A branch of science that studies the brain has shown that knowing two languages is a task for Wernicke’s area of the temporal lobe, located in the left hemisphere of the brain. We also comprehend that a human’s dominant brain regions are usually occupied with language and logical operations. Thus, the capability of learning more languages attests to the development of reasoning. Even a near perfect fluency of any language will mean ideas are bound to be processed or sifted through a language we learn first as a mother tongue.
Ironically, notwithstanding the fact that Ethiopia is a nation where multiple languages are spoken, individual members of the society often tend to stay monolingual, for we are limited mainly to speaking a single mother tongue.
It is believed that there are more than 70 different languages in Ethiopia and most are essentially spoken by members of their respective communities. In all, given the population size of their native speakers, Amharic and Oromiffa are the most widely spoken. The latter has more native speakers than any other single linguistic group speaking it. The former, nevertheless, covers a broader geography, and through the virtue of the fact that more people can speak and read it in addition to their native tongues, has become the lingua-franca for practical reasons.
The Ethiopian constitution permits Amharic to be the working language of the federal government. By default, it has emerged as the official language in most regional states of the nation. Naturally, there have been efforts to institute a bilingual format for the federal government. The objective is that Oromiffa, concurrently with its Amharic counterpart, would serve as a working language of the federal institutions.
The prospect of setting two languages, one serving as an alternative to the other, will see more and more people becoming bilingual. A path such as this will embrace the character of a multilingual society in terms of tolerating and celebrating its diversity. Moreover, it has been argued that knowing a second language, almost always, enhances the use of the first.
Philologists and language experts alike, through their numerous published research findings, have proved that there is indeed a positive correlation between one’s ability to hold two languages and improved academic performances. Some even suggest that learning more languages makes us better at dealing with mental diseases as a result of old age.
“Being able to speak two languages should be as normal as having two lungs,” asserts Michal B. Paradowski, a professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw. His analogy has a positive spin on Charlemagne’s lengthy essays titled ‘King of the Franks’, in which he said, “to have another language is to possess a second soul”.
In 1995, the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), revealed a finding conforming to what bilingual and multilingual people were widely believed to possess: an ability to switch thought patterns and have the ability to display greater cognitive flexibility.
And as is the case for individuals, the acquisition of more flexible minds, by learning different languages, builds upon the cause of a united nation. In the teachings of international relations, we understand how nation-states are built around language, culture, history, politics and territory without settling on any single cause.
Our nation too was founded and remains cohesive by upholding all the causes prescribed for nation-building. Sometimes, we may fight over territory and other times for cultural dominance. At the time, we bitterly disagree among ourselves on specific historical narratives. With politics as the primary source of division, the very cause that once contributed to our cohesion may come back to haunt and disarray us. The only possible cure for all of this, thus, is discussion and debate, where more people speaking the same language could serve as a useful means of reconciling our differences.
We have seen conflicts over resources between different lingo-cultural groups in the past 26 years. Politics and history have likewise been and still are thorny issues – a burden to peace and prosperity. And without dialogue to reconcile them, disputes are always bound to mature into conflicts. Now more than ever, we are in urgent need of languages.
As we set out our path for bilingualism, and in the future multilingualism, we will be creating the ground for a conducive environment for better understanding and less confusion. But, the introduction of a bilingual format for the federal government cannot be materialised by way of imposition or decree. For this too, a compromise needs to be reached.
If all goes well, and an agreement is reached for two languages (Amharic and Oromiffa) at the federal level, both would become everyday languages of people in the country. They must be perceived within the context of national interest. Should changes be required, let us say, regarding the use of scripts in one or both of the supposed federal working languages, the government has to determine the outcome, as opposed to those at the regional level.
Speaking multiple languages and keeping our minds open should be the goal of a generation that is striving to move forward socioeconomically. It will be the defining feature of the youth today. From a series of journals published by Paradowski, and pure rationale, we can draw a lesson on how learning a second language will radically boost the way children think, not to mention adults who need to brave the stark political situation Ethiopia is in.
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