The Status of Turkish among Female Students in Migrant Turkish Families Living in Baharestan City

The present study investigates the status of Turkish among female students living in Baharestan in Tehran province whose parents are Turkish speakers and have already migrated to this city. The aim of this study within the framework of Fishman’s domain analysis is to investigate the status and role of Turkish language alongside Persian in two domains of family and school among school girls. The data was collected using a questionnaire as well as direct observation in the long term. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS. Taking the nature of the research questions into account, one-sample t-test as well as Chi-Square goodness of fit test was conducted. The results of the study showed although the schoolgirls are fluent in Turkish language, they prefer to use Farsi in both informal domain of home as well as the formal domain of school. Furthermore, this study indicated that the status of Turkish language among schoolgirls has declined significantly and Turkish language is used in more and more limited domains. The dominant language, Tehrani Persian, has replaced Turkish in most of the domains and it is feared that the second and third generation of Turkish emigrants become monolingual and lose their mother tongue.