Linguistic choices of Siraiki speakers in the selected life domains

Abstract

This study examines the linguistic choices of Siraiki speakers in the seven selected domains of life. The study employs domain theory as the theoretical foundation of the research. It is often argued that linguistic choices provide a reflection on the status of language and how it is being maintained by a language community. Quantitative research design with questionnaire as a research instrument was used for collection of research data. The respondents were required to provide their linguistic choices in response to situations or interactions with certain person on a five-point scale ranging from always to never. The results show that There is lack of use of the native language of the Siraiki community and this can be attributed to language policies. The findings from the current study reveal that there were three domains i.e. the domain of education, the domain of professional interaction and the domain of media in which the respondents preferred to use Urdu language. The imposition of dominant language in the domain of education can be attributed to politicized language policies which is an indirect violation of linguistic rights of ethnolinguistic groups. There were two domains in the current study which were dominated by the use of the Siraiki language, and these were the domain of family and the domain of socialization. This leads to infer that ethnolinguistic community attach covert prestige to their mother tongue while they use dominant language in formal and public domains of language use. In the current study, it was noticed that the use of Siraiki in the domain of family showed gradual lack of intergenerational language transfer. There was clear domain specificity in most of the domains of language use with exception of the language use in the domain of emotion representation. Education plays an important role in promotion of any language therefore, the language policies enforced by education must promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism.