Ethnolinguistic perception and identity in Gurage
This study was conducted with the objectives of exploring the
perceptions and attitudes of speakers towards language use and ethnolinguistic
identity within the complex sociopolitical and linguistic milieu of the Gurage
people in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) of
Ethiopia. In so doing, five out of twelve groups with relatively different
backgrounds were systematically selected for the study. Data was collected
concurrently via questionnaires and semi-structured in-depth interviews involving a
total of 386 participants. Respondents were asked to express their perceptions of
the associations of language and ethnicity, and feelings about belongingness to the
Gurage identity. The concurrent research design was informed by pragmatism as a
theoretical framework, so findings of the mixed methods approach were integrated at
the end for comparative descriptive analyses. The empirical data reveal that there
is an observably different pattern of perceived association of language and
ethnicity and varying senses of belongingness to the common Gurage identity across
sampled groups.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Research questions, objectives and methods
- 2.1Research problem and questions
- 2.2Objectives
- 2.3Research design and tools
- 3.Ethnicity, language politics and belongingness
- 4.Presentation of data and discussion
- 4.1Ethnolinguistic perception among the Gurage
- 4.2Self-identification and belongingness to Gurage identity
- 5.Summary and conclusions
-
Acknowledgements
-
References