Tongue Twisting Discourses in wəddi mən, Oral Game of Honeymoon in Eastern Tigrai

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to describe the linguistic Tongue Twisting Discourses in wəddi mən: Oral Game in Eastern Tigrai. In the rural areas of Eastern Tigrai, when people visit the bridegroom and the bride in their home honeymoon, they often prefer to play oral game of wəddi mən which literally means 'whose son', and functionally refers to 'whose bridegroom/ bride, fiancé/ fiancée someone is' as an entertainment and socio-linguistic practice; however, this socio-linguistic practice has currently been replaced by some modern entertaining games such as play cards and modern music. Because this socio-linguistic practice is still oral and has been transferred from generation to generation in words of mouth; it has been badly endangered. The data in this article describe language use phenomenon; therefore, the analysis employed qualitative approach. The main tool of gathering data for this article has mainly been ethnographic observation. The researcher has directly participated in the socio-linguistic event of wəddi mən. For its theoretical frame work, this article has been employing Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the theory that more focuses on the use of language than its structure.