Identification of Triphthongs in Pakistani English

Abstract

The present research deals with the identification of triphthongs in Pakistani English (PakE). A triphthong is the combination of three different vowels. There are five triphthongs in English (Roach, 2009) but those are absent in PakE due to the language variation phenomenon. As, we know that every language has a different lingual approach than the other therefore, if we find any similarity that is just a matter of chance and coincidence nothing else. So, in the current research, it is proposed that the native language, Urdu would affect standard pronunciation or RP in Pakistan. For the confirmation of this hypothesis, two experimental approaches are selected for the identification of triphthongs and their acoustic behavior in PakE. Therefore, sixty Pakistani speakers have been selected as a population of the research. Afterwards their speech has been recorded and analyzed in anechoic chamber. In the first step, the auditory approach has selected which reported varied vocalic segments by using syllable count method. In the second step, for knowing the acoustic behavior, the identified segments have been further investigated in PRAAT software. Then, data analysis and results have confirmed that Urdu influences and transforms the acoustic features of PakE. It is also confirmed that PakE has two triphthongs; (i) /ʊae/ (at word final position) and (ii) /ʊaɪ/ (at word medial position) which are not the part of RP phonetic inventory.