Urdu Loanwords in English: An Exploratory Study of the Novel ‘A Suitable Boy’

Abstract

Pakistani English is rich in the native and the local usages in the systems of phonology, morphology, and vocabulary. The focus of the study is the use of local vocabulary in English fiction. Pakistani English uses many loanwords from Urdu, Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Persian, and many other languages. They have become an integral part of Pakistani English. The purpose of the research is to explore the process resulting in the introduction of Urdu loanwords in English. The study uses the theoretical framework presented by Vinay and Darbelnet to look into the word formation process when borrowing occurs. It also observes Kachru’s hypothesis to probe the reasons for the borrowing. The qualitative approach and descriptive method have been used by collecting 45 loan words. The Urdu loanwords are selected from the novel A Suitable Boy by Vikram Sethi through a purposive sampling technique. The results reveal that when the Urdu words are integrated into English, there occurs a slight change in its orthography but the category of the words remains same. This word formation is investigated along with its etymology. Leashed through the study, the reason for borrowing words is the absence of identical terms in the language supporting the Deficit Hypothesis. The borrowing alleviates foreignness and brings the readers back to the domestic alleys.