First Language Lexical Attrition among Kurdish-Persian Bilinguals: A Case Study in Eslam-Abad-e Gharb

Abstract

A significant percentage of the Iranians are bilinguals who learn minority languages in the family and the Persian language in schools. The permanent contact of non-Persian speakers with Persian and learning it as a second language has provided the ground for the attrition of their first language. This process can lead to the replacement and death of minority languages in the long term. The present study investigated the lexical attrition of the first language among Kurdish-Persian bilinguals in Eslamabad-e Gharb. This study was done with the participation of 120 bilingual men and women between the two age groups of 18 to 30 and 65 years and older. The results of the study showed that male speakers are more capable of preserving the vocabulary of the first language and their lexical ability is less attrited than females. Also, older age group has a greater ability to retain first language vocabulary and their lexical ability is less attrited than youngers (18-30). Considering the linguistic tendencies and choices of women and youths and their inclination towards the standard and official languages, the higher percentage of lexical attrition among women and youngers indicates the trend of first language attrition among Kurdish-Persian bilinguals.

Keywords

• sociolinguistics
• language contact
• bilingualism
• language attrition
• kalhori kurdish