Internal migration and changes in language repertoire among Sindhi youth

Abstract

Today many young members of the Sindhi community are migrating from villages to cities in Pakistan, where the national language, Urdu and the co-official language, English, dominates. This study investigates the daily language patterns of transplanted Sindhi speakers and the impact of such patterns on their mother tongue. Furthermore, as these speakers frequently switch from one language to another due to exposure to multilingualism in urban settings, this study determines the dominant language being used by young Sindhis in their mixed discourse, compared to the discourse of older Sindhis. Reasons for adopting other languages in academic institutions and home-settings were also investigated. A qualitative case study was conducted to obtain detailed responses about the linguistic choices of twenty young Sindhi speakers. Two Sindhi families were also observed to study the language choices across generations in home-settings, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to determine reasons for the mixed languages which emerged. The data were analysed using frequency analysis for linguistic choices and thematic analysis of the daily life discourse. Results show that the young Sindhis in the city of Karachi are using dominant languages Urdu and English in their daily life and have higher proficiency in Urdu and English as compared to their mother tongue Sindhi. Moreover, there are several social, economic, and cultural reasons for switching from one language to another among the younger Sindhi generation, in contrast to the older Sindhi generation.

Variety and functional diversity of modern discourse in cognitive perspective

“…Соавторы статьи «Внутренняя миграция и изменения в использовании языков синдхской молодежью» (Abbasi et al 2023) представляют глубокий анализ языковой ситуации в современном Пакистане и выражают обеспокоенность тем, что молодое поколение синдхов нацелено на освоение и использование урду и английского, а не родного языка. Авторы приходят к выводу об угрозе потери функционального спектра языка синдхи и невозможности трансляции культуры и языка будущим поколениям и призывают принять меры по снижению существующих для языка синдхи рисков, предлагая не только публиковать больше книг, внедрять и поддерживать социальные сети на языке синдхи, но также создавать языковые центры, в которых дети могли бы знакомиться с синдхи и обучаться языку и культуре коренного населения.…”