Studying Speakers' Attitudes towards Kurdish, Kermanshahi Persian, and Standard Persian in Kermanshah Using Matched Guise Technique

We live in a world where linguistic diversity is rapidly dwindling. Many living languages are expected to become extinct during the next century. The speakers' attitude toward vernacular languages is the most crucial factor influencing a language's survival or death. Kermanshah, located in western Iran, is a multilingual city that speaks Kurdish, Kermanshahi Persian, and Standard Persian. In such societies, evaluating the linguistic attitude of a society's people toward a language variety and its speakers can provide insight into the future survival or decline of language types. To present an accurate and scientific image of the state and situation of these linguistic varieties, the Matched-guise test, one of the indirect ways of evaluating language attitude, was utilized in this study. Purposive sampling was used to select 80 participants, including 40 women and 40 males from Kermanshah aged 20 to 40 and 40 to 60, respectively. The results revealed that, in that order, Standard Persian, Kurdish, and Kermanshahi Persian had the highest to lowest positive attitudes. Women favored Standard Persian over men, whereas men favored Kurdish over Standard Persian. When the effect of age on linguistic attitude was evaluated, no significant difference was observed. IntroductionLanguage plays a vital role in human personal and social lives, shaping beliefs, emotions, and attitudes towards mother tongue and other languages. Linguistic attitude, defined as emotional disposition towards languages (Crystal, 1997), can lead individuals to prefer one language over another due to various social, cultural, economic, historical, and identity factors. This preference can impact language survival or decline, with attitudes towards vernacular languages crucial for their preservation. Kermanshah, a city in western Iran with speakers of Kurdish, Kermanshahi Persian, and Standard Persian, exemplifies this dynamic, where assessing linguistic attitudes influences the preservation or marginalization of languages within the community.Generally, to assess speakers' attitudes towards different language varieties, direct or indirect methods are used. However, there is a limited number of studies conducted within Iran that employ direct or indirect methods to gauge speakers' linguistic attitudes. In most studies conducted in Iran, the focus has predominantly been on the status and use of language varieties within various linguistic communities. The only internal study that employed an indir