Field and river

20th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES20)
Mekelle University, Ethiopia

"Regional and Global Ethiopia - Interconnections and Identities"
1-5 October, 2018

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SCRIPT CHOICE IN MULTILINGUAL ETHIOPIA: AN OPTION FOR A COMMON SCRIPT USE [Abstract ID: 0802-02]

FEKEDE Menuta, Hawassa University, Ethiopia

Since 1994, the grant of linguistic right to all nations and nationalities of Ethiopia to use their languages in all domains also paved the way to the choice and use of different script types. Now Ethiopia is not only multilingual, but also multi-script using country. There is a tendency for Cushitic and Omotic languages to use Latin script while the Semitic languages to maintain the preexisting Ethiopic (Sabean) script use tradition. Though the introduction of Latin script into the orthography of Ethiopian languages helped to handle some of the problems the Amharic writing system could not provide, such as representing gemination and length, it has a number of disadvantages both linguistic and sociological. The aim of this article was to provide an option for using a common script for all Ethiopian languages. To this end, the paper has provided the advantages and disadvantages of using Latin and Ethiopic scripts. It also offered the main problems in the Amharic orthography and the possible solution to them. The paper also provided ways of solving the ascribed gemination and length representing problems in using Ethiopic script. Four languages; namely, Gurage (Semitic), Konta (Omotic), Sidama (Cushitic), and Murle (Nilo-Saharan) were used as a sample for the study. Both the Latin and Ethiopic scripts use options were discussed for each of the languages. Sample scripts, written with both Latin and Ethiopic scripts were provided, and the observed advantages of each script type was discussed based on the sample scripts and principles of orthography development. It was found that Ethiopic script can be used to all Ethiopian languages without problem of representing gemination and length. It was also found that Ethiopic script is more economical than Latin script. The script inventory of Ethiopic can serve as a resource, with a few modification and adjustments, to fit into the linguistic needs of each Ethiopian language.