Shift or Maintenance: The Effects of Gender on Language Use among transplanted Khowar Speakers in Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan is a diverse multiethnic country and has different cultures and languages. There are 74 languages spoken in the country (Siddiqui, 2019), year). However, different communities tend to migrate from their hometowns or rural areas to cities due to geographical, social, and economic mobility. In cities, they tend to adopt a new identity, culture, and language for sustainability. Karachi is the provincial capital and hub of various speech communities and faces these issues. This study focuses on an inter-provincial migrated Khowar community and their language use at home, neighborhood, educational institutions, and workplace domains in Karachi. It investigates the language use patterns with a focus on male and female Khowar speakers who have different roles and exposures in society. A qualitative case study has been undertaken with purposive and snowball sampling. Data for linguistic choices were taken from 20 young male and female Khowar speakers enrolled in a public sector university through semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and underwent thematic analysis. The findings of the study revealed differences in language use patterns across gender; female Khowar speakers are preserving the language in the home, neighborhood, and educational sector while the male speakers are shifting to Urdu and English in educational and social domains. However, the language practices for both males and females are changing within the workplace domains as Urdu is used as a common Lingua Franca for wider communication. Although the language use patterns have begun to change, the male and female Khowar speakers maintain a strong ethnolinguistic identity and affiliation with their community. Government, community members, and policymakers must be made aware of shifting language use among Khowar and other ethnic communities who have migrated to multilingual cities for a better understanding of the multilingual scenario in cities and drafting and designing the official language policy and planning at the provincial and federal level.