Tone Analysis in Punjabi Dialect of Lahore

Abstract

Punjabi is a widely spoken Indo-Aryan language. The standard
phonetics of Punjabi has 5 tonal segments and three tones. Tone is
a segmental unit in a tonal language and is used for differentiating
two identical words having similar sequence of vowels and
consonants. Punjabi is a contour tone language and the motivation
of this research is to find out the actual use of tones among
educated Punjabi speakers of Lahore. It is being observed that
spoken Punjabi of educated speakers is influenced with the
multilingualism and educational factors in the premises of Lahore
that’s why pitch contours become leveled. Therefore, the semantic
differentiation of two identical words is being done on the basis of
context not because of pitch patterns of tone. This is a phonetic
research, therefore, PRAAT software is used for recordings and
analysis. Consequently, the minimal pairs were recorded initially
in carrier phrases then in different contexts. Speech annotation
was done at segmental and supra-segmental levels. This research
will prove beneficial for the identification of language
endangerment of Punjabi in Pakistan. Therefore, its revival is
considered very essential for new generations, otherwise, it will
become extinct.