Cover not available
Article published In:
Language Problems and Language Planning
Vol. 39:2 (2015) ► pp.154–170

Loving but not living the vernacular

A glimpse of Mazandarani-Farsi linguistic culture in northern Iran

| Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

Traditional top-down conceptions of language policy and planning have been questioned by recent perspectives that advocate more localized accounts of language policy concerns in real-life social contexts. Schiffman’s (1996) conception of linguistic culture is one of these bottom-up approaches, which focuses on covert language policies. This study investigates some aspects of such covert orientations of speakers of the Mazandarani language towards their local vernacular in the bilingual Mazandarani–Farsi context of northern Iran. It specifically attempts to explore the current linguistic culture atmosphere in terms of assumptions, prejudices, attitudes, and stereotypes with regard to Mazandarani. These aspects of public belief are particularly investigated as referring to language use in ‘social situations’, ‘professional contexts’, ‘education’, and ‘media’. A group of 106 participants responded to a questionnaire that was aimed at eliciting their views on these linguistic culture domains as well as their ‘attitude’ towards Mazandarani. The study indicates that although the participants show very positive emotional attitudes towards their local language, their actual linguistic culture appears to be strongly in favor of the official national language, i.e. Farsi. Some concerns are raised as to the implications of such a loving-but-not-living linguistic culture for a more realistic understanding of language policy and planning.

Keywords: language attitudes, Mazandarani, Iranian languages, linguistic culture
Published online: 22 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.39.2.03mir
References
Adegbija, E
(1994) Language attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A sociolinguistic overview. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
(2000) Language attitudes in West Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1411, 75–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aghagolzadeh, F
(1993) Verb phrase in the Mazandarani eastern dialect. Unpublished MA Thesis, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran.
Al-Zidjaly, A
. (April 2008) A mediated discourse analysis approach to language attitude research in Oman. Sociolinguistics Symposium 171. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Amouzadeh, M
(2003) Diglossia and convergence in Mazenderani (In Farsi). Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (University of Mazandaran), 21, 139–160.Google Scholar
Bernard, H.R
(1992) Preserving language diversity. Human Organization, 51(1), 82–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Borjian, H
(2004) Mazandarani: Language and people. Iran and the Caucasus, 8(2), 289–328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) The oldest known texts in new Tabari: The collection of Aleksander ChodŸko. Oriental Archive, 74(2), 153–171.Google Scholar
Borjian, M
(2008) Tabarica II: Some Mazandarani verbs. Iran and the Caucasus, 12(1), 73–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Borjia, H. & Borjian, M
(2007) Marriage rites in south Caspian villages: Ethnographic and linguistic materials from Mazandaran. Oriental Archive, 75(2), 191–214.Google Scholar
Borjian, M
(2005) Bilingualism in Mazandaran: Peaceful coexistence with Persian. In Z. Zacharia & T. Arnstein (Eds.), Languages, communities and education (pp. 65–74). New York: Society for International Education.Google Scholar
Bresnahan, M.J., Ohashi, R., Nebashi, R., Liu, W.Y., & Moringa Shearman, S
(2002) Attitudinal and affective response toward accented English. Language and Communication 221, 171–186. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Canagarajah, S
(2006) Ethnographic methods in language policy. In T. Ricento (Ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method (pp. 153–169). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dailey, R.M., Giles, H., & Jansma, L.L
(2005) Language attitudes in an Anglo-Hispanic context: The role of the linguistic landscape. Language and Communication 251, 27–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davari Ardakani, N. & Ahmadipour, T
(2009) An introduction to language policy implementation in Iran: The case of the Third Academy. In G.M. Socarrás (Ed.), Philological explorations (pp. 339–352). Athens: ATINER.Google Scholar
Fakhr-Rohani, M.R
(2005) Emphasis on possession: Evidence from Mazandarani. PLM 2005 Abstract, Retrieved October 15, 2007, form http://​elex​.amu​.edu​.pl​/ifa​/plm.
Fishman, J.A
(1991) Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
(2013) Language maintenance, language shift, and reversing language shift. In T.K. Bhatia & W.C. Ritchie (Eds.), The handbook of bilingualism and multilingualism (2nd ed.) (pp. 466–494). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Garrett, P
(2010) Attitudes to languages. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garry, J. & Rubino, C
(Eds.) (2001) Encyclopedia of the world’s languages: Past and present. New York: Wilson Press.Google Scholar
Giles, H. & Billings, A
(2004) Language attitudes. In A. Davies & A., Elder (Eds.), Handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 187–209). Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grenoble, L.A
(2013) Language revitalization. In R. Bayley, R. Cameron, & C. Lucas (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 792–811). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hale, K
(1998) On endangered languages and the importance of linguistic diversity. In L.A. Grenoble & L.J. Whaley (Eds.), Endangered languages: Language loss and community response (pp. 192–216). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, D.C
(2009) Ethnography of language policy. Language Policy 81, 139–159. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaplan R.B., Baldauf Jr., R.B., & Kamwangamalu, N
(Eds.) (2013) Language planning in Europe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Liddicoat, A.J. & Baldauf Jr., R.B
(Eds.) (2008) Language planning and policy: Language planning in local contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Makihara, M. & Schieffelin, B.B
(Eds.) (2007) Consequences of contact: Language ideologies and sociocultural transformations in Pacific societies. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Markaz-e Amar-e Iran (Iran Statistics Center)
(2011) 1390 General Census. (www​.amar​.org​.ir)
Nawata, T
(1984) Mazandarani: Asian and African Grammatical Manual (No 17). Tokyo: ILCAA.Google Scholar
Pennycook, A
(2006) Postmodernism in language policy. In T. Ricento (Ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method (pp. 60–76). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ricento, T
(2000) Historical and theoretical perspectives in language policy and Planning. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4(2), 196–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(Ed.) (2006) An introduction to language policy: Theory and method. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
(2013) Language policy, ideology, and attitudes in English-dominant countries. In R. Bayley, R. Cameron, & C. Lucas (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 525–544). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Saah, K.K
(1986) Language use and attitudes in Ghana. Anthropological Linguistics 28(3), 367–378.Google Scholar
Sadeghi, A.A
(2001) Language planning in Iran: A historical review. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1481, 19–30.Google Scholar
Schiffman, H.F
(1996) Linguistic culture and language policy. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2002) Malaysian Tamils and Tamil linguistic culture. Language and Communication, 221, 159–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) Language policy and linguistic culture. In T. Ricento (Ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method (pp. 111–125). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sellner, M.B
(2003) Remarks on language attitudes and language policy-planning in the Japanese context. TRANS. Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften, No. 151. Retrieved April 18, 2009 from www​.inst​.at​/trans​/15Nr​/06​_1​/sellner15​.htmGoogle Scholar
Shoba, J.A. and Chimbutane, F
(Eds.) (2013) Bilingual education and language policy in the global south. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shokri, G
(1995) Sari dialect (of Mazandarani). Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.Google Scholar
(2006) Ramsari dialect. Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.Google Scholar
Siegel, J
(2006) Language ideologies and the education of speakers of marginalized language varieties: Adopting a critical awareness approach. Linguistics and Education, 171, 157–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spolsky, B
(2004) Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2009) Language management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toft, Z
(2002) Review of Garry, J. & Rubino, C. (Eds.) (2001) Encyclopedia of the world’s languages: Past and present. New York: H. W. Wilson Press. Retrieved October 5, 2007 from http://​linguistlist​.org​/issues​/13​/13​-1690​.html#1Google Scholar
Tollefson, J.W
(2006) Critical theory in language policy. In T. Ricento (Ed.), An introduction to language policy: Theory and method (pp. 42–59). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tsunoda, T
(2005) Language endangerment and language revitalization. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Yoshie, S
(1998) Sari dialect (of Mazandarani language). Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo, Japan.Google Scholar