Lexical Interference in Taleshi-Farsi and Farsi-Taleshi Bilinguals

Abstract

Bilinguals transfer elements from their first language to their second language unintentionally due to their weakness in communicating in second language. This process is called linguistic interference in sociolinguistics and science of language teaching. Exploring the consequences of linguistic contact, linguistic interference, and bilingualism sheds lights on many issues and subjects and on developing educational materials in a multilingual community such as Iran where Farsi language is used for educational purposes. Therefore, the present study sought to explore the lexical interference in Taleshi-Farsi and Farsi-Taleshi bilinguals among the Talehshi-speaking community of Anbaran village and immigrants of this village to the west of Tehran through comparison between the two bilingual groups. The research data were obtained through a questionnaire and a number of sentences translated by bilingual people into each language. The subjects were randomly selected from among the inhabitants of Anbaran and the bilingual immigrants in the west of Tehran. It was revealed that interference from the first language to a second language occurs more frequently and the gender of the speakers also has a slight effect on linguistic interference.

Keywords

• taleshi language
• farsi language
• linguistic contact
• bilingualism
• language interference
• lexical interference