Talysh and language attitudes

Language attitudes affect the shift, survival, maintenance, death, and life of a language. The study of language attitudes therefore deserves examination. The linguistic changes in Talysh community , and the language policies designed and performed for Talysh have made the language a proper subject of investigation. The present study was designed to examine the attitudes of Talysh speakers. The data were collected through questionnaires from 240 subjects. The subjects were high school students, 120 girls and 120 boys, from three regions of Talysh: south of Talysh (Masal city), north of Talysh (Keshly and Khotbehsara villages), center of Talysh (Talysh city and Khalehsara village).The results showed that in their attitudes towards Talysh language and culture, 70% of subjects have positive attitudes and 20% have neutral attitudes. In the attitudes towards other Talysh speakers, 42% prefer Talysh speakers, i.e. in watching television and in hospital situations more subjects favored the use of Talysh and 41% of subjects have neutral attitudes .In the attitudes towards literacy in Talysh , 36% of subjects have strongly positive attitudes and 34% have relatively positive attitudes. In the attitudes towards media programs, 63%have positive attitudes and 23%have neutral attitudes.
As for media, television is the most favored , while the newspaper is the least favored . Radio ranked in between the two. As for linguistic attitude, there is statistically significant difference among Talysh regions and no statistically significant gender difference in the regions.