A Sociolinguistic Exploration of Pakistani Youth Engagement in Digitally Revitalizing the Haryanvi Language: Motivations, Challenges, and Innovations
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19486455
Keywords:
Haryanvi Language, Language Revitalization, Youth And Language, Digital Media, Language Shift, Linguistic IdentityAbstract
The Muslim communities who migrated to Haryana and some of them to Pakistan in the year 1947 have traditionally spoken Haryanvi. This is the language that is accepted today as one of the most endangered languages in Pakistan. It has not been studied and recorded in much of the academic literature, so it is still not known in Pakistan despite its rich cultural background and strong heritage because it is not taught in educational curricula. Mostly Haryanvi is spoken by the older generation rather than by the younger generation, in the present age, as they feel that their fluency is deteriorating and are also being compelled by the society to use more prestigious languages such as Urdu and English in their daily lives. This paper is a discussion of the perceptions and experiences and the revitalization efforts of the Pakistani Haryanvi speakers, as well as the consideration of how identity, stigma, social media, and intergenerational gaps are interacting to determine the future and survival of this language.
The study assumes the qualitative design as it will help to examine the finer social connotations of the application of the Haryanvi language. The population size of 25 individuals who are members of Haryanvi backgrounds of Punjab and Sindh was used to conduct semi-structured interviews. The transcribing and analysis of the interviews were then done thoroughly using NVivo software. Thematic analysis was done through a thorough transcription analysis of the interviews. Some of the key themes that were identified in this analysis are cultural identity and social attachment, stigma and negative attitudes in society, disruption of language transmission between generations, the digital media as one of the instruments of revitalization, institutional neglect, and the role and responsibility of the youth in ensuring they maintain their language
