Dialects spoken in neighboring regions are similar, but. Languages of ethiopia download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. This paper is focused on the development of language policy in ethiopia from. As it is widely known, ethiopian languages possess a number of common features that are. Country overview information including a histogram showing a language status profile. There are over 83 languages spoken in the country with 200 dialects.
One world nations online lets care for this planet promote that every nation assumes responsibility for our world. Amharic is also spoken by 40,000 people in israel as well as people in egypt and sweden. Click download or read online button to get languages of ethiopia book now. Ethiopian languages semitic, cushitic, omotic and nilo. Ethiopian federation has several working languages in different jurisdictions. Particular preferred subject areas that distribute on our. Onewash plus programme owpp publications unicef ethiopia. View ethiopian languages research papers on academia. Therefore, this presentation tries to show the roles of the english language in the ethiopian education and business sectors, with a glimpse of the language. Amharic also known as abyssinian, amarinya, amarigna, and ethiopian is the national language of ethiopia. At the top left, the capital city of sudan, khartoum, is located at the convergence of the blue nile and the white nile. L, bender 1, nomenclatxire of the bertaapeaking peoples and their neighbors. Pdf issues in ethiopian language policy and education.
Project muse the nonsemitic languages of ethiopia ed. Join this global effort to conserve linguistic diversity. From the five branches of the afrasian group, amharic belongs to the southern peripheral semitic family of languages. Pdf language policies and the role of english in ethiopia 1. In 1955, amharic was made the official language in ethiopias revised constitution. These are semitic, cushitic, omotic, and nilosaharan. The most widely spoken language in ethiopia is oromo, which around 33. To the greeks, ethiopia was a country south of egypt, and in this sense the word is generally used in the histories of egypt.
Issues in ethiopian language policy and education article pdf available in journal of multilingual and multicultural development october 15. Other major languages include oromigna, somali and tigrigna. The earliest evidence of ethiopian history is around bc, when the queen of sheba visited king soloman. Ethiopians are ethnically diverse, with the most important differences on the basis of linguistic categorization. Current language policy the path chosen by ethiopia s current government with regard to language policy was, and remains, progressive.
Ras kassa had himself crowned as the emperor at axum under a different name tewodros. The language of amharic is spoken in the ethiopian government, court system, and on all official documents. Ugo zanetti languages in ethiopia a nd in t h e h or n o f africa it is often heard that the horn of africa is a paradise for linguists. The names ethiopia and ethiopians have been used in many different meanings by various peoples. More specifically, amharic is not the only working language of ethiopia.
Current language policy the path chosen by ethiopias current government with regard to language policy was, and remains, progressive. Pdf in ethiopia, the overthrow of the military government of the dergue in 1991 ushered in a period of political reforms which are still in. The endangered languages project is a collaborative online platform for sharing knowledge and resources for endangered languages. The impact of language policy and practice on childrens learning.
These ethnic groups have their own way of clothing, hair styles, songs, dances and arts ethiopians have unique calendar, and unique alphabet. This file is licensed under the creative commons attributionshare alike 3. Amharic is the official language of the country of ethiopia. Ethiopia is a mosaic of about 100 languages that can be classified into four groups. According to the ethiopian census of 2007, the first languages and the largest are the oromo with about 24,930,424 of the population speaking the language which is equivalent to 33. Apart from a fiveyear occupation by mussolinis italy, it has never been colonised.
Policy and practice on language of instruction in ethiopian schools. Read pdf articles on languages of ethiopia, including. The oromo make the largest ethnic group in ethiopia, like 35%. Though the official working language of the country is amharic. More than 80 languages and 200 dialects are spoken throughout the country. Full text of languages of ethiopia see other formats 21 berta a. School in ethiopia offer english classes as a mandatory classes and university education, is given in english. It is a dialect continuum, or a spectrum of dialects that are spoken across a region.
Proceedings of the 16th international conference of ethiopian studies, ed. Southern nations, nationalities, and peoples region. Changes in ethiopias language and education policy gced. Though i was predisposed toward the ethiopia i had studied since the late 1950s, i.
The ethiopian languages are divided into four major language groups. Ethiopia is located in the north eastern part of the african continent or what is known as the horn of africa. Publication date 1976 topics gawwada grammar, gwd publisher. Omotic languages, tigrinya language, amharic language, oromo. You could find many kinds of ebook as well as other literatures from the files data base.
Over the last decade, a number of initiatives have focused on improving wash in small towns in ethiopia. Amharic shall be the working language of the federal government. Although the blue nile is much shorter than the white nile, it contributes about 80% of the flow of the river. Palmer, university of reading to a large extent, the nonsemitic languages of ethiopia are coextensive with those that were formerly all called cushitic, but have more recently been divided into cushitic and omotic. Most of these languages belong to the afroasiatic family semitic and cushitic languages. For each lesson click on the corresponding chichewa audio lesson. The ethiopian kings came from that country which is now called nubia in the angloegyptian sudan. Primary schools are taught in amharic and other local languages. Even, the imam recruited more than three thousand yejjuu oromo into his soldiers lester stenhouse, 2003.
Ethiopia as a nation, defining it as an obsolete empirestate, a prison house of peoples. Oromo is an afroasiatic language, specifically part of the cushitic branch of the language family, that is spoken in ethiopia, somalia, and kenya. The reason amharic is widely spoken is because of expansive and dominant naturebof the ruling elite in central ethiopia was dominated mostly by the amharas as recently as the 40 year reign of atse haileselassie. Media in category languages of ethiopia the following 8 files are in this category, out of 8 total. Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked since 1991 country in the world located in the horn of africa bordered by six countries djibouti, somalia, kenya, south sudan, sudan and eritrea map. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. A pdf document that collates all the information from ethnologue about the language situation in ethiopia. Languages of the world and where they are spoken, a list of language names in english and french with iso 6392 alpha3 as well as some of the alpha2 language identification codes. Amharic belongs to the southern branch of hemetosemitic languages which is also referred to as afrasian. According to the constitution of 1994, amharic is the official language of the country, however, the constitution also directs that all ethiopian languages shall enjoy equal state recognition. Together, they make up around a third of ethiopias population.
The new ethiopia is known as a country of mosaic of cultures. In ethiopia, english is the most widely spoken foreign language. In oromia state, for example, oromo is the working language. Ethiopia is home to around 80 ethnic groups and as many languages, although amharic is the official language. This video is about amharic a semitic language related to arabic, hebrew, and others. All ethiopian languages shall enjoy equal state recognition. Ethiopic language definition and meaning bible dictionary. This indicates that afaan oromo was a popular language in northern ethiopia before the alleged oromo expansion of the sixteenth century began.
Other languages spoken in the state include kambaata, mello, goffa, gedeo and dima. In ethiopia and eritrea there are approximately eighty languages spoken by nearly 100 million people, the majority of which belong to three families of the afroasiatic phylum, namely, semitic in the center, north and west, cushitic in the east and south and omotic in the southwest. The amhara live in central ethiopia, and the tigray in the north. The vast majority of languages belong to the semitic, cushitic, or omotic groups, all part of the afroasiatic language family. It originated from geez or ethiopic, which was extensively used in north ethiopia since the first millennium a. Then come the amharas around 30% whose mothertongue is amharic. Thus, ethiopia has not one but several working languages.
Besides, in the west and southwest, a number of languages belong to various families of the. There are 86 individual languages indigenous to ethiopia according to ethnologue, with the 1994 ethiopian census indicating that some 77 tongues were spoken locally. This has included the onewash plus programme owpp, a programme coordinated by unicef and implemented in eight towns over a sixyear period from 20 to 2019 with gbp 22 million approx. Of the other 85 languages spoken in ethiopia the following are most prevalent. Omotic languages are also spoken, but their classification as afroasiatic remains disputed. Page 3 of 9 ethiopia is the oldest independent country in sub saharan africa. Girmas study on the origin of amharic also discusses controversial issues about the origin of the ethiosemitic language group, which is of particular interest for semitic porates most of the accessible historical documents with regard to amharic and the language situation in. The semitic languages are spoken in northern, central and eastern ethiopia mainly in tigray, amhara, harar and. The expansion of foreign languages in modern ethiopia is highly connected with. Their languages both come from an ancient semitic language, geez, which originated in the middle east. Other languages in ethiopia are spoken in rural areas throughout ethiopia. The nonsemitic languages of ethiopia internet archive.
That is, it is the language of the central government. Do educated people in ethiopia speak more english or some. Ethiopia is africas oldest independent country and its second largest in terms of population. The dahlak archipelago is seen off the red sea coast of eritrea. Since the th century is has been the language of the court and dominant population in highland ethiopia.
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