Arts and Social Sciences Journal

Ethnography of Talk in Wollo

Abstract

Hassen R

This is a study on ethnography of talk in Wollo. Talk plays a significant role in the lives of most of the Ethiopian community, especially of the Wollo, the study group of this particular research. A large body of data was collected from live talk of casual and non-casual speech events. These talks range from marked and more serious formal talks to casual and carefree non-marked talks collected from real language used by the community in question. Talk appears as a ‘chunk’ or in a form of discourse. Hence different discourses of casual and non-casual live talks were collected for the purpose of this study. The particular places for data collection were Kutaber, Kombolcha, Wogdi, Haik, Woldiya, and Dessie. Large corpuses of live talks were collected from 2012 to 2014. The data were recorded, transcribed, coded and used for the purpose of this study. The result of the study revealed that talk plays significant roles for this speech group. It is used as a means and end of social practice on its own right. ‘Talk’ of people uncovers thought, action and knowledge expressed through language. Through the casual talk of people, their thought, action, language and knowledge is revealed, produced, and reproduced. Access to real life talk of people gives information about what they think, do, use their language for and their knowledge to sustain their life. Access to talk of people gives almost everything there is to know about the people. Talk produces people’s thought, action, knowledge and language and people’s thoughts, actions, knowledge and language, in turn, reproduce talk.