Geography Peoples and languages

1 1 Introduction

1.1 Geography

The Argobba people are somewhat spread out, living in parts of the Amhara, Oromiya and Afar regions of northeastern Ethiopia. They are generally distinguished by being either “northern” Argobba or “southern” Argobba. The precise locations of the “northern” and “southern” Argobba within these regions are unclear. Generally, the “southern” live around the road that goes from Addis Ababa to Harer while the “northern” live between and around the two roads that traverse north from Addis Ababa on either side of the Rift Valley, as far north as the town of Kemise. Map 1. Argobba language areas The geography of these Argobba homelands is very important. Across much of the area there are vast differences in the climate and geography, since there is an escarpment that leads to the highlands on one side and the Rift Valley on the other. Traditionally, the Argobba prefer the hilly areas in between these two as this escarpment landscape provides natural protection and seclusion from neighboring ethnolinguistic groups Abebe 1992. As economic and other pressures have influenced the Argobba over the years, many have moved out of these “homelands” and taken residence in nearby towns. These towns are most often found directly on the roads mentioned above Abebe 1992.

1.2 Peoples and languages

As mentioned, the Argobba are usually distinguished as being either “northern” or “southern” and also by their preference for living in towns or in the traditional homelands of the escarpment. However, for the purpose of understanding the language situation, these distinctions may be refined by noting the individual languages that neighbor and influence these different areas. Generally, there is influence from the Amhara in the southwest, Oromo in the southeast and Afar in the northeast, while along the northwestern road there is both Amhara and Oromo influence Abebe 1992. In each of these areas there are different sociolinguistic questions, though the main question is one of language vitality. In the Amhara-influenced areas there is a question of dialect, as Argobba is very similar to Amharic, and some sources indicate that the two have actually merged. Regarding this issue, Abebe writes that the results on Argobba of contact with Amharic range from borrowing of vocabulary to extinction of the local Argobba variety. Migration has also played a role in increasing language contact between Argobba and Amharic, accelerating the process of linguistic change. Within the Argobba language itself there is also a question of dialect, as some sources indicate that different dialects have developed in these different areas because of the influence of neighboring languages. The sources seem to agree that the most heavily influenced area is the southwestern, Amhara- influenced area, noting that the language may well be nearly extinct there Andreas Wetter, personal communication, January 2005. Generally, the Argobba of rural areas are expected to have retained the language better while those of the towns are not expected to be as proficient. Also, there is considerable agreement that the “purest” Argobba is found in the northwest Siebert et al. 2001. The Argobba are described as being bilingual as a rule, and sometimes trilingual. This minimum of bilingualism consists of proficiency in two of the area’s languages, which are Amharic, Afar, Argobba and Afan Oromo Abebe 1992.

1.3 Other previous research