PHONOTACTIC SYLLABIFICATION SYSTEMS OF ENGLISH AND AMHARIC LANGUAGES AND A CASE FOR LANGUAGE OF AFRICAN UNION FOR AFRICA

Abstract

Phonotactics sets rules for proficiency in language usage, especially in English Language, (a foreign language) and Amharic an African Language. This study sets out to analyse the phonotactic presence and similarities in their syllabic systems, for possibility of Amharic emerging as a language of African Union to replace English language during summits and international conferences, albeit as a starter. Many linguists, especially the Nigerian nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka have suggested other African languages like Swahili. This is an effort to prevent our indigenous knowledge from going into extinction. The justification for suggesting Amharic here is the natural and originality of the Geez feedel or script form where Amharic alphabetic system was developed. It is indigenous to Africa, with its origin in Axum, Ethiopia. Amharic shares some linguistic features of sounds like vowel sonority with English language and it is easy for anyone with proficiency in English to understand the Amharic sounds articulation and their acostic allophonic references. The exploration of this unfamiliar terrain is worthy of consideration as a policy innovation for cultural and linguistic emancipation. The objective therefore is to contribute to the current trends in innovation in the area of language development in African continents. It is one of our own indigenous languages, widely spoken and its origin is African. This may be a starting point in solving the problem of colonial albatross that slows down development in Africa, where colonial languages are used for instructions in schools and in research. The researchers used scripts developed online; Wikipedia, books, personal contacts and information from the indigenous people of Ethiopia. These were selected through purposive research design. Syllabification Theory, Chomsky’s Theory of transfer and Contrastive Analysis were used for the study. Findings revealed that the similarity of sounds of English and Amharic makes it easy to understand the syllabification system of Amharic conforms with the composite structure of English and most world languages that combine consonants and vowels sounds.  The tone and rhythmic patterns of the suprasegmental features add greater value to its musical cadences, especially when children speak during Amharic language lessons. It is therefore recommended that since Amharic language, based on our findings is suitable as a possible language of African Union. Language policy makers in Africa sub regions can organize a pan-African conference to debate the possibility and implementation. By this, it will continue to spread from Ethiopia to the rest of African nations and its sub-regions as an African linguistic identity.