INVESTIGATING THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS VARIATIONS IN PAKISTANI NETSPEAK: NETSPEAK OF GENERATION Y AND GENERATION Z

Abstract

The current study investigates the variations of Pakistani Netspeak on various social platforms, with a focus on sociolinguistic analysis of the English used by Pakistani netizens. Incorporating content analysis and the descriptive research method, the researcher endeavours to interpret the sociolinguistic variables i.e. age, gender and social class. The study is carried on generation Z and generation Y internet users of varied age bracket, gender and social class. The data is collected in the form of screenshots and snapshots of A Pakistani Netspeak. Under the theoretical framework of William Labov's Variationist sociolinguistic the collected data is interpreted. The analysis of the data reveals how, in the digital age, language has evolved over time and become a linguistic subculture with modified spellings, neologisms, acronyms, initials, slang, code-switching, code-mixing, poor grammar, onomatopoeic expressions, and punctuation errors.