Document Type : Original Article
Author
Assistant professor of linguistics, Department of English Language Teaching, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Social, economic, political and cultural changes, along with the development of technology and communications in recent years in our country, have led to the tendency of speakers of local and minority languages to the Persian language, and this trend is considered a threat to the survival of minority languages. In the meantime, the linguistic attitude of speakers towards their mother tongue is one of the effective and determining factors in the fate of these languages. This study has examined the linguistic attitudes of speakers towards Mazandarani and Persian in Mazandaran Province, as well as the impact of some social factors such as age, gender and urbanization on these attitudes. The sample population includes 1200 Mazandarani speakers from three age groups, in five cities and twelve rural areas, and from two gender groups: men and women. The findings of the study indicate that many Mazandarani speakers do not believe in the potential and importance of this language, and in general, negative attitudes toward Mazandarani predominate. The analyses also showed that overall, lower age groups have a greater tendency towards Persian, and women are more interested in Persian than men, and urban dwellers are more interested in Persian than rural dwellers. Considering the expansion of urbanization on the one hand, and the role of the younger generation, especially girls as future mothers, in transmitting their native language to the next generation, it can be predicted that Mazandarani is in danger of extinction.
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