Linguistic and Social Aspects of the ?ajo (Azmari) Argot in Tigray
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Date
2011-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This re search foc u scd o n the ling uistic features and social a spects of th e ?afo a rgot. The objectives of thi s rescarc h a re to describe the lin guistic features of the ?afo argot and the socia l aspect s of the rafo argot and its speakers in order to explain why the ?afo people use it as secret languagc. To achieve these objectives, the researcher used purposive me th od sa mpling to se lect thc informants. Elicitation, interview and participatory observa ti on m et hod wc re uscd to collcct the data. The data have b een recorded by using audio-tape record er and vid co-camera. Qualitative a s well as quantitative methods are employed to analyze the collected data. Thc Endings o f thi s re sea rc h are the following. There is underestimation bctween th e ?afo and non-?af o group s. This undc restima ti o n is a reason for the rafo group to be s cll~de s ignated and to have secret la ngua ge 0 1' a rgo t. Second , thc ?afo argot is dcri vcd from T igrin ya and Amharic words through form, scmantic, form and s emantic changes, usin g diffcrent se man ti c aspects and dircc t u sed te rms of Ti g rinya. In form cha n ge, th e ?afo a r got uses phonologi ca l defo rm ati o ns such as a ddition, m e tathesis, redup lica tion , substitution, deletion, vowcl defo rm ation and degemination as w ell as free variation and depalatalization of the sound s. In ad d iti on , sufli xcs and some prelixes o f Tig rin ya and Amharic, onomatopoeic words and changed term s fr om co mpound vc rb s to s in g le wo rd s havc been used in th e formation of the argot. The ?afo a rgo t a lso uses se illanti c Inad, in s trulllcntal nouns, paraphras ti c desc ription s, con notati ve and denotative mcanll1 gs a nd namin g whole and parts in the sam e word to s olve inadequate of expressions. 7afo argn t lI ses th e phonological and sy ntac tic stru c ture a s well as Illorphological cxpressions of Tigrinya.
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Linguistic