MAINTAINING GURAGINA LANGUAGE WITH REFERENCE TO STATUS AND ATTITUDE

This paper describes a research project that examines maintaining Guragina language with reference to attitude and status of the language in the community in Gurage Zone, Ethiopia. A total of 340 questionnaires distributed to the speakers of Guragigna in the Zone. Twenty four key informants were interviewed for their opinions on the use and importance of Guragina. Besides, 6 FGDs were conducted. The findings show that participants' attitude towards the language is positive. They also agreed that Guragigna is multifarious in dialect, with some in the community viewing it as a language of solidarity, while others bemoan its irrelevance in the changed circumstances of modern life. The finding also suggests that the respondents are not satisfied with their current ability to speak the language; they make language shift to the use of Amharic. Furthermore, Guragina is a low status language with low social and economic prestige and poor documentation. Guragina is mainly used at home and market domains. Instead Amharic is the dominant language in the court, office and religious places with some shift from Amharic to Guragina and vice-versa.Thus all levels of government should support the profile and prestige of Guragina language by allowing it to be used in a range of public functions such as legal situation, health situations. Besides the local and regional government should introduce Guragina language as a subject to be taught in schools using comparative analysis of Guragina language varieties, and in long term the language should be used as medium of instruction by standardizing Guraginavarities. Besides,Guragina language centre should be opened at Wolkite University for studying the language and documentation.