| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In Ethiopia, the promotion of Amharic by state nationalism was one of the factors that engendered counternationalisms such as the Eritrean secessionist movement. However, a free market of languages along with the domestication of English can contribute to managing/resolving communal conflicts and can usher the country into the global era. Such a liberal language policy does not jettison vernaculars; on the contrary, it permits them unlimited space to coexist or compete with one another and with English for primacy. Amharic will remain primus entre pares in the foreseeable future. However, the free market will catapult one or more of the major languages in the country as well as English to an official status, keeping the vernaculars for their emblematic values.
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