Attitudes of Tabrizi Citizens towards Dialectal Variation across East Azerbaijan Province with Focus on Linguistic Difference, correctness and Pleasantness

Linguistic attitude, i.e. any type of feeling or sensation of an individual towards his or her own language and that of others, involves concepts such as culture, identity, and mechanisms such as language planning. In this study, considering the three parameters of linguistic difference, correctness, and pleasantness, the attitudes of Tabrizi citizens towards dialectal variation across East Azerbaijan province were evaluated. A researcher-made questionnaire with three maps of the province was presented to 384 citizens of Tabriz who speak Azeri Turkish as their first language. The participants marked their opinion towards linguistic differences with Tabrizi accent in a scale from 1 to 4. The correctness and pleasantness parameters were evaluated in a scale from 1 to 7. The statistical data shows that the proximity principle is a valid parameter, as the least differences with Tabrizi dialect were recorded in six adjacent cities. Secondly, most participants considered Tabrizi dialect as the most correct and most pleasant variety across the province. With the two exceptions of Meraghe and Bonab, other counties showed a positive correlation between correctness and pleasantness parameters. The group of females ranked Tabrizi higher in terms of correctness and pleasantness. The age group 26-45 recognized more difference between Tabrizi accent and those of other counties. The non-educated group showed more significant attention towards the pleasantness parameter. In addition to theoretical achievements in sociolinguistics and dialectology, the findings of the present study could support language planning projects and decision making in institutions such as local IRIB as well as centers for teaching Azeri Turkish.