Phonological Features of Gamo native Amharic Second Language Students’ Interlanguage

Abstract

This article aims to show the phonological feature and source of Amharic second language student’s interlanguage whose first language is Gamo. The data sources are a grade 6th, 8th and 10th grade Gamo native students in 2017 E.C. at Chencha woreda. In order to investigate the target populations experience through limited time span the study applied cross sectional descriptive research design which is one type of qualitative study. The data was collected by language elicitation method. In the study, the students` speech is transcribed in to written text, and the transcribed text is analyzed using Nvivo 10, qualitative data analysis software. This allows for the organization of data according to phonological types and features. The analysis shows that the phonological structure of the interlanguage categorized in different phonological processes and these structures exhibited systematicity, stability, mutual intelligibility, backsliding, and permeability features of interlanguage which are stated by experts. The sources for these interlanguage structures are transfer, simplification, overgeneralization, and free sources. Though transfer, simplification, and overgeneralization are sighted as causes of interlanguage by other scolares, in this study free source is a new category that includes interlingual forms that could not be included in the three sources. The identification of certain structures as free sources indicates the presence of interlanguage forms that possess unique features, making their origins difficult to predict. These interlanguge structures can not be attributed to the sourses identified in previous studies.