ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF VOWEL VARIATION IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH: 13 VARIETIES 13 CITIES

Abstract

This study examines regional variation in the vowel system of Pakistani English across thirteen cities (Islamabad, Peshawar, Khuzdar etc.), representing speakers from thirteen linguistic backgrounds (Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, etc.). The analysis focused on 15 vowels (12 monophthongs, 1 rhotic and 2 diphthongs), representing the core vowel inventory of Pakistani English. Speech data were automatically aligned using the Montreal Forced Aligner (MFA) (McAuliffe et al., 2017) and formant values were extracted with Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2023). Acoustic analyses of F1, F2, and vowel duration, conducted through two-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD tests, revealed systematic regional patterns: Lahore and Islamabad speakers show fronting and vowel lengthening, Karachi speakers produce shorter and more backed vowels, and Peshawar speakers realize more open vowels with higher F1 values. Interpreted through feature geometry theory (Clements, 1985; Sagey, 1986), these patterns reflect regional re-weightings of [high], [low], [back], and [round] features, while duration differences are linked to prosodic timing and length of a vowel. The findings confirm that Pakistani English comprises distinct regional sub-varieties shaped by substrate languages and sociolinguistic factors, contributing to both the phonetic documentation of World Englishes and the pedagogical recognition of local variation in English teaching.