Impact of Multilingualism on Shina Language in Urban Setting: Issues of Language Shift among Youth
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The present study explores the impact of multilingualism on the Shina
language in urban settings and examines issues related to language shift
among native speakers of Shina. The sample consists of one hundred urbaneducated Shina speakers, aged 18-25 years, of both genders, who are
studying at universities in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The study adopts a
mixed-method approach, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative
methods. Data were collected through a questionnaire and group
discussions. The domains used to design the questionnaire and group
discussions are based on Sabiha Mansoor’s (1993) 'Punjabi, Urdu, and
English in Pakistan: A Sociolinguistic Study'. Shina, an important language
spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan, is endangered due to its speakers' social and
economic need to learn English and Urdu for education and employment.
The findings reveal that Shina is rarely spoken in the domains of
interactions with strangers, social gatherings, and communication with
teachers, with the exception of the home domain, where it is spoken by 81%
of the respondents. The respondents exhibit negative attitudes toward Shina
and positive attitudes toward English and Urdu. In urban settings, where a
diverse range of languages coexist, languages inevitably influence each
other—a phenomenon also observed in the case of Shina.
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