The morphology of loanwords in Urdu :the Persian, Arabic and English strands

Abstract

Language contact and the influence of one language on another are very common phenomena. Persian, Arabic and English have influenced various languages globally. Urdu is one of the recipient languages from these three sources, and shows linguistic features borrowed from them. This study focuses on the Persian, Arabic and English loanword morphology in Urdu. Loanwords from Persian/Arabic are far older than English loans, and function like native Urdu words. Therefore, native Urdu morphological structures and those from Persian and Arabic are treated as the patterns for English loans. The discussion describes the patterns and then the processes involving English loans in the light of these patterns. The hypothesis is that the affixation, whether inflectional or derivational, may be based on native Urdu patterns but that the compounding of English loans is more frequent with Persian and Arabic loanwords. This is a major factor, which needs to be established. It is equally vital to know whether Urdu also borrows any derivations of an English loan, as it did with Persian/Arabic loans with or without any morphological changes. Almost nothing is written on the morphology of loanwords, from the three languages, into Urdu. Furthermore, there is no theory on loanwords specifically dealing with the morphological adaptation of loans. So, the present work is descriptive and deals with the characteristics of the morphological structures from native Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English. Due to space restrictions, the primary focus is on gender/number and case morphology, and derivation of by affixation and by compounding. The study is divided into six chapters. The discussion begins in the first chapter with an introduction to the study and an overview of the sociolinguistic background of Urdu. It also discusses the influence of English loanwords on South Asian languages in general and Urdu in particular. The chapter exemplifies pluralisation of English loans and compound verb forms with the words of recipient languages. The next three chapters focus on inflectional morphology, derivation by affixation and derivation by compounding. In chapter 2, only the gender, number and case morphology of the Urdu noun with relevance to the three sources comes under discussion. Chapter 3 focuses mainly on derivational affixes in Urdu from the three sources. Although a discussion of morphological issues is the main concern, some phonological and semantic issues with relevance to morphology are also included. However, phonological issues are only discussed in connection with Arabic loanword phonology, which shares in lexical creations e.g. ɣʊnɖa ‘scoundrel’. Derivation of new words is also very frequent by means of compounding. Constituents from two different sources very often interact and are rather more frequent than normal, i.e. native + native, combinations in Urdu. Therefore, rather than looking at their source languages, Chapter 4 focuses on various types of compounds i.e. endocentric, exocentric and copulative etc. Chapter 5 discusses the features of English loanwords adaptation in the light of Persian and Arabic loanwords adaptations. Morphological changes occur both on the inflectional and derivational level. On the inflectional level, the changes are more frequent and based on the native Urdu patterns. Derivational changes are seen in various loans, but the adaptability is limited in the derivation of other categories irrespective of native Urdu or Persian and Arabic patterns. It is far less frequent than the adaptation seen in Persian and Arabic loans. It is more frequent with native Urdu affixes, but the formation of compounds is more frequent with Persian and Arabic loan constituents. Thus, the hypothesis made in the beginning of the study is supported. English loan affixes have not found a place in formal Urdu, although they are used informally. The chapter draws some conclusions. Chapter 6 then presents a summary of the discussion made in the thesis, and presents the implications of the study.