URDU LANGUAGE VARIATION: A DIACHRONIC STUDY OF URDU DRAMAS

Abstract

This research explores Urdu language variations Diachronically, analysing Urdu dramas from the period of state controlled Pakistani television times to the modern privatisation of Pakistani channels’ dramas from the  1971 to 2021. To move away from the traditional speaker-centered models, this study utilizes Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to investigate how language is serving as a social tool in a certain region, particular society or specific  community or nation. The study compares two different periods of Urdu dramas traveling from the classic time period towards the modern era of digitalisation. It undergoes with the discourse of six representatives dramas three from the past represents classical and philosophical age, Aik Mohabbat Sau Afsane (1971), Guest House (1991) and Marvi (1993) and three from the contemporary modern period of  functional and innovative linguistic as, Zindagi Gulzar Hai (2012),  Phir Wohi Mohabbat (2017), and  Parizaad (2021). The research is based primarily on the sociolinguistics aspects of morphology, phonology, syntax, and formality variations by time traveling from the past to the present. By applying SFL’s Interpersonal Metafunction, the study examines how the "Tenor" of dialogues has been transformed over the span of five decades. The analysis points out the shift from the formal Persianized and Arabic-based morphology with the complexity of syntactic structures of the PTV time to the hybridized, direct, colloquial and functional  Urdu prevailing in private media of the present day. It  examines moreover how phonological preciseness has been moved from a marker of social prestige to a more easy going,  urbanized articulations system.