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Language in Ethiopia: implications of a survey for sociolinguistic theory and method1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

M. L. Bender ,
R. L. Cooper  and
C. A. Ferguson
M. L. Bender
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University
R. L. Cooper
Affiliation:
San Diego State College
C. A. Ferguson
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Abstract

Work of the Language Survey of Ethiopia is drawn on to illustrate that social surveys can contribute to scientific theories and methods as well as to policy making. Findings with regard to four general problems are indicated: a metric of linguistic distance (considered here in terms of selection of diagnostic traits for linguistic areas, subgrouping of related languages, and dialect variation within a language; measurement of basic cognate frequencies; and testing of mutual intelligibility, a typology of the processes of language spread (lingua franca, mother tongue, superposed variety); verbal deference behavior (in use of Amharic second person pronouns); and pidginization (Simplified Italian of Ethiopia). Some comparisons to findings in sociolinguistics research elsewhere are made. (Language surveys; measurement of linguistic distance; language spread; social meaning and mode of address; pidginization.)

Type
From Sociolinguistic Research in East Africa
Information
Language in Society , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , October 1972 , pp. 215 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

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