Formal Linguistic Insecurity in Hewlêrî Speech Community

Abstract

Formal linguistic insecurity (FLI), also known as the Labovian linguistic insecurity, is a manifestation of linguistic insecurity. In this manifestation speakers of a variety regard another language or variety as the reference for correct usage. They may deem their speech patterns incorrect or less correct than those of the norm variety. This study examined FLI quantitively among members of the Hewlêrî speech community, who reside in the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, KRI. For this purpose, 155 individuals were chosen in order to fill out a test that contained12 double-questions. In each pair, the options in the A part were identical with those in the B counterpart.  These options were related to phonological, vocabulary and grammatical variables and contained words or sentences from three relevant varieties of Hewlêrî, the Semi-Standard Soranî and Sɪlêmanî. The A questions required the participants to choose the option that they regarded as the most correct, while their B counterpart asked them to indicate their usual usages. The discrepancies between the norm options and the usual options were calculated, according to a scale of FLI. The researcher had designed the scale by amending the scales in the previous relevant studies. The results suggested that almost half of the respondents suffered from high levels of FLI. The figure was nearly three times higher than the rate of those who did not feel FLI at all. The study is important because it demonstrates how the existence of a prestige variety can alternate the perception of linguistic accuracy by speakers of a local variety and affect their evaluation of their native variety. In terms of methodological implications, the study has incorporated vocabulary and grammatical items in the test of FLI, which is a new development to the Labovian framework.