HARYANVI CONSONANTS: A MINIMAL PAIR ANALYSIS

This study explores the consonantal phonemic inventory of Haryanvi, which is spoken in the Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. Linguists have neglected this language in the past as it has been explored rarely. As far as the Haryanvi language spoken in Pakistan is concerned, no dictionary or grammar exists. Consequently, the present study is an endeavour to develop the phonemic inventory of the Haryanvi language so that it may be documented. For this purpose, the researchers have used minimal pairs to identify and confirm the existence of consonantal phonemes in the Haryanvi language. The minimal pairs were chosen from the Haryanvi language YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram videos. For collecting oral data and gathering minimal Haryanvi pairs, 25 semi-structured interviews of the native Haryanvi speakers were conducted. Furthermore, the researchers have conducted three focus group discussions that were of 30 minutes in which each group consisted of 10 native Haryanvi speakers. The researchers have verified the minimal pairs from five key informants whose mother tongue is Haryanvi. The voicing contrast, aspiration contrast and segment distribution in the word-initial, medial and final positions have been analyzed in detail. Overall, it provides a detailed analysis of the consonantal system of the Haryanvi language. The study substantiates forty Haryanvi consonants, such as 16 stops, six nasals, five fricatives, four affricates, four laterals, two trills, two flaps and one glide. As this study has been conducted to document the phonemic inventory of Haryanvi, this work is an effort to promote the quality education (SDG 4) by enhancing literacy, multilingual education and cultural inclusion.