Original scientific paper
Cultural Implications of Attitudes and Evaluative Reactions Toward Dialect Variation in Croatian Youth
Lucija Šimičić
Anita Sujoldžić
Abstract
As a consequence of political changes and war, during the last decade the migration
processes have been intensified and incomers from other parts of Croatia and neighbouring
countries have moved to the town of Zagreb and have changed it considerably.
These demographic changes have also had an influence on the language used in the
area and on language attitudes towards the Standard Croatian, local vernacular and
other dialectal varieties. The aim of this study is to explore the awareness that speakers,
Croatian adolescents resident in Zagreb, have of their own language variety and their
attitudes toward different other dialect varieties. The data were collected using the speech
guise method and a questionnaire in order to assess both conscious and unconscious
components of these linguistic evaluations. The results obtained once again confirmed
the expected prestige of the Standard variety in terms of its speaker's alleged highest
competence, but also its low standing as far as social attractiveness is concerned. Nonstandard
local varieties showed the exactly opposite trend, although the evaluation of
native and immigrant adolescents differed considerably.
Keywords
language attitudes; matched-guise test; stereotypes; adolescents
Hrčak ID:
27949
URI
Publication date:
24.6.2004.
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