Pakistani English (PakE): Establishing Legitimacy and Standardization in the South Asian English Varieties

Abstract

This paper aimed at analyzing various features of academic writings of some renowned writers on Pakistani English, for the purpose of examining it as a legitimate and standard variety of English. The objectives include: (1) to identify how PakE's unique linguistic features (compared to Standard British and American English) contribute to its potential recognition as a distinct, standardized South Asian English variety, and (2) to analyse the distinctive lexical choices in Pakistani English, including various innovative methods that impact its perceived legitimacy as a systematic and nativised variety of English. Inductive thematic analysis has been selected for this paper as it is a useful qualitative analytic method (Brown and Clarke 2006). The data for this paper, consisting of five high-quality studies, was obtained by a methodical search of academic online databases, including the Google Scholar website. Initially, emerging themes have been grouped under two headings – linguistic features of Pakistani English – and distinctive lexical choices including various innovative methods. Research uncovers how Pakistani English's inherent structure and standards contribute to its established status as a recognized South Asian English variety. The study highlights the need for the codification of PakE's distinct features in resources like dictionaries and textbooks is crucial for its wider recognition as a standardized international variety.

Keywords:  Pakistani English (PakE), standardization, linguistic features, lexical features, thematic analysis