A matter of honour: Speaking Hozo (Ak’mo Wandi), an endangered language in western Ethiopia

Abstract

This article is concerned with Hozo, a minority language spoken in western Ethiopia, and its speakers. Today, the use of Hozo, which belongs to the Mao branch of the Omotic languages, is declining rapidly. We seek to explore the discourses and practical circumstances that underlie language change and loss, and how the language community makes sense of their options and choices. Our research methods are mainly ethnographic, and the evidence is drawn from both long-term fieldwork with in-depth interviews and participant observation, and ten years of practical experience from various language development projects in the area, with Hozo mother tongue speakers and speakers of other Mao languages. The results show that although speakers base their choices of language use on practical considerations, the language itself has an important symbolic value that awards the community a sense of kap’á (honour) and demonstrates ancestral “purity”. Hence, language development may not necessarily increase the practical functions of Hozo or halt the language loss, but it may still have implications beyond the generation of the last mother tongue speakers.