Sindh Journal of Linguistics

The Acquisition of Allophonic Aspiration Contrast of English Voiceless Stops

Sami Ullah Khan — 2026-09-09

This study examines the acquisition of the allophonic aspiration contrast of English voiceless stops by Khowar speakers, whose native language encodes aspiration as a phonemic distinction. Drawing on the Speech Learning Model (SLM), the study investigates how first-language (L1) phonology and linguistic environment influence the acquisition of second-language (L2) aspiration patterns. A production experiment measured the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of English voiceless stops produced by thirty native Khowar speakers, divided into Pakistan-based and UK-based groups. The results show that Pakistan-based speakers tended to equate English aspirated stops with their unaspirated L1 counterparts, indicating strong L1 transfer effects. In contrast, UK-based speakers demonstrated greater overall accuracy in producing English aspiration, though their productions also revealed instances of hypercorrection, suggesting heightened sensitivity to the L2 contrast. These findings reveal the critical role of L2 input in phonetic category formation and support the view that sustained exposure and explicit phonetic instruction may facilitate the restructuring of L1-based phonological representations in L2 acquisition.

Multilingual Prayer Practices among Sindhi Hindus in Malaysia: Negotiating Heritage, Identity, and Change

Maya Khemlani David — 2026-10-21

This study explores multilingual practices in prayers of Sindhi Hindus in Malaysia, discussing how multilingual choices in different religious settings reflect legacy support, personality arrangement, and adjustment in diaspora. Employing unstructured interviews conducted with eight participants, followed by observation of religious places and YouTube recordings, the study thematically analyzed generational differences and language choices in relation to prayers. Findings show that while older Sindhis conserve Sindhi and Hindi languages in communal prayers, more youthful Sindhis increasingly use English in private commitments, reconceptualizing prayer as personalized spirituality. Multilingual practices also underpin inclusivity, enabling Sindhis to take interest in interfaith religious prayers and practices. The study underlines the association of Sindhi with diasporic religiosity, the dominance of Hindi in customs, and the increasing affiliation of English with reflection and modernization. Finally, this study contributes to scholarship on diaspora multilingualism, religiosity, and heritage language maintenance.

Linguistic Strategies and Customer Engagement in Social Media Marketing: A Corpus-Based Analysis

Muhammad Dawood — 2026-10-21

This study examines how in modern age the use of digital platforms has manipulated the way of communication between organizations and the consumer (Firat et al., n.d.). Though copious research on the online marketing has been paid a meager attention how the customer engagement via these online platforms. In this paper we investigate linguistic strategies employed in social media marketing and how they affect the involvement of customers is examined. The research involves the analysis of linguistic elements like emotional language, inclusive pronouns, imperative sentences, storytelling, humor, emoji, hashtag and call-to-action expressions, based on theories in persuasive communication and digital discourse (McGuire, 2025). A quantitative corpus-based content analysis is applied which yields authentic samples of social media posts from various leading brands on important platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X. Linguistic characteristics are systematically coded and quantitatively analyzed with customer engagement characteristics such as likes, comments and shares. Based on statistical analyses such as descriptive, correlation, and multiple regression, the relationship between linguistic strategies and customer engagement was determined. Results have shown that linguistic persuasive elements evoke high involvement thereof significantly; the effect of the individual persuasive elements differs between the measures of involvement. The study also makes a significant contribution to applied linguistics, as it expands the knowledge of how language used in the field of digital marketing, and can prove relevant for digital marketers, content writers and communication practitioners looking into improving the efficiency of their social media marketing efforts. It further serves as a ground for doing further research on marketing content created by artificial intelligence and multilingual communication for digital media (Roy et al., 2015).