HINDUSTANI DIALECT ANALYSIS AT PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL: SPOKEN IN WESTERN UTTAR PRADESH

Abstract

The current study addresses the issue of insufficient phonological analysis of the Hindustani dialect spoken in the town of Atrauli, Aligarh district, Western Uttar Pradesh, India. Although there have been research on the phonology of numerous dialects in different places, no extensive analysis has been carried out in this particular case. This study employs William Labov's variationist paradigm as an experimental approach to define the phonemic inventory and analyse systematic patterns of variation in the Hindustani dialect spoken in Atrauli. The study is quantitative, using natural speech recordings to investigate how social factors like religion and age affect phonological variance. The study demonstrates that, while the dialect conforms to the Khari Boli phonemic inventory, distinct patterns of phonological variation are impacted by religion and age, demonstrating the importance of sociodemographic factors on language behaviour. The study suggests that these differences represent deeper social and cultural identities within the community, emphasising the significance of context-specific phonological research.