Englishization for Humor: Code-Mixing for Literary Creativity in Pakistani Languages

Abstract

The Englishization of South Asian languages has been pursued by a number of
leading scholars for the last more than fifty years (e.g., Kachru, 1969; Kachru,
1989; Snell, 1993; Hock, 2015, 2019 among others). Based on the bilingual
interaction between English and regional languages, these scholars are more
interested in theorizing ‘Englishization’ as a dominant consequence of this
‘contact’ and highlighting its various implications including code-mixing- the
blending of two or more languages in a single stretch of speaking or writing.
However, the present paper explores this bilingual contact between English
and South Asian languages by highlighting ‘Englishization’ for the sake of
‘humorous implications’ in the poetic writing of three major Pakistani
languages including Urdu, Pashto and Punjabi. As a sample, 15 poems of comic
poetry (five from each language) are selected and qualitatively analyzed
focusing on the borrowed items in terms of their code-mixing performances
for literary creativity. Though used as a tool for comic relief, this analysis shows
code-mixing as a common practice among these linguistic communities
whereby the process of ‘Englishization’ is actively in progress, serving as a
medium for social critique as well as the consequence of fascination for English
lexical items for artistic creativity. Finally, this research concludes that English
has now started performing a wide variety of functions in South Asian linguistic
communities including providing sources for literary creativity and stock for
comic poetry