URDU AND ENGLISH CONTACT IN AN E-DISCOURSE: CHANGES AND IMPLICATIONS

Muhammad Shaban Rafi

Muhammad Shaban Rafi Department of English Language and Literature,University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

Keywords: Urdu, English, Contact, CMC, Impact, Change and Implication

Abstract

Urdu and English have been in contact for about four centuries but their virtual contact has raised a fresh question regarding the impact of English on the Urdu language. Based on the ethical framework suggested by Mann and Stewart (2000, pp. 40–47) data was sampled from 200 BS students (who had both the Urdu and English as national languages) of five universities situated in Lahore, Pakistan. Moreover, the data was delimited to their Facebook conversations ‘on the wall’.The analysis procedure was conceived from theoretical works of British linguists for text analysis as specified by Stubb (1996, pp. 22–50). The study reveals a fair number of English words that has been pouring into the system of Urdu language with ever increasing gravity since the proliferation of Computer-Mediated-Communication. Including socio-political factor, linguistic and psycholinguistic reasons may not be over-looked whilst studying code-mixing/borrowing as a regular phenomenon.The study suggests taking rather a cautious stance in the context of e-discourse while extrapolating features regarding contact languages that we have been debating over the years.