Attitudes and Perceptions of Language Varieties: A Case Study of Ekegusii Dialects in Kisii County

Purpose: The size of the territory considered to be home for speakers of Ekegusii in Kenya is about 2230 square kilometres. The sheer size of the territory and also compounded by the fact that the terrain is mountainous makes contact between people from extreme ends of the territory a rare occurrence. Methodology: This state of affairs contributes a great deal to the birth of regional dialects. Ekegusii has two notable regional dialects; Maate and Rogoro. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of speakers of the two varieties of the language as reflected in their speech behaviours. The study employed Language Use and Attitude Questionnaire (LUAQ) by Fishman (1965) to elicit attitudes and perceptions of speakers towards their dialect and that of the others. Findings: It emerged that there is disparity in the treatment and perception of the dialects; Rogoro dialect speakers are favourably treated and their dialect is perceived to be superior to Maate dialect. The situation is attributed to the immense institutional support Rogoro dialect enjoys from the mainstream community. Unique Contribution to theory, practice and policy: Thus, it has a strong network of speakers in a vast area as opposed to Maate dialect which is prevalent in South Mugirango only, a small portion of the entire territory. Speakers of Maate dialect do not perceive their variety as being any lesser but are aware of the preferential bias accorded to Rogoro dialect at the expense of theirs. The bias is manifested in, among other instances, distribution of limited resources such as government jobs and opportunities for social mobility in the region where the two dialects are spoken.