Language Use and Identity of Children Born to the Tigrigna Speaking Community Living in Addis Ababa A Sciolinguistic Study
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Date
2008-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to investigate the Tigrigna language maintenance
among the children born to the speakers of the language, residing in Addis. Thus, the
study examines whether the Tigrigna speaking community in Addis transfers their
language to their children and maintained it among their children or not. The study also
examines the relationship between the children's competence in the language and their
ethnic identity. To answer these questions, the children's proficiency in the language,
their language use, their identity and their attitudes towards the language were
investigated in a self-reported questionnaire filled by 126 children and in an interview
with 16 parents. Accordingly, the study reveals that although most of the Tegaru parents
speak their own language (Tigrigna) at home, the children are mostly using Amharic and
are rapidly losing their ethnic language (Tigrigna). In addition, even though some
previous literature suggests that ethnic identity and language ability are strongly related,
the findings from this study do not support this hypothesis. Instead, this study reveals that
the relationship between ethnic identity and language ability of the children is negligible
that almost all of the respondents reported their strong feeling of identity and their
positive attitude towards the language, despite their poor proficiency in it. The results
from both the questionnaire and the interviews, therefore, indicate that the target children
are in a language shift from Tigrigna to Amharic and the target language is not
maintained among the children of the target community. Finally, the study also points out
that if the Tigrina speaking community regards the language maintenance as desirable,
then explicit steps need to be taken.
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Children Born