The Language Issue among the Political Parties of Ethiopia
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Date
2011-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia is a multilingual country framed by ethnic federalism with a multiparty
democratic parliamentarian system of government. The grand objective of this
study is surveying, analyzing, categorizing and comparing the language policy
proposals provided by the political parties of Ethiopia regarding language use in
administrative purposes as well as in education. Basically, this is a descriptive
qualitative research and the policies of the parties were outlined from their official
manifestos and political programs. Hence, the method used is document analysis
after taking representative samples from the political parties that are currently
functioning in the country. The language poliCies of the parties are categorized
taking the literature review on the issue of language policy in sociolinguistics as a
framework. Moreover, the motivation behind the language policies is assessed. It is
only a few of the political parties that were found to have a relatively clearly
explicated language policy. There are also parties that do not have any language
proposal at all. It is also found that there are explicitly stated demands for the
promotion of one or more language to be used as the working language of the
federal government based on its numerical muscle or instrumental value for science
and technology exchange. On the other hand, although mother tongue education is
mostly favored among the political parties despite its restricted use only at the
primary level education, there are parties that propose the adoption of one language
to be used as medium of instruction all over the country. In addition, there are
proposals which forward the adoption of a selected federal working language(s) up
to secondary level education as subj ect(s) of study in the entire schools in the
country. Since Ethiopia is a multilingual state, with all the conflicts between
different ethno-linguistic groups as history tells us, any developmental policy should
always consider language as an issue to be thought thoroughly in planning economic
development as well as regional tranquility. It is also suggested that the parties and
the stake holders of the language policy business should base their arguments
regarding language policy based on a well researched pros and cons evaluation.
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Keywords
Political Parties of Ethiopia