Regional Variation and Persian Word-selection

This study strives to investigate the importance of 'regional variation' in accepting and rejecting the words coined by the iranian academy of persian language and literature (apll). a total of 500 students from state universities in tehran were chosen as prticipants provided with a questionnaire consisting of 50 apll equivalents. as used in the media, 62% of the first 25 apll words were accepted by the respondents; however, the second 25 equivalents, which were of zero frequency in the media, were accepted by 38% of the respondents. of 493 respondents, who returned the questionnaires, 60% were undergraduates, 30% were pursuing ma while 10% were working on their doctoral dissertation. close to half the undergraduates and masters and only a little more than half of the phd students have accepted the equivalents. the percentages of apll word acceptance and rejection among tehrani respondents and non-tehrani respondents are 48% and 52%, respectively, showing that there is no significant relationship between the response of those living in tehran or other cities/towns and the acceptance and rejection of the apll words. meanwhile, as for dialects/accents, there is no significant relation between using dialects (or accents) other than standard persian and the acceptance and rejection of the apll words either