Thesis Defence: Language Status and Lexical Change in Torwali

Fawad Ahmad, supervised by Dr. Diana Carter, will defend their thesis titled “Language Status and Lexical Change in Torwali” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies – Digital Arts and Humanities Theme.

An abstract for Fawad Ahmad’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. This examination will be offered in hybrid format.  Registration is not required to attend in person; however, please email diana.french@ubc.ca to receive the Zoom link for this defence.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis examines the language status and lexical change in the Torwali lexicon to assess the influence and threat posed by predominant languages. Based on fieldwork and interviews with participants from different age groups in the Torwali-speaking region, this study investigates borrowing patterns and their relationship to key themes.

Sociolinguistic interviews with Torwali speakers from various age groups provided data to build a small digital corpus for this study. A stratified sampling approach ensured that the data accurately reflected the majority of the population within each respective age group, enhancing generalizability. Digital tools such as ATLAS.ti facilitated Latin transcription, while AntConc generated a wordlist, with types, tokens, and contexts of words. Loanwords were examined with Torwali elders and researchers, creating age-group-specific lists for quantitative analysis of basic vocabulary and statistical analysis of core and cultural borrowings.

The study of language use and borrowing patterns revealed that claims about language shift in Torwali are largely inaccurate. Torwali has remained well-maintained, and neither its speakers nor its lexicon have shifted toward the predominant languages of Urdu and Pashto. The community has a strong attachment to their language, and the basic vocabulary of Torwali has shown high resistance to borrowing. The replacement of the native lexicon is minimal, indicating no immediate threat to Torwali’s lexicon. However, the study identifies a correlation between exposure to media, education, and the modern world and the influx of loanwords. The study found that most core loanwords borrowed by young Torwali speakers duplicate words borrowed by older age groups rather than duplicating native lexicon. This study found that Urdu is gradually replacing Pashto as the second (L2) and donor language for young Torwali speakers. The findings also showed that although most speakers do not speak English, both Torwali and the predominant languages are incorporating English words in similar ways. This thesis discusses how borrowing patterns relate to the aforementioned themes that emerged in the research, as well as how they contribute to English exerting a ripple effect that spreads through predominant national and provincial languages into indigenous and regional languages.