Lexical Attrition of Mother Tongue among Sardashti Kurdish Migrants in Tehran

In language contact situations, especially in an unstable bilingual community when domains of mother language are diminished, the speakers' patterns of lexical use are changed. The purpose of this study is to explore lexical attrition of Kurdish children residing in Tehran.66 Sardashti Kurdish speakers participated in this study. They have been selected from two different language communities (Tehran/Sardasht). A picture-based vocabulary test of the first language was used to measure the participants' lexical attrition. This study also examines the relationship between individuals' attitude and lexical attrition. For this aim, a language attitude questionnaire was also used to determine the relationship between positive attitude and the degree of lexical loss in the mother tongue. The data analysis showed that the children in Tehran have experienced a significant degree of lexicon attrition. In fact, they were less proficient in using Kurdish words as compared to their peers in Sardasht. The results also showed that there is a significant relationship between the speakers' attitudes toward the Kurdish language and the amount of lexical loss.