A descriptive study of vowels in Dialects of Pakistani English

The widespread use of English as a lingua franca has created many varieties of Global English. Pakistani English is an under-documented variety. As Pakistan is a multilingual country, it has been a difficult task for the linguists to document the dialects of Pakistani English and to determine how these dialects are influenced by regional languages (e.g. Pashto, Punjabi, Urdu etc.). Previous studies focused on Pakistani English of only a few locations (influenced by only a few regional languages). A broad-based study is required to document the phonetics of Pakistani English. The current study investigates two questions about the Pakistani English vowel system: how much variety there is, and whether the dialects of Pakistani English are influenced by regional languages. Speech data was collected from 208 undergrad students from thirteen cities representing thirteen regional languages of Pakistan (e.g. Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar etc.). Participants read thirty-two words expected to contain monophthongs in initial, medial and final position. Formant measurements are measured automatically in Praat. Preliminary analyses show variation in formant values of vowels in regional dialects; The results will allow for documentation of the vowel space of Pakistani English and will provide a broad representation of Pakistani English dialects.