Journal of Social Sciences Review (JSSR) DOI: https://doi.org/10.54183/jssr.v3i1.203 How to Cite This Article: Baitullah., Iqbal, L., & Ullah, I. (2023). Phonemic Variations in English Loanwords Borrowed into Afghani Pashto. Journal of Social Sciences Review, 3(1), 590-606. https://doi.org/10.54183/jssr.v3i1.203 Phonemic Variations in English Loanwords Borrowed into Afghani Pashto Baitullah M.Phil. Scholar, Department of English, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, KP, Pakistan. Liaqat Iqbal Associate Professor, Department of English, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, KP, Pakistan. Irfan Ullah Assistant Professor, Department of English, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, KP, Pakistan. Vol. 3, No. 1 (Winter 2023) Abstract: Due to Pashto-English language contact, a large number of words are borrowed from English into Afghani Pashto. These English loanwords undergo certain types of variation. This study aims at phonemic variations in English loanwords borrowed into Afghani Pashto. A corpus of 90 English loanwords was collected from ten audio-video programs from Afghani TV channels. They were news and discussion panels. The conversation of Afghani Pashto speakers was observed for the collection of the corpus. The data were analyzed according to Levenshtein's (1966) Distance Algorithm Model to investigate the phonemic variations in English loanwords. Based on the research findings, it was revealed that most of the loanwords undergo phonemic variation and some words are just adopted. Most of the words undergo a change of vowel sounds. Some of the words also maintain a change in the consonant sounds. In some cases, the words experience a change in both the vowel and consonant sounds. Pages: 590 – 606 ISSN (Print): 2789-441X ISSN (Online): 2789-4428 Key Words Language Contact, Loanwords, Phonemic Variations, Afghani Pashto, English Corresponding Author: Liaqat Iqbal Email: liaqatiqbal@gmail.com Introduction Languages are like living beings and they are born, developed, changed and died over time (Schleicher, 1863). Sapir (1921) has argued that like cultures, languages are also not sufficient to themselves, and because of the need to interact with the speakers of other languages, the speakers come to have contact with the speakers of those languages which are neighboring languages or culturally dominant languages. This contact between the speakers of different languages with each other is called language contact. Language contact is defined by Thomason (2001, p.2) as "the use of more than one language in the same place at the same time". Thomason further says that the term language contact is applied to such a situation in which the speakers of the same language interact with those who speak a different language. Samuel Ayodele Dada (2013) points out that contact between languages is unavoidable and indispensable because no one can remain on an island. It is inevitable. Language contact happens due to the spread of languages via conquest, migration, trade, globalization and coloniszation (Mesthrie, 2009). It is a very common phenomenon and when one language comes into contact with the other language, they affect each other. When a language affects another language, different kinds of linguistic changes occur. It can be at different levels such as phonological changes, morphological changes, syntactic changes or semantic changes. One such change