Browsing by Author "Hailu, Eyasu (PhD)"

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    Language Use And Attitude Among Berta-Arabic Bilinguals in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State
    (AAU, 2020-11) Tamir, Eyilachew; Hailu, Eyasu (PhD)
    Language Use and Attitudes usually govern people‟s inter- and intra-communication situation. In bilingual or multilingual speech community, it is their language attitude that determines the language use, language learning of the speech community. The main objective of this study is to investigate language attitude and language use situations among the Berta community of Benishangul Gumuz Region. The Berta speech community is living around the border of Sudan and Ethiopia where both Berta and Arabic are spoken. So 1, What attitude do they have towards Berta as opposed to Arabic? 2, Which language do they use in different domains, with different interlocutors, for different purposes? and 3, How do they use the two languages under these various circumstances? are the concerns of this study. Both primary data collected via questionnaire, interview, focus group discussion FGD, key informant interview KII and observation and secondary data gained from books, dictionary and other articles have been used as sources of data. The data was collected from the two sites Maiyu and Undullu varieties in three rounds. A majority of the questionnaire contains closed ended questions which ask respondents to replay according to scales ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The Likert scale was the main technique to measure language attitude. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods have been used to analyze the data. To analyze the data collected in qualitative methods like interviews and FGD, a descriptive/ conversation analysis method of data analysis was used. The results regarding language attitude towards Berta are mixed, but it inversely correlates with their feeling of Arabic as more prestigious, beautiful and functional than Berta. The respondents argued that they would like to be proficient more in Arabic than in Berta. They have positive attitudes towards bilingualism, in terms of speaking the two languages as well as towards code-mixing which is an indicator of mixed language usage. In the religious domain, the Berta speech communities use only Arabic whereas in other domains like the market, home and school, they use both languages. They mix codes of Arabic with Berta in their daily conversations. The Berta speech community is utilizing both cultural and core borrowings rom Arabic to Berta. In some language use domains and for a few puposes like religious domain and for counting, the Berta use Arabic exclusively.