Burhan Riaz 3/16/2012 The British-Pakistani Speech Community Living with the British-Pakistani community of Blackburn, England, for

two months introduced me to a niche in British society. I have been coming to Blackburn, England, ever since I was a child. I was born in the only hospital there and my maternal relatives live in the town. I will be commenting about the interactions of my second-generation cousin with various people as well as my 1st-generation relatives such as my aunts and uncles who's parents were immigrants. I hope to talk about the intricacies of the type of British dialects they use in different situations, The different Pakistani dialects they use with their Pakistani peers, as well as the frequent code-switching that can occur when talking to another Pakistani person in Blackburn. In England, there are many British dialects and Blackburn is known for its own particular accent which is said to be derived from the larger Lancashire region. The first time I realized that there were language ideologies in England was at a McDonald's drive-through with my older cousin, Ovais. I noticed right away, as he was talking to the employee, that he sounded different. He seemed to pronounce certain consonants differently and emphasized certain syllables that he usually wouldn't. I asked him why he suddenly changed his accent and he replied that he was talking in the Manchester accent because that was more proper. This change in accent is in stark contrast of him ordering food from a Pakistani-run pizza restaurant with his regular accent. I asked Ovais how he talked to his clients at the Bank he worked at and

replied that he used the Manchester accent in most cases except with his co-workers who were also his friends. I didn't know the word for this alteration is speech until I took this class. It is a form of Heteroglossia. The bank where he worked at, where many unfamiliar people come and go, is a social setting that is right for "centripetal" language while a locally run pizza restaurant is a place where "centrafugal" language is more appropriate (Ahearn, Pg.135). In Pakistan, Urdu is spoken by everyone but most people can speak a language that is specific to a region. My relatives come from the Punjab region of Pakistan and when they are together, they speak Punjabi. My parents both speak to me in Urdu but my mother knows Punjabi while my father does not. In England, my mother and my extended family all spoke Punjabi, a language I'm not familiar with. The language itself gets the stigma that it is a "hillbilly" way of talking. In Bollywood films, there is usually a Punjabi character that is there to provide comedic relief and is depicted as a lowly uneducated person. Ahearn states that "language ideologies come to express judgments and stereotypes of particular segments if each community". This language ideology is perhaps the reason that whenever I went sightseeing with the family they usually spoke in Urdu so that other Pakistanis would not judge them. This is akin to my cousin, Ovais, who switched from using his Blackburn accent to his Manchester accent in certain social situations. I spent most of my time near a soccer pitch where I met many Pakistani youth. Most of them were 2nd or 3rd generation British kids with Pakistani heritage. They all of course spoke English to each other but there was frequent amount of code-mixing involved. Most noticeably, curses were spoken in Urdu. And anytime someone would start to talk about white people,

they would say "gora" or if they spoke about black people, they would say "kala". Now both words in definition aren't offensive in any way but in context to these young Pakistanis, there is a certain stereotype associated with those terms. The only reason I mention this is because I don't completely understand why only swears and demeaning words are said in Urdu and not in Enlgish. But my theory is that it is a form of bonding between Pakistani-British youth who are often discriminated against by such parties as the EDL (English Defense League). This frequent diglossic code-switching(which I started to use) was a way of being part of a community of speakers. This low-status use of language can be said to be "confined to informal and domestic domains involving the interaction of friends and family" (Ahearn, pg.129). I chose to talk about this niche group that is often forgotten because of my own experience as a Pakistani-American. The customs between the Pakistani-American youth is quite different from British Pakistanis. I think it has to do with the general awareness of Pakistanis in Britain and the general unawareness of Pakistanis in America. If I say I am Pakistani in America, I face less judgment then my cousins in England. It is tougher to blend into society in England because of the large amount of immigration by Pakistanis that makes their appearance well-known. Like the Mexicans in America, the Pakistanis in England are said to "steal" jobs when in fact they came to better their lives and not to be discriminated by society. I think a lot can be learned from this particular group of people and hopefully a linguistic anthropologist will one day study them closely.