjab, Pakistan
tahirgmalik@hotmail.com

 
Web www.languageinindia.com
  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknolwedged the work or works of others you either cited or used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian scholarship.