Perception of Prestige: The Study of Undergraduate Students’ Attitude towards Urdu and Hindko

The Present study explores the attitudes of undergraduate students from the Abbottabad district towards Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, and Hindko, a dominant language in the region, and the social processes that contribute to the potential erosion of Hindko. In particular, it examines the changing language attitudes and documented the transition from Hindko to Urdu due to social, political, and economic aspirations related to social mobility. Following a quantitative research design, the researcher distributed a 20-item questionnaire to 300 undergraduate students (150 male and 150 female) aged 18 to 25, through quota sampling. The questionnaire responded to language use, choice, and language attitudes. The data revealed relationship between perceiving social mobility and propensity among many of the younger participants to embrace Urdu; many claimed Urdu as a language of social mobility for the future, while attitudes towards Hindko may have been changing at the same time. Collective language attitudes and preferences raise important questions about the sustainability of Hindko in the future and the issues associated with multilingualism in Pakistan.