Morphological Integration of English Lexemes in Urdu: An LPM-Based Analysis of Plural Formation

Abstract

This study examines how speakers borrow and integrate English words into the Urdu lexicon, focusing on phonological and morphological changes and retaining meaning. Urdu is an extraordinary language that includes several other languages within it. It continuously involves lexical resources mainly from English, Persian, Arabic, and other sources. During the plural making in Urdu, certain particular suffixes are added to the singular form of a noun. In addition, plural making in Urdu is highly affected by the grammatical context and gender of the noun or word. However, there are specific irregular plurals that do not follow these structures. This research is based on investigating different morphophonemic patterns and adaptations that occur in the formation of a word in the Urdu language using the lexical phonology and morphology theory presented by Kiparsky. The application of pluralization rules in adopted nouns, the addition of affixes, and the effect of Urdu morphology on adopted lexical items are analyzed. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, a dataset of approximately 1000 lexical items was collected from natural speech interactions among native Urdu speakers in the Gujranwala region. The study analyzes morphophonemic adaptation patterns in pluralization and demonstrates that English loanwords are systematically integrated into Urdu through native plural markers such as /ẽ:/, /jɑ̃:/, /e/, and /õ:/.  The current study's findings elaborate on how the adopted words are structured to align with the Urdu morphology and enrich the Urdu lexicon and its linguistic identity. Plural formation is primarily governed by phonological compatibility and gender assignment, supporting LPM’s stratified model of lexical processing. Naturalization of foreign words provides insights into how media and technology influence Urdu-speaking communities’ everyday communication. Investigating morphophonemic adaptations of English loanwords in Urdu is indispensable for theoretical knowledge and understanding of sociocultural blend, linguistic change, language interaction, and the evolution of Urdu in the world. This study is confined to the lexical level, and other researchers could analyze the post-lexical stratum with a larger corpus and other sociolinguistic factors.