The Evolution of Pakistani English ( PakE ) as a Legitimate Variety of English

The paper explores the evolution of Pakistani English (PakE) as a legitimate variety of English by largely discussing the works of Ali (1993), Baumgardner (1987; 1993; 1998), Kachru (1982; 1983; 1992; 1996), Mahboob (2004; 2009), Rahman (1990; 1991), and Sidwa (1988; 1993) on Pakistani English. The paper examines the indigenisation of Pakistani English through its various linguistic features, such as, syntax, morphology, lexis, and phonology to ascertain that it has its own perceptible norms and standards which make it a recognised South Asian variety of English. Finally, the paper discusses Pakistani English’s use for creative writing in Pakistan.

states, "World Englishes form a unique and variegated sociolinguistic mosaic, and each variety, whether already standard or in the process of standardising, is an integral part of this unprecedented international phenomenon".Kachru (1996) provided an influential model of the World Englishes.The model comprises three concentric circles of English usage: inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle.Each circle represents different types of spread, patterns of acquisition, and functions of English in diverse cultural contexts.Bruthiaux (2003, p.172) views, "Kachru's model continues to provide useful shorthand for classifying contexts of English worldwide".The varieties of inner circle have been described and codified whereas the outer and expanding circles' varieties are in the process of standardisation (Jenkins, 2007).The outer circle consists of those countries where English has official or historical importance.This means most of the Common Wealth Nations (the former British Empire), including populous countries such as India, Pakistan and Nigeria, and others under the American sphere of influence, such as, Philippines.Jenkins (2003, p.16) asserts,"varieties of English spoken in the outer circle are often described as norm-developing as they are currently developing their own standards".Jenkins (2009, p.202) believes that World Englishes are not interlanguages but are the legitimate varieties of English with their own norms of use like "standard" British and American English.The accents, not only have "correctness" and "pleasantness" variables, but also have now "acceptability for international communication".These varieties deviate from native British or American Englishes and have often been treated as heavily influenced by co-existing indigenous languages (Mesthrie, 2006).World Englishes may vary according to the culture or nation in which they are spoken and resultant convergences with that nation's native language (Phillipson, 2008).Thus, in a global context, the role of English language is being transformed.It results in uses and forms that diverge from a single standard (Crystal, 2003).The communicators have multiple Englishes for rhetorical purposes within and across cultural discourse practices (Weaver, 1996).There is not one English but a plethora of World Englishes through which people can communicate (Canagarajah, 2006).

Pakistani English (PakE)
Pakistani English is a non-native variety of English which uses all words available in Standard British English (StBrE) in a relational pattern (Taalat, 2002). Taalat's (1993) study of lexical variation in PakE looks at the semantic shift in certain lexical items as a shift from their original Standard British English usage to a so-called Urduised meaning.Similarly, Baumgardner's (1987;1993;1998) discussion of PakE is based on the comparison of PakE with exonormative models of English.His discussion of the acceptability of various syntactic, lexical, and morphological innovations in PakE is the only large-scale study of its kind.But the scope of his study did not extend to the investigation of sociolinguistic variation in PakE.Mahboob (2004) presents an overview of syntax, morphology, lexis, and phonology of Pakistani English (PakE).Rahman's work contributed to corpus planning in Pakistan (Mansoor, 2005).Pakistani English (Pak E) is a distinguished variety and would soon replace Standard English.According to Kachru (1985), a non-native variety passes through three stages, in the first phase, the very existence of local variety is not recognised, in the second, it is considered sub-standard and in the third, it is slowly accepted as the norm.Pakistani English is passing through the third phase (Mansoor, 2002).It is important to note that Pakistanis are using three varieties of English which are acrolect (spoken by elite class), mesolect (used by middle class) and basilect (market English used by uneducated class) (Mansoor, 2002).Significantly, Baumgardner (1987, p.242) points out a passage from "The Pakistan Times" which is perfectly transparent to the culturally aware Pakistani readership while it would not be to an American reader: "The Secretary, Finance, Punjab, has issued a circular letter under which peons, chowkidars, baildars, watermen, malis, behitis, sweepers and other work-charged employees have been granted a special benefit.But it is very strange that the Secretary, Finance, has extended this gracious concession to three departments only.Why a step-motherly treatment is being meted out to the poor peons, naib qasids, chowkidars and malis of the Education Department?" Thus, keeping in view, Baumgardner's example, we can unhesitatingly agree with Pennycook (1994) that English because of interaction with regional languages has undergone transformation, therefore, the global dominance of English is not imperialism but a product of the local hegemonies of English.Talaat (2002, p.14) views that English and Urdu are used "simultaneously or alternatively through code switching and code mixing which have become the norms".It is indeed a fashion to initiate a conversation in Urdu with English accent and then switch over to English and again to Urdu (Khalique, 2006).For example, an announcer on FM radio said, "Hamaray (our) listeners ka favourite singer Ahmed Jehanzaib ha".Many TV Channels use code switching, for instance, "Style Duniya" (world of fashion), "Bhangra Music", "Aaj TV" etc.According to McKenzie (2008, p.277), English influences a society through the "continuing influx and nativization of English loanwords into the native tongue".Thus, like other post colonial countries, English in Pakistan interacts with regional languages and is localised in pronunciation, lexicon, and syntax (Rahman, 1990).

History of Pakistani English (PakE) in South Asia
It is necessary to understand that Pakistani English has its roots laid deep in pre-partition British India.According to Ali (1993, p.3), English and the languages of South Asia have developed in different directions, "the Germanic group under the influence of Roman Christianity being drawn to Latin and Greek; the Indo-Iranian, bearing affinities to Sassanian-Pahlavi and Sumerian on the one hand, and Persian and Arabic under Islamic influences on the other".Ali (1993) believes that the British arrived in India under a charter from Queen Elizabeth in the seventeenth century but it was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that they could strengthen their position in India.After the decline of Mughal power that set in after the disorientation caused by Aurangzeb's orthodoxy and his short-sighted policies towards the Marathas and the Sikhs, and the dividing up of the empire among his sons on his death like any private property, a power vacuum was created.This gave the British the opportunity of increasing their power, so that after winning the battle of Baksar in 1764, and manoeuvring the grant of the Diwani of Bengal from Shah Alam in 1765, they gained virtual India by 1818.Spear (1965, p.124) comments that Macaulay in 1835 with typical English imperialist and self-complacent arrogance declared, "we have a great moral duty to perform in India".The great objectives were to create a class of people "Indian in colour and blood but English in taste and character, in morals and in intellect" and to promote "English literature and science through the medium of the English language" (p.127).As a result, Ali (1993, p.7) remarks, "the government started setting up schools and colleges to convert Indians, the South Asians of today, into brown Englishmen by imparting Western knowledge in the English language to them, a tradition their surrogates have followed to this day".Ali further reflects over the situation, "we studied English, science, and literature, read H.G. Wells, James Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence, Greek Drama, Restoration Comedy, Dr Johnson, the Romantics, and the Decadents.We were declared successful and were ready to recruit others to the cause of Britain's "moral duty" to India by teaching them to become good, bad or indifferent brown Englishmen" (p.9).English in British India spread because of social and economic mobility associated with it.People learned English either by direct contact or through formal schooling.The input that learners received in South Asia was non-native and local because there were not enough native English speaking teachers to meet the demand and most English teachers were Indians.There was relatively little contact with the native varieties of English in India, and after independence this contact was further reduced.These factors have contributed to institutionalisation and evolution of South Asian English as a native variety (Mahboob, 2004).The local needs and uses of English, and the limited contact with the native speakers of English have resulted in what has been called "nativization" of English in the Indian sub-continent (Baumgardner, 1993).English language continued to flourish politically and socially in British era and after independence in 1947 retained its official position because it had penetrated into the socio-political fabric of the country (Ali, 1993).Sidwa (1993, p.213) states, "although the Raj has since been banished, and the Empire repossessed, the status of English remains largely unaltered.It is a phenomenon, and the single most important factor contributing to the phenomenon is the emergence of English as a World Language".She further states: "English, besides having its own genius, is useful by today's standards in terms of commerce, communication, and technology.And this useful language, rich also in literature, is no longer the monopoly of the British.We, the excolonized, have subjugated the language, beaten it on its head and made it ours!Let the English chafe and fret and fume.The fact remains that in adapting English to our use, in hammering it sometimes on its head, and in sometimes twisting its tail, we have given it a new shape, substance, and dimension" (Sidwa, 1993, p.213).
Richard Reeves (1984) in his travelogue "Passage to Peshawar" described Pakistan from a linguistic point of view as the "Second English Empire" which means that English is very much alive in Pakistan.Pakistani English is a member of the linguistic sub-family of South Asian English which also includes Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali, and Sri Lankan English (Kachru, 1982).Powell (1998) discusses that English has qualified official status in former British colonies, such as, Bangladesh (recognised for legal and educational purposes), India (associate official status), Keyna (second official language, formerly official), and Sri Lanka (widely used in government and formerly official).English is used in educational, economic, and political contexts.The work on South Asian Englishes suggests that there is a need to differentiate these varieties from each other.These sub-varieties are defined in terms of local languages.Thus, Pakistani English and Indian English have unique features and differences based on the vernaculars in each country.PakE is heterogeneous because of the socio-economic, educational background, and first languages spoken by Pakistanis.
Earlier works such as Jones (1971); Bell (1973); Smith-Pearse (1975); Shah (1978) and Rafi (1987) treat the distinctive features of Pakistani English as errors.Shah (1978, p. 459) gives the following example in his Chapter "How to Avoid Common Errors": Incorrect: Keep this on the table.(Baumgardner, 1993, p. xiv) Correct: Put this on the table.
The grammar books advise against these errors but these are re-inforced through electronic and printed media, local text books, study guides, and dictionaries.Baumgardner (1989) have described this situation as "pedagogic schizoglossia".For example, the Textbook of English for Class X (1992, p. 26), used both in Balochistan and Punjab contains the following sentence: "everyday newspapers carry stories of fraud, theft, dacoity (armed robbery), child-lifting, abduction, and murder".The Textbook of English for Class IX (1991) for the province of the Punjab contains the following paragraph: "In the rural areas of the Punjab, the farmers work in their fields the whole day.In the evening, they get together in the Chopal where they discuss their problems, seek advice, and settle some of their disputes without going to the courts.Usually they sit talking happily together for the pleasure of being together.Sometimes younger people sing Mayha or the ever popular Heer" (p.120).

The indigenisation of English in Pakistan
According to Baumgardner (1993, p.41), linguistic changes are taking place in the English language not only in Pakistan but also throughout South Asia.It is seen that since independence and partition of sub-continent, English has remained "a potent force in the multilingual and multicultural make up of present-day South Asia and continues to adapt itself to its new environment".Baumgardner (1993, p. 42) further asserts Pakistani English has borrowed freely from the indigenous domains of food, clothing, government administration, politics, education, art, and music.He believes that in order to comprehend fully Pakistani English, one must be familiar with Urdu words e.g., "atta" (flour), "maund" (a unit of measurement), to cite only a few which occur frequently (see Table 1).Mahboob (2009, p.175) believes that English far being a colonising language reflects Islamic values and embodies South Asian sensitivities.He believes that the relationship between PakE and Islamic and cultural values can be examined through the content and linguistic analyses of the topics on Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), Islam and Hajj in textbooks printed in English.The chairman of the Punjab Textbook Board openly states: "The board...takes care, through these books to inoculate in the students a love of the Islamic values" (Punjab Text Book Board, 1997).It is examined that Arabic lexis has permeated Pakistani English, e.g., "Assalam-o-Alaikum", and words of praise and appreciation, such as, "Maasha-Allah" and "Alhumd-o-Lillah", "jehad" (holy war), "masjid" (mosque), "shaheed" (martyr), "shariat" (Islamic law), and "zakat" (Islamic tithe) (Baumgardner, 1993, p.43;Mahboob, 2009, p.182).In addition to lexical and semantic shifts, the pragmatics of PakE reflects Muslim cultural practices.For example, "Insha-Allah" (God willing) is sometimes used as means of polite refusal or a "non-committing promise" (Mahboob, 2009, p.183).Baumgardner et al (1993) sub-categorise Islamic borrowings into 44 groups, e.g.administrative posts (amir, nazim, etc.), concepts (hadith, zina, etc.), education (iqra, maqtab, etc.), and marriage (halala, nikah, etc.).Finally, Islamisation of English is identifiable in the discourse structures of writings, for example, the prefaces of textbooks begin with "bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm" in Arabic (Mahboob, 2009, p.184).
Another area in which Pakistani English has forged its own identity is that of word-formation, for example, an advertisement in Pakistan Times declares "Good News for Woolies!No more stretching and de-shaping of your woollen clothes" (Baumgardner, 1993, p.43).In PakE some productive suffixes are "er", "ee", "ism" etc. (see Table 1).English derivational suffixes also freely combine with Urdu bases.A few examples are, "bradarism", "shariatisation", "maundage", "lathi-charged", "rickshaw-wallahs" etc. (Baumgardner, 1993, p.45).Conversion or the shift of a word from one part of speech to another is also a major source of new words in Pakistani English e.g."move-over" (verb-plus-particle -to-noun-conversion) (see Table 1).Another pertinent characteristic of Pakistani English is the use of vocabulary which no longer exists in Standard British English.A few examples can be cited, "moot" (meeting), "thrice" (three times), "druggist" (a narcotics dealer) etc. (see Table 1).

Reporting in Pakistani English
According to Kennedy (1993, p.69), language can be emotive, informative or occupational depending on the context of the situation.The term which has been applied to a variety of language distinguished according to its use is "register" (Halliday et al, 1964).The variety may be identified by its grammar, but is most explicitly "defined and recognised by topic and context-specific lexis" (Coultthard, 1977, cited in Kennedy, 1993, p.70).This lexical aspect of register drew Kennedy's attention to examine newspapers' articles which particularly dealt with crime.She (1993) described a crime-reporting register, found in crime reports published in English language dailies in Pakistan: Dawn, Karachi; Morning News, Karachi; The Muslim, Islamabad; The Nation, Lahore; and The Pakistan Times, Lahore (see Table 2).
Table 2. Reporting in PakE (Kennedy, 1993, p. Syntactically, PakE differs from British English (BrE) at both the sentential and clausal level.At the sentence level, a number of word-order changes can be observed.At the clausal level, comprehension rules of PakE are found to deviate from BrE.In addition, the use of certain tenses is also different.Rahman (1990) provides some examples of progressive and perfective aspects of PakE which explicitly show the deviation from BrStE.
1.I am doing it all the time.(Rahman, 1990, p.43) 2. I have seen him yesterday.(Rahman, 1990, p.54) Baumgardner (1990, p.47) provides the examples of proposed phrasal compounds as the equivalent of postponed attributive relative clauses: 3. detrimental to health medicines "medicines which are detrimental to the health".
4. public dealing office "an office which deals with the public".

Morphology of Pakistani English (PakE)
The most commonly cited features of PakE morphology are differences in the use of articles and prepositions and the omission of certain auxiliary verbs.Rahman (1990, p.57) reports that in casual speech, some Pakistani speakers may not utilise "do" support.For example, 8. How you got here?
How did you get here?
Similarly, the article system of PakE is different from BrStE.An article may exist where it would not be in StBrE.
A definite article may be absent where it would be present in BrStE.An indefinite article may be omitted.Rahman (1990, p.42) provides the following examples: 9. The English is a good place.
10.He said that Education Ministry is reorganizing English syllabus.
11. My father is lecturer.
Regarding prepositions, PakE has different distribution of prepositions Rahman (1990, p.51)  12.To dispense----13.To combat against poverty 14.What is the time in your watch?Saleemi (1985) and Mahboob (2004) believe that it is pertinent to examine the nature of differences between the native and non-native grammars of English.Most of the differences appear to be peripheral to the core syntax of the language.

Phonological features of PakE
At present, there are no detailed studies of the phonology of PakE.Mahboob & Ahmar (2004, p.1006) attempt to present a preliminary description of PakE phonology based on data collected in Karachi in 2002.Their research is based on six educated Pakistanis between the ages of 22 and 37. Language samples were elicited using the Sheffield word-list and then the "North Wind" reading passage (see Tables 3, 4, & 5).Mahboob & Ahmar (2004), in their study divided the vowels into two main groups.The first group contains invariant vowel realisations.These vowels were spoken without variation by the Pakistani speakers, and some of them are similar to RP (Received Pronunciation).On the other hand, the second group consists of vowels that varied in their realisation as spoken by different speakers.
4.4.2Consonants of PakE Mahboob & Ahmer (2004) state that PakE, based on the language samples collected, may be labelled a rhotic variety of English.Most of the speakers pronounce [r] in all contexts, the examples are "force" [fɔ:rs] and "warm" [wɑ:rm].But the postvocalic [r] is produced variably, for example, the same speaker was observed to pronounce it in "start" and "letter" but drops it in "force".Rahman (1990) believes that the degree of rhoticity in PakE varies based on sociolinguistic factors.Rahman's work was based on only 10 Pakistanis in United Kingdom.His work has been criticised for a number of reasons.PakE uses retroflex stops.This use of retroflex stops instead of RP alveolar stops is listed an example of "series substitution" by Kachru (1992, p.62) (Kachru, 1992, p.62;Mahboob & Ahmar, 2004, p.1011).Mahboob & Ahmar (2004, p.1011) also assert that Urdu does not have a phonemic distinction between /v/ and /w/.Rahman (1990, p.33) also discusses this feature in reference to Pushto speakers.They do not articulate /v/ for example in 'love' [luo].Mahboob & Ahmar (2004, p.1012) attempt to explain some phonological features but state that the exact distribution of these features and the contexts in which they operate need to be scrutinised.PakE has tendency to use spelling as a guide to pronunciation, for example, "immediately" [ɪmmɪdʒɜtlɪ].They observed /ə/ only in connected speech and explained this non-reduction of unstressed vowels in terms of spelling pronunciation of PakE.Another feature is epenthesis which was observed in a consonant cluster where the first consonant was a voiceless sibilant and the second consonant was a stop, for example, "stronger" [ɪstrɔ:ŋgʌr] and "start" [ɪstɑ:rt].Rahman (1990, p.31) observed that Punjabi speakers break the consonant cluster by inserting a short vowel /ə/ between the sibilant and the stop.He gives the examples of "speak" [səpi:k] and "stall" [sətɑ:l].On the other hand, he asserts that Pushto speakers do not have any problems with this consonant cluster because Pushto permits these clusters.Finally, Pakistani speakers do not aspirate stops in word initial position when they occur before a vowel, thus the word "kit" was realised as [kɪt].Kachru (1983) states that it is the non-segmental features of South Asian English (SAsE) such as stress and rhythm, rather than segmental features that mark its uniqueness.Pickering and Wiltshire (2000), in their research, looked at SAsE spoken by native speakers of Hindi/Urdu, Bengali and Tamil and found that there was no significant difference in the lexical stress pattern in the English spoken by speakers of these three languages.SAsE, including PakE, is described as a syllable-timed variety (Nelson, 1982;Kachru, 1983).Syllables in PakE occur at regular intervals.This is different from RP which is stress-timed with variation in the length of syllables.Quite interestingly, Pickering and Wiltshire (2000, p.177) label South-Asian English as a "pitch-accent" language and found that accented syllables were marked by a lower frequency as compared to unaccented syllables in speakers of Indian English, including those of Hindi/Urdu.

Use of Pakistani English in creative writing
It is noted that Pakistani English is being used in the creative writing of renowned Pakistani writers.Sidwa (1993, p.214) explains that she uses PakE but very carefully because, "the Pakistanized turn of phrase or choice of native word that might add originality and freshness to the writing for someone who is acquainted with this part of the world can give headache to someone who is not".She expresses her view that certain Pakistani words have a tonal quality that communicates their meaning even in English.Words like "badmash", "hulla-goolla", "goonda" if used in the proper context convey their meaning without recourse to translation, e.g."we exposed ourselves so that only they could see us----But what a hulla-goolla!The woman screamed and cursed" (Sidwa, 1988, p. 123).She writes "the door snaps shut and Imam Din stands on the kitchen steps looking bomb-bellied and magnificently goondaish-the grandfather of all the goondas milling about us -with his shaven head, hennaed beard and grimy lungi" (Sidwa, 1988, p.180).Or an example from "The Bride", "when the Superintendent of Jails asks a prisoner "I understand you wished to see me.Well, what is it you badmash?" (Sidwa, 1983, p.86).

Conclusion
The paper discusses Pakistani English (PakE) as a distinct variety but at the same time explores that it is one of the less well-researched varieties of English.Chiefly the research on PakE focuses on its comparison with Standard British English.However, it is clear that English in Pakistan is evolving its own identity.This identity is projected and perpetuated by the powerful English-using elite in Pakistan as well as through the pervasive English mass media.It is also reinforced through instructional materials used in Pakistani schools.As Baumgardner, (1993, 1998) explained Urdu borrowings as well as indigenous lexical and grammatical usages have found their way into locally-produced English textbooks.Thus, the paper can be concluded with the suggestion that the concept of Pakistani English should be widely introduced in order to take appropriate steps for its development and acceptance at an international scenario.Moreover, the future research on Pakistani English needs to analyse and investigate Pakistani English's distinguished features rather than merely comparing it with American and British English.
of Pakistani English (PakE) shows the StBrE and PakE variants.For example, the adjectives in PakE are frequently followed by a to-infinitive instead of a preposition and participle clause as in BrE.As with adjective complementation, PakE differs from StBrE in noun complementation.Thus, a preposition plus -ing participle in StBrE may become to-infinitive in PakE.PakE speakers may substitute the StBrE main verb plus to-infinitive with a main verb plus that-clause.5.He is interested in learning Urdu.(StBrE) They were not at all interested in democracy-and were only interested to grab power at any cost.(PakE) 6. Pakistan has no influence in controlling-------(BrStE) Pakistan has no influence to control affairs inside Afghanistan.(PakE) 7.He wants to go.(StBrE) I want that I should get leave.(PakE) cites three forms of deviations: PakE may omit prepositions where BrE has them; it may add prepositions where BrE does not have them and it may use a different preposition.Following are a few examples: