Abstract:
This paper views Awi people as a bilingual society with two languages to the extent that the total number of languages spoken right now in Awi zone is two languages. This linguistic diversity in this zone has occasioned the development and the spread of the concepts of bilingualism and diglossia and language choice. As a result of this diversity, it is noticed that the phenomenon of Language Choice has become inevitable on the language use habit of these people as every domain of language use has its language features. The increasing contact between languages in the context of globalization motivates such a shift of paradigms. Despite the bilingual nature of the languages in the zone, Amharic Language is the dominant language over Awngi in almost all the domains, and specifically, it is used for all government functions. This is mainly due to historical, political and government policies, numerical strength of the speakers of Amharic and other meaningful motives.
