2022, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Part C

This paper intends to find out the contact-induced changes in Kohistani language variety spoken in Ganderbal District of Kashmir Valley. In Kashmir valley, Ganderbal Kohistani co-exists with other languages like Kashmiri, Urdu and Gojri. Urdu is used as “Lingua Franca” for interaction with other linguistic communities present in District Ganderbal. Apart from this, Urdu is the state official language and is also used as a medium of communication in schools, colleges and other educational institutions. Kohistani speakers are multilinguals having competence in Kashmiri, Urdu as well as Gojri. Thus, the study of Ganderbal Kohistani speech community will develop a new understanding of lexical borrowings/adoptions that take place because of language contact.

Data and Methodology: The present paper is based on the sociolinguistic framework utilized by William Labov (1963, 1972, 1984), Wolfram and Fasold (1974), Trudgill (1974), Milroy (1980, 1987), Satyanath (1991), Eckert (2000), Satyanath and Laskar (2008, 2009), Laskar (2003, 2012) and khushboo (2018, 2021). The data for this study has been derived from the Kohistani speakers of two villages of District Ganderbal. Speech of Kohistani speakers were recorded in natural settings. These speakers belong to different age groups ranging from 10-80 years. “Sociolinguistic Interviews” and “Participant Observations” were the main source of data.