Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:37:17.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An argot of Addis Ababa unattached girls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Teshome Demisse
Affiliation:
Institute of Language Studies, Addis Ababa Univeristy
M. Lionel Bender
Affiliation:
Department of AnthropologySounthern Illinois Univeristy at Carbondale

Abstract

A previously unreported Amharic argot, that of a clique of unattached young women in a bar district of Addis Ababa, is described and traced to its source in a schoolboy argot of some dozen years earlier. The argot rules are simple, ingenious, and effective. A brief comparison is made of this argot and others in terms of social setting and uses. (Amharic, argots, Ethiopia, expressive language, language in context, language play, sociolinguistics)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, C. R. (1982). Lexical accession in Sharamboko: A Camp language in Lesotho. Anthropological Linguistics 24(2): 137–82.Google Scholar
Conklin, H. (1956). Tagalog speech disguise. Language 32(1):136–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conklin, H. (1959). Linguistic play in its context. Language 35(3):631–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leslau, W. (1964). Ethiopian argots. (Janua Linguarum Series Practica 17). Mouton: The Hague. Mekonnin Belacchew (1976). Yarada k'wank'wa. Unpublished B.A. Thesis. Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa.Google Scholar
Teshome, Demisse, (1981). The language of the “pick-ups.” Unpublished paper for Lingustics 504 (Sociolinguistics), Institute of Language Studies, Addis Ababa University.Google Scholar