Riphah University Scholar Discovers a New Dialectal Variety of English in Faisalabad

A student from Riphah International University Faisalabad has discovered a new dialect of English spoken in Faisalabad.

Shunizia Sheikh, is a graduate of the MPhil program of English Linguistics at the Riphah International University, Faisalabad.

The study titled “Patterns of Change in Phonological Juxtapositions- A Case of Stress in English Dialect Spoken in Faisalabad” has been published in Global Language Review journal.

According to the details, Shunizia Sheikh observed differences in stress and intonation patterns in students and explored the area by sampling voice recordings from all over Faisalabad city.

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The samples were further compared with “Received Pronunciation” which is considered as the standard dialect of English.

The purpose of this study was to compare the supra-segmental characteristics of the Faisalabad dialect of English with the British standard dialect.

For the data collection, two research groups were made namely, A and B. A comprised of the Standard English speakers to which comparison was to be done.

Group B was the experimental group that consisted English language speakers from Faisalabad. The researchers made sure that the individuals had Faisalabad citizenships in their domiciles and had not lived in any foreign country.  

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According to her supervisor, Dr Maimoona Abdulaziz, it took them around 6 months to collect voice samples from students all over Faisalabad, as the task was to be performed individually in a noise free environment, for which they had to construct a temporary lab setting.

The significance of the research lies in the acoustic evidence it presents in ascertaining Faisalabadi dialect of English as a distinct sub-variety of Pakistani English.

Read the research article here.