Ethiopian English

This chapter presents a detailed structural account of the salient points of “Ethiopian English” (EE): English as it is actually spoken and written in Ethiopia. As far as I know, it is the first description of this sort. Although highly distinctive, EE is undiscussed in studies of African Englishes. There have been articles on “English in Ethiopia”, but these are almost entirely sociolinguistic in nature (variations on the theme “the role of English vs. Amharic in Ethiopia”). This study, by contrast, is heavily descriptive, structural and grammatical, and only minimally sociolinguistic. Methodologically, a major point is the phonological insight into EE to be gained by studying the nature of spelling mistakes. Typologically, in every sphere (phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon and phraseology), EE reveals itself over and over as a near-clone of Amharic --- a textbook case of substratal influence.

Amharic · Lexicon · Linguistics · Phonology · Phraseology · Salient · Sociology · Theme (computing) · Computer Science · History · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Second Language Learning and Teaching