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An argot of Addis Ababa unattached girls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Teshome Demisse
Affiliation:
Institute of Language Studies, Addis Ababa Univeristy
M. Lionel Bender
Affiliation:
Department of AnthropologySounthern Illinois Univeristy at Carbondale

Abstract

A previously unreported Amharic argot, that of a clique of unattached young women in a bar district of Addis Ababa, is described and traced to its source in a schoolboy argot of some dozen years earlier. The argot rules are simple, ingenious, and effective. A brief comparison is made of this argot and others in terms of social setting and uses. (Amharic, argots, Ethiopia, expressive language, language in context, language play, sociolinguistics)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

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