Solomon Berhane and M.V.R. Raju
Andhra University, Visakhapatnam
Pages:95-101
Ethiopia is a country known for its rich oral arts. Among such oral arts, the Amharic
proverbs have been facilitating the transmission of knowledge and conventions from
generation to generation. Thus, in this study, a rigorous attempt has been made to
examine the portrayal of children through Amharic proverbs and proverbial expressions.
In an attempt to understand and study the culture and folkloric life of Amharic language
speakers, the research design employed was conventional content analysis. To collect
the relevant data (proverbs), document analysis was used. Three Books i.e. “Yeamargia
teretna msalewoch”, “Addisu yemsalawi anegageroch” and “Tarikna misale” were
reviewed for this. The selected proverbs were first transcribed in the source language i.e.
Amharic and then translated into English. Finally, after in-depth reading, thirty proverbs
were selected and arranged for the analysis using thematic coding. The findings of the
study illustrate that children are presented as physically and mentally immature members
of the society. Physical punishment of children is presented as a remedy to inculcate
good conduct and correct children from their misconduct. In addition, the findings showed
that close relationship of elders with children is also discouraged..
Keywords: Proverbs, Amharic, Children.