VOWEL SUBSTITUTION IN ENGLISH LOANWORDS: A PHONOLOGICAL ANDACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF PUNJABI SPEAKERS IN SIALKOT

Abstract

This study investigates vowel substitution in the phonological adaptation of English loanwords among Punjabi speakers, focusing on how English vowel sounds are modified when integrated into the Punjabi phonological system. Grounded in Markedness Theory, the study adopts a mixed-methods approach and analyze 50 English loanwords produced by 50 native Punjabi speakers from Sialkot, Pakistan, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through a picture-naming task and analyzed using PRAAT software for acoustic measurement of vowel quality. The findings reveal that Punjabi speakers systematically modify English vowels to conform to native phonological constraints, replacing
non-native vowels with the closest phonetic equivalents. Monophthong substitution emerges as the dominant strategy, while diphthongs and triphthongs are consistently simplified into monophthongs. Acoustic analysis further confirms measurable shifts in formant frequencies and vowel duration between English and Punjabi realizations. The study provides empirical acoustic evidence of vowel substitution and contributes to a deeper understanding of phonological adaptation in language contact contexts.