Language planning and sociocultural change: Afaan Oromoo from minoritisation to revitalisation

Abstract

This study discusses the minoritisation of Afaan Oromoo versus the current revitalisation efforts and the resultant sociocultural change. It employs critical discourse analysis, which focuses on examining how language forms social reality and affect and are affected by ideology. The data are from various sources in the form of talk and text through informal conversation, participant observation and document analysis. The findings uncover how Afaan Oromoo was reduced to minority status over time. They also reveal the efforts made to revitalise it. Though it is the language of wider communication in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries, such as Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti, it was reduced to minority status at the turn of 19^th century. Using the language in schools, churches, courts, public areas and other purposes was outlawed for a century until 1991. The government introduced social reforms that led to some progress, but its actions remained on political interests rather than meaningful change. Today, the language faces several challenges in education, scientific work, mass media and administration. In this study, all the predicaments and the trajectories the language has gone through are critically analysed, and implications for policy makers are pointed out.