Language Use and Contact Phenomena in Afar Regional State: the Case of Ab' Ala Town
| dc.contributor.advisor | Sava, Graziano | |
| dc.contributor.author | Ebrahim, Mohammed | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-12-01T07:41:12Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-11-08T04:33:58Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-12-01T07:41:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-11-08T04:33:58Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2010-09 | |
| dc.description.abstract | In the lingui stically heterogeneous Ab'ala town, the dwellers use di versified languages in different domain s. In Ab'a la town. over four di stin ct Ethiopian languages are in use. These are Afa r-a f. Tigrinya, Amharic, Af"an Oromo, and Saho. 01' these languages. Afar-a t" and Tigrinya are the two indigenous local languages in the research area. On the other hand, Amharic, Afan Oromo, and Saho are non-indi genous languages. Amharic which is used as the main official language, both in the town and the region, functions in the powerful domains as language. of public services ( in office, school, health center). and authorities (in poli ce station and courtroom). However, Afar-af functions only in certain domains. It is used as the de-j ure regional language and res tricted only to the domains under grass root level (less powerful). It fun ctions in the family domain. among co uples of th e same ethnic group (intra-marriage), and in reli gious donwin (along \\'ith Arab ic). In other word s. Afar-af developed in the less-affiuent domai ns. This shows the language se izes so many important domains at the expense of Amharic. Besides, Tigrinya to a greater degree and Afar-af to lesse r degree are the two most commonly used languages in the domains of market. On the other hand, in the case of less powerful domains language use does not seem to be consistent in all the domains. This is evident in the family domain in wh ich three languages are predominan tly used hy respondents 1ยท1 hik intc'I"<lcting \I itll various partic ipants in this domain. Respondents use Amharic extensively while communicating with children. spouses/husbands and siblin gs. Tigrinya and Afar-af are also the two commonly used languages between parents and respondents. Language use in neighborhood seems to have two fea tu re s. These are while Tigri nya is predominantly used in Wuhdet kebele. Afa r-af is used in Wakrigubi kebele. In addi tion, the friendship domain is one oi" the less pOI-ver i"ul domain in which Amharic is predominantly used. In general, in the powerful domains, Amharic to a greater degree and Afa r-af to a lesser degree are used as languages of wider communication. Sim ilar t(\ ma nv oth er urban se ttings where ethno-lingui sti c groups li ve together. Ab'a la IS a place where diffe rent languages are in co ntact. Therefore, in Ab'a la town ethni c-groups such as Afar, Tega ru. Amhara, Oromo, and Irob are in co ntact in a sophisticated and unstable manner. In turn. this gives ri se to the legacy of the di fferent language contact phenomena such as swi tching, mixing. borrowing, and shift. The dwellers ex hibi ted code switching or mixing. and borrowing ex tensivelv in their day-to-c1ay communication. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/23769 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Addis Ababa Universiy | en_US |
| dc.subject | Afar Regional State: the Case of Ab' Ala Town | en_US |
| dc.title | Language Use and Contact Phenomena in Afar Regional State: the Case of Ab' Ala Town | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |