Linguistic Trends among Young Sindhi Community Members in Karachi

Abstract

Sindh is a multilingual province with Sindhi as its official language (Abbasi, 2017) and Sindhi is the third most common language spoken in Pakistan. (Census, 2017). However, in the cities of the Sindh province, Urdu the national language, is widely spoken is in constant competition with other regional languages (Ali, 2017). Due to rapid urbanization and modernization, different communities are shifting to cities for better economic conditions. This study explores linguistic trends by investigating the language used by young Sindhi speakers in the city of Karachi and has used Fishman’s domain model (1971). The domain identifies the use of language in different settings between a range of interlocutors and the purpose of communication between interlocutors. The methodology used to collect data was both questionnaire and observation. The results indicates that the use of other languages-Urdu and English is often noted in various domains. Even within the home domain Sindhi speakers are frequently using ‘the other tongue’. This study encourages researchers to study language choices in contact situations in the urban cities of Pakistan.