Why do Urdu speaking people pronounce English words starting with letter "S" as "IS"?

[Ahmet Pasha]

In urdu it's written like that that's why.
اسکول for urdu speakers
سکول for punjabis who pronojnce it like that.
Both Punjabis and Hindustani/Urdu speaks don't need to make it a ethnic issue.

Bcz I think I have seen English speaking ppl say iskool istead of skool

 

[xyxmt]

English is not our first language and its just perceptions

We Karachi people find Punjabi people saying "school" as "sukool"

I am from Karachi and people in Karachi made fun of Punjabis saying Skool, I was under impression my saying Iskool is such a great American Accent. then one time my white Boss broke my heart, asked me why you say it Iskool, there is no I is it, its Skool

 

[Pakistansdefender]

T

I have noticed this trend among the Urdu speaking anchors, news casters on Pakistani TV. They tend to pronounce English words starting with letter "S" as "IS". They seem to convert "S" sound in the beginning of the English words into ("I"+"S") sound. For example they pronounce School as "Ischool", Smart as "Ismart", Spoil as "Ispoil".

Why do people with Urdu speaking background tend to mispronounce these English words starting with letter "S". I have noticed that hindi speaking people of India also seem to make the same mispronunciation of English words starting with letter "S" and they too convert "S" sound into ("I"+"S") sound. What is the reason behind this mispronunciation, can any urdu or hindi speaking background person explain it for me?

Dude those who do, there is no problem with that. You are allowed to have an accent. Everyone does.
It's only the Pakistanis and Indians who strive too hard to learn the prefect accents and stuff. As long as you know how to speak another language that is fine. You don't have to speak it the way they do.
Similarly if a pakistani speaking English in very paindo accent to you then it is your problem not his.
The Africans speak with their own accents.
The turks speak with their own accents.
The Arabs speak with their own accents.
The Chinese do.
But here in pakistan we need pristine British or American accented English.
Even some people went as far as learning slangs and using them as though they have control over English language. While they don't. You just learnt these slangs from cheap drama or stuff.
English is a medium to communicate to the world. Learning a language is an achievement in itself. Don't need to go further into learning accents e confident in your own accent. If people say s as 'is', it's fine.
Of people are saying plate, the 'peelate'. No worries. If people in Turkey pronounce action as ' ac-shi-oon' no body comes and corrects them.

 

[Mujahid Memon]

Localization. It happens with Arabic words too. Arabic words are pronounced in Urdu way. Let us see these words as local words rather than foreign words. Think about Jamaican/Nigerian English which is quite different. Even in UK/USA people pronounce words differently. So do the people in Morocco with Arabic. Pakistani English should be regarded as a separate branch just like US/AUS/NZ. Language is a very fluid thing throughout

I am from Karachi and people in Karachi made fun of Punjabis saying Skool, I was under impression my saying Iskool is such a grade American Accent. then one time my white Boss broke my heart, asked me why you say it Iskool, there is no I is it, its Skool

I have heard punjabis saying it as sukool or sakool

 

[MastanKhan]

Yea, but I don’t find goras saying “sakool”, it actually is pronounced as “iskool” by them goras as well

Whaaaat-

 

[Shah Khalid]

I have noticed this trend among the Urdu speaking anchors, news casters on Pakistani TV. They tend to pronounce English words starting with letter "S" as "IS". They seem to convert "S" sound in the beginning of the English words into ("I"+"S") sound. For example they pronounce School as "Ischool", Smart as "Ismart", Spoil as "Ispoil".

Why do people with Urdu speaking background tend to mispronounce these English words starting with letter "S". I have noticed that hindi speaking people of India also seem to make the same mispronunciation of English words starting with letter "S" and they too convert "S" sound into ("I"+"S") sound. What is the reason behind this mispronunciation, can any urdu or hindi speaking background person explain it for me?

Really you started a whole thread on this???

Man lockdown must have really gotten to you

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

English is also not our language yet we have no problem what so ever pronouncing English words starting with letter "S". My question is not to criticize anyone, I am just curious about this mispronunciation of English words starting with letter "S" by urdu and hindi speaking people.

Because school is اسکول in urdu.

 

[M. Sarmad]

Probably because we adopted word school not from English but Portuguese who pronounce it as 'Escol(a)'.. Escola Normal (Normal Schools) had been established by the Portuguese in Goa as early as 1514 as a part of the Colonization process of the Portuguese that constituted Forts, Churches and Schools.

Many words in Urdu/Hindi were adopted from Portuguese.
Chabi (Key) from Chave in Portuguese
Balti (Bucket) from Balde in Portuguese
Tolia (Towel) from Toalia in Portuguese
Ananas (Pineapple) from Ananás in Portuguese
Kamra (Room) from Camara in Portuguese
Girja (Church) from Igreja in Portuguese
etc

The Portuguese came to the subcontinent before the English.
Even the world Angrez for Englishman was adopted from Portuguese Inglês
Also, many words adopted in English from local Indian languages weren't adopted directly but through Portuguese.
This is a lengthy topic...

 

[I S I]

Who gives a damn.
But wtf is wrong with Indians that they pronounce chor(let it go) as chod?

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

I have heard punjabis saying it as sukool or sakool

I love memni accent..

There used to be a drama with memon characters, the aunty zubaida and Moin Akhtar.

 

[masterchief_mirza]

My personal theory about this mispronunciation is that urdu/hindi speaking folks tend to prefer elongating vowels in the beginning of the urdu words whereas they tend to shorten the vowels at the end of urdu words. But we Punjabi speaking people are totally opposite to it, we tend to shorten or sometimes even totally discard the vowels at the beginning of the words whereas we tend to elongate the vowels at the end of the words.

I give you example, urdu word for work is "kaam", this "aa" shows the preference of an elongated vowel at the beginning of the word in case of urdu, whereas the same word in punjab is "kam" or can even be simplified as "km" because we punjabis of central punjab prefer to shorten our vowels at the beginning of the words. Similarly take the english word "punishment", the urdu speaking people will pronounce it as "saza" and it feels like the vowel "a" at the end is very shortened by them, whereas our punjabi instinct is to elongate the final vowel, we you will often notice that we will pronounce it as "sazaa" with an elongated "aa" vowel at the end totally opposite to urdu speaking people's pronunciation.

This is what helps us punjabi to pronounce foreign language words which tend to have either no vowel or very short vowel at the beginning of the words. For example the word "smart" has an "sm" consonant cluster with s and m constants put together without any kind of vowel, now this is the case what we punjabi speaking people love to have either very short vowels and just a cluster of consonants at the beginning of the words, so we have no problem pronouncing english words starting with consonant clusters like "school", "smart" with sch and sm consonant clusters at the beginning of the words but the urdu/hindi speaking folks have trouble with words starting with consonant clusters so they add their own "i" vowel to ease the pronunciation for themselves, hence mispronouncing these words as "ischool" and "ismart" etc.

It is just a different way of pronunciation preferences of vowels and consonants that developed in divergent ways in central india in case of urdu/hindi and Punjab in case of punjabi language.

Great observation! It is true that some native Urdu speakers I know do this.

In English, there is a linguistic element known as an "intrusive r", which reminds me of your observation. Wikipedia:

"example, the phrasebacteria in it would be pronounced /bækˈtɪəriərˌɪnɪt/. The epenthetic /r/can be inserted to prevent hiatus, two consecutive vowel sounds"

I wonder if, due to the way desis/freshies speak English, there is an intrusive "i" at work.

 

[Max]

why Punjabi pronounce police as pols and we as "Woe"?

 

[Pakistani Fighter]

why Punjabi pronounce police as pols and we as "Woe"?

and park as Parak

 

[Mr.Cringeworth]

I have noticed this trend among the Urdu speaking anchors, news casters on Pakistani TV. They tend to pronounce English words starting with letter "S" as "IS". They seem to convert "S" sound in the beginning of the English words into ("I"+"S") sound. For example they pronounce School as "Ischool", Smart as "Ismart", Spoil as "Ispoil".

Why do people with Urdu speaking background tend to mispronounce these English words starting with letter "S". I have noticed that hindi speaking people of India also seem to make the same mispronunciation of English words starting with letter "S" and they too convert "S" sound into ("I"+"S") sound. What is the reason behind this mispronunciation, can any urdu or hindi speaking background person explain it for me?

Bothers me alot older people do it don't know about urdu speakers.

 

[Sharma Ji]

I thought Indian Biharis and some UP folk speak like that.