Multilingualism and Local Literacy Practices in Ethiopia: Language contact in regulated and unregulated spaces

Elizabeth Lanza,Hirut Woldemariam

doi:10.14426/mm.v1i1.22

Abstract

The study of the linguistic landscape has provided a new dimension to theories andissues related to multilingualism, including language policy. In this growing field ofinquiry, however, not enough attention has been given to the linguistic landscape insites in the Global South. Since one of the aims of literacy studies is to reveal the varietyand social patternings of practices, there is a need to compare linguistic landscape datawith other various textual materials. In this article, we present linguistic landscape datafrom two federal regional capitals in Ethiopia that demonstrate multilingual languageuse. We also compare the linguistic contact patterns with those found in schoolbooksused in the same region. Such a comparison involves language use in unregulatedas well as in regulated spaces (see Sebba 2009). Regional ethnically based languagesare now being used in new arenas, including the linguistic landscape and educationbecause of a new language policy promoting the use and development of regionallanguages. The two regional capitals provide privileged sites for examining theproducts of local literacy practices, involving values, attitudes, ideologies, and socialrelationships. We discuss the results in light of various ideologies and argue for thespeaker-writer’s active mobilisation of multilingual resources in new language arenas.

Highlights

The study of written language has come to the fore in current approaches to multilingualism
We explore the issue of language contact in local literacy practices in Ethiopia, a country considered marginal from a global perspective
We focused our attention on language contact between Amharic and the two regional languages in Ethiopia and have limited the scope of our inquiry to textbooks translated from Amharic for grades below Grade 7

Summary

Introduction

The study of written language has come to the fore in current approaches to multilingualism. English, the de facto official second language in Ethiopia, is in the equation of language use, alongside the national working language Amharic and the regional languages that have gained status through the policy of ethnic federalism. It was considered the regional capital of Oromia until 2000 when the Ethiopian government moved the capital of Oromia to Adama, a city that is located along a major road in the region that connects the capital with other urban centers as well as with the port of Djibouti This was a highly political move interpreted by some as an attempt to divorce the country’s capital from the Oromia region and its people; the government insisted that the development of the Oromo language and culture, as provided in the new Constitution, would be best accomplished outside the capital of Addis Ababa. As with Tigrinya, no reliable up-to-date statistics are available for current literacy rates in Oromia

Methodology

Findings

Discussion and conclusion