Chapter in:
Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian LanguagesEdited by Derib Ado, Almaz Wasse Gelagay and Janne Bondi Johannessen †
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 48] 2021
► pp. 1–12
The languages of Ethiopia
Aspects of the sociolinguistic profile
Derib Ado | Addis Ababa University
Almaz Wasse Gelagay | Kotebe Metropolitan University
Janne Bondi Johannessen | University of Oslo
This book is part of the research work supported by the project
Linguistic Capacity Building, tools for the inclusive development of Ethiopia
(LCB), which has been working on the
development of resources and training of human power involved in linguistic work. The
works in this volume are papers presented at different international conferences
including the 46
th
North Atlantic Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics, Long
Beach, California from 1–3 June 2018 and the 20
th
International Conference of
Ethiopian Studies, Mekele, Ethiopia from 1–5 October 2018 with support from the LCB
project. The researches focus on different languages in all the three language families
in the Afro-Asiatic phyla, namely Cushitic and Omotic and a Nilotic language from the
Nilo-Saharan phyla. This volume also included two papers on Ethiopian sign language, for
which there are no prior publications in any of the microlinguistic fields.Ethiopia is home to more than 85 varieties of languages. There
have been a lot of grammatical descriptions and other linguistic works produced as PhD
dissertations and MA theses, mainly at Addis Ababa University. Nevertheless, most of the
works by PhD students and staff remain unpublished. This volume is a contribution
towards dissemination of linguistic research on Ethiopian languages conducted mostly by
staff and PhD students in Ethiopian universities. We believe that such collective
volumes give access to dissemination of research on Ethiopian languages while building
the capacity of the linguists involved.In this introductory section, we present the genetic
classification, geographical distribution, population and functions of
the major Ethiopian languages. We also provide a brief overview on language and identity in contemporary Ethiopia. Then we give a short overview of this book: the
individual chapters and the reviewers.
References
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