Sociophonetic Analysis of English Triphthongs in Pakistani English: Pronunciation Patterns and Phonological Implications

The present study explores the realization of triphthongs in Pakistani English. The main purpose of this research is to highlight how Pakistani English speakers pronounce English triphthongs, which sounds are used as a replacement of English triphthongs and what sociolinguistic factors affect the pronunciation of Pakistani English speakers. It is a descriptive study and has a mixed-methods approach. Sociophonetics (Foulkes & Docherty, 2006) is used as a theoretical framework along with Uriel Weinreich’s Language Contact Theory (1950s). Random sampling technique is used to select the participants. A total of 60 participants (30 females and 30 males) are selected from different private colleges of Sialkot, Pakistan. However, only those students are selected who are enrolled in BS Honors in English Literature because the main focus of the study is English language. The participants are between the age of 18 to 25 and students of 1st and 2nd, and 7th and 8th semesters. The word list for the research purpose contains20 words and each word has a triphthong in it. The data is recorded in a calm and peaceful environment at a sampling rate of 48000 Hz using mobile phone and then carefully analyzed through speech analyzer software PRAAT (Boersma &Weenink, n.d.). The recorded responses are then compared to Standard British English. Moreover, sociolinguistic interviews are conducted to highlight the impact of sociolinguistic factors on the speech production of Pakistani speakers.The findings reveal that Pakistani English has its own distinct pronunciation patterns and phonological implications.The influence of regional languages, gender, educational variations, and geographical differences are the cause of pronunciation differences. Future studies may involve a wider range of participants from various regions, cities, different age groups and educational backgrounds in order to broaden the area of phonological analysis in Pakistani English.