ONSET SYLLABLE CLUSTERING IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH: OPTIMALITY ANALYSIS

Abstract

In Pakistan, English is widely used as language of education and office correspondence. Pakistani English emerged as distinct non-native variety with its own morphological and phonological features. The current study aims to describe the onset clustering within the optimality theory framework. The study applies optimality theory and praat analysis for description of the phenomenon. The study reveals that Pakistani speakers use epenthesis to overcome the problems of sonority sequencing. The spectrographic features confirm the short vowel insertion between ‘CC’ clusters at the onset position.