International Journal of Language & Literature

The Social Implications of Wolaita Proverbs: Functional Analysis
Meshesha Make1, Abraham Kebede, Fikre Alemayehu

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to collect and analyze some selected Wolaita proverbs for their implications of Wolaita's social realm of life. The subjects used for the current study were 60 theme-relevant proverbs collected by interviewing systematically selected 20 elders and through conducting participant-based observation being part of social interactions taking place in different villages of Wolaita. The descriptive research design was used to conduct this study using the qualitative method of data analysis. The result indicated that Wolaita proverbs embody Wolaita's soial facet of life: promoting faithfulness, enhancing cooperation among people, promoting mutual respect among people in the society, encouraging good deeds and discouraging bad behavior, promoting neighborhood and relativity relationships, teaching moral principles to young generation and non-conformity for the acts deviant to the accepted social values. Based on these findings, therefore, deep and series studies that promote the frequent use of Wolaita proverbs in all adequate contexts of interaction, awareness enhancement training for young generations for effective use of Wolaita proverbs in the appropriate interactional situations, making proverbs as part of language curriculum in all levels of education and maintenance of Wolaita proverbs as vehicles of transferring indigenous wisdom to the next generation are recommended to be implemented by the all concerned bodies across the nation.

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