oa From vernacular to official language: A case study of language shift in Iran

In multilingual context of the present Iran, recent years have witnessed a significant tendency among families in indigenous communities to undermine the mother tongue and speak the official language of Persian to young children. Therefore, the present study aimed at finding out the main reasons for language shift from native to official among Dehloran families in Ilam, Iran. A questionnaire consisted of 46 items to identify the main reasons for language shift was distributed among 206 participants to reflect their views on the basis of a five-point Likert scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. Results indicated that the majority of people related language shift to reasons such as the belief in better understanding of educational materials in school as well as achieving fluency in Persian, the role of Persian as the lingua franca of all Iranian ethnics, and the use of Persian in expanded domains. Moreover, the participants believed that the language shift is not confined to a particular social class but is pervasive among all members of the society.