This research is concerned with the linguistic features and the sociolinguisticrnfunctions of the linguistic varieties spoken by two minority groups within thernGurage, namely the Fedwet (the name of the speakers and the linguisticrnvariety, mainly used by women who were followers of a former local religiousrntradition in Gurage) and the so-called Fuga (a group of handcrafters whosernmembers are said to be not â€•pureâ€– Gurage). For both social varieties, thernqualitative approach of data gathering and analysis was used. Primary datarnwere gathered by elicitation of words, recording of free texts, and interviews.rnFor each social variety 12 informants participated in the interview and 7 ofrnthem also participated in the elicitation of words and the performance oftexts. The language data analysis is descriptive with frequent examples. Therninterview responses were quantified for a descriptive statistical analysis.rnIt was found that the Fedwet is not a separate language, but an argot createdrnfrom the basic language Chaha through different manipulation processes. Thernmain areas of divergence are changes in the morphophonological and lexicalrnpatterns of Chaha. The functions of Fedwet include the establishment ofrnsecret communication among young girls, to form a specific identity, andrnvarious religious purposes. The motive of using it is related to the socialrnposition of women and the traditional belief system of Gurage.The Fuga social variety, by contrast, is more divergent. It is not an argot; therndata shows that its lexicon is very different from Chaha. However, the Fugarnsocial variety also follows the general pattern of the Chaha grammar. LikernFedwet, it is used to form an in-group, i.e. as a marker of a specific grouprnidentity and as a means of secret in-group communication.