A MORPHOSYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF SUFFIXATION IN LASI AND SINDHI

Abstract

Lasi is one of the minor languages of Pakistan, but widely spoken language of Lasbela, Balochisan. Lasi has been one of dialects of Sindhi, which is spoken in different areas of Lasbela (Zahid, A., 2016; Ali, Z., Aliani, A. & Zafarullah, 2020; Ali, et al., 2021; Veesar & Mustafa, 2021). The current research aims to describe and analyse the properties of suffixation in Lasi nouns, verbs, and adjective in comparison with standard Sindhi. The research is a qualitative in nature, and it uses descriptive and analytical research designs. The data are collected through informal conversation (unstructured interviews) with native speakers of Lasi which were further reproduced
and translated into Sindhi via Sindhi speakers for the purpose of comparison with standard Sindhi. The research has shown differences between the two languages; Sindhi and Lasi. Towards the end, it is found that Lasi and Sindhi differ from each other in the use of postpositional suffixes: Sindhi uses a separate postpositional word to show the position while Lasi uses them with nouns, e.g., ‘m’, ‘k’,‘t’. They also differ in use of suffixation in formation of oblique forms of nouns. The research has also explored the similarities between the two languages, such as, no difference in the use of suffixes in Lasi and Sindhi in forming plural form of masculine feminine nouns. Both languages use ‘yun’ suffix to pluralize the feminine nouns and ‘aa’ sound for making masculines.