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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Early Ethiopian writers as modernizers of Amharic
Author:Aklilu, AmsaluISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:Afrika und Übersee: Sprachen, Kulturen
Volume:77
Issue:2
Pages:283-296
Language:English
Geographic term:Ethiopia
Subjects:language policy
loan words
Ethiopian-Semitic languages
Abstract:The aim of this paper is to show how the Amharic language in Ethiopia started to accommodate alien concepts of science and technology in the early twentieth century. This is done by an examination of the works of a number of pioneers - Hakim Workneh, Tekle Hawariat Teklemariam, Gebre Hiywot Baikedagn, and Afework Gebreyesus - who had been exposed to formal education abroad. Upon their return to Ethiopia, these scholars started to write in Amharic in order to share their experiences with their compatriots. They wrote with the intention of modernizing the Amharic language in order to popularize modern concepts. The paper also examines the contribution of newspapers such as 'Aimiro', a government newspaper established by Menelik II in 1900, to the modernization of Amharic. It ends with a brief discussion of the Ethiopian government's language policy between 1955 and 1991. Examples are included of English words with Amharic translations. Bibliogr.
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