Español
  Français

Languages in Ethiopia

You are here: Countries / Ethiopia

Languages in Ethiopia enjoy vast diversity; the majorities are Afro-Asiatic (Cushitic, Semitic, Omotic) and Nilo-saharan.

To this day, English still ranks as the most popular and widely spoken language for most secondary schools and universities.  In many areas, Oromifa and Tigrinya have replaced Amharic as the primary language of instruction in school instruction.  In 1991, the Republic of Ethiopia gave all ethnic groups an avenue to better develop their own languages and establish a mother tongue primary education system, which actually marked the change to the language policies of previous Ethiopian governments.

There are a number of Ethiopian languages which are as of the moment in danger of being extinct, while some Ethiopian languages to this day are already extinct, caused by a phenomenon known as language death.  A possible factor which is said to cause language death is the number of speakers of the said language.  However, the same could not be easily said of Ethiopian languages considering that throughout their history, Ethiopian languages never have had that big numbers in terms of population, but still most of their languages continue to exist.  This, including the new language policies of Ethiopia, has effectively strengthened the use of a number of Ethiopian languages.

Presently, the language in Ethiopia is Amheric, a semitic tongue.  Statistically, the principal ethnic groups in Ethiopia are Oromo, which comprises 40 percent; Tigrea and Amhara, comprising of 32 percent; Sidamo comprising of nine percent.  Of these ethnic groups, Orominga and Tigrinya are widely spoken which are similar to Ge’ez, the ancient Axum language, and is still utilized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s liturgy.