A Brief History of Writing Systems Used for Afan Oromo and the Evaluation of its Current Orthography
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Date
2008-09
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AAU
Abstract
The purpose of th is study was to assess the historical development of writing for
Afan Oromo and to conduct the evaluation of the current orthography. The study
focuses on how the Latin based orthography eventually came to be chosen and
on the evaluation of the current orthography. To this effect, the descriptive survey
method was employed.
Sample schools were selected from three Oromia zones: West Shoa, South
West Shoa and North Shoa. The subjects of the study were 60 fourth grade
students and 30 primary school teachers. Simple random sampling technique
was employed to select the woredas and schools. And systematic sampling was
used to select the subjects of the study. Questionnaire, interview, observation
and document analysis were used to obtain the necessary data. The gathered
data were analyzed by employing percentage, mean and narration.
The Afan Oromo Orthography, Qubee, was officially implemented 16 years ago
to reduce the vernacular language for the first time as a popular literacy. The
Latin based alphabet, Qubee, has been a point of controversy in view of the
socio-political importance of the Ethiopic script in Ethiopia. In fa ct, Qubee was
developed as a form of resistance against the hostile language policy prevailing
in the country under past regimes except Derg to some extent. As a result, the
design and implementation of the 0/1hography has been full of a rash and
emotionality rather than the objective analysis and evaluation of the 0/1hography
to work fur its imp rovement.
Th erefore, Qubee has critical drawbacks in its design and implementation. In its
design, it has challenges such as elongated word length because of doubling
monographs to in dicate gemination and vowel length. It has also a drawback that
it lacks a fixed convention of alphabetic order. Regarding its implementation, in
addition to the lack of rep etition and emphasis, some contents such as print
concepts and handwriting are absent from the literacy implementation. In
addition, important preconditions such as trained man power, well prepared
textbooks and teaching aids are not yet fulfilled. Accordingly, possible solutions
are made to the respective challenges pertinent to the orthography such as the
indication of gemination could be possible by using capital letters, on-the-job
tra ining had better be provided for teachers, textbooks should be revised in this
respect and tea ching aids preparation had better take place in schools of
Oromia Regional State.
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The study focuses on how the Latin based orthography eventually came to be chosen and on the evaluation of the current orthography