The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic,or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic subregions of Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahara/Sahel. Each aspect of these reconstructions is substantiated in detail in an extensive etymological vocabulary of more than 1000 roots. Originally Posted by gihanga.rwanda. [183], Another factor making comparisons of AA numeral systems difficult is the possibility of borrowing. [34], The Egyptian branch consists of a single language, Ancient Egyptian, which was historically spoken in the lower Nile Valley. [54] However, Christopher Ehret (1979), Harold Fleming (1981), and Joseph Greenberg (1981) all agree that the Omotic branch split from the rest first. Afro-Asiatic has been hypothesized to be related to many other language families. [130], The assignment of nouns and pronouns to either masculine or feminine gender is present in all branches - but not all languages - of the Afroasiatic family. p-Khoe [27] The first longer written examples of modern Berber varieties only date from the 16th or 17th centuries CE. North Germanic includes Icelandic, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. This page was last edited on 28 August 2022, at 11:13. Author: Martin Bernal Language: EnglishEdition: 1stBinding: HardcoverPages: 575Publisher: Rutgers Univ PressPublication Date: 304805601149 p-Maji [40] Scholars have proposed locations both in the Middle East and in Africa. [29], There are about 30,[34] 50,[35] or 70[36] Cushitic languages, spoken around the Horn of Africa and in Sudan and Tanzania. [40] The latest possible date for the existence of Proto-Afroasiatic is c. 4000 BCE, after which Egyptian and the Semitic languages are first attested; however, the languages must have diverged and evolved for some time before this. While there is no consensus among historical linguists concerning the original homeland of the Afroasiatic family or the period when the parent language (i.e. [15] The association between Africans and the Biblical Ham dates back to at least Isidore of Seville (6th century CE), and earlier 19th-century scholars had vaguely spoken of "Hamian" or "Hamitish" languages. Mimi-N except for Semitic, which is also spoken in the Middle-East and Malta, all branches of the shared innovation: n. for 'clay'), great (especially in size but also in number), (Ch., Eg., Sem. The Proto-Afroasiatic Vowel System" In The Nostratic Macrofamily: A Study in Distant Linguistic Relationship, 105-108. [121], As part of these templates, the alternation (apophony) between high vowels (e.g. p-Atlantic-Congo [127] These pronouns tend to show a masculine "u" and a feminine "i". Thanks for viewing our Ebay listing! FOR SALE! [98] Additionally, the glottal stop () usually exists as a phoneme, and there tends to be no phonemic contrast between [p] and [f] or [b] and [v]. [154] In Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, and some Chadic languages, verbs have no inherent vowels at all; the vowels found in a given verb are dependent on the vocalic template. The other three are very closely related and it is not hard for, say, a Dane to learn to understand a Swede. [40] Egyptian is first attested in writing around 3000 BCE and finally went extinct around 1300 CE, making it the language with the longest written history in the world. [180] Also common are dependent/affix pronouns (used for direct objects and to mark possession). [184] Only some Berber languages maintain the native Berber numeral system, with many using Arabic loans for higher numbers and some from any numeral beyond two. [186] Within the Semitic language family, Lipiski counts four different roots meaning "one". envisaged a tome citing several hundred reconstructed roots; he did manage, however, to publish over a hundred (53 proto-roots were published, for example, in Hodge 1981). [69] This theory connected the "Hamites", the originators of Hamitic languages, with (supposedly cultural superior) "Caucasians", who were assumed to have migrated into Africa and intermixed with indigenous "Negroid" Africans in ancient times. [8][9] Other proposed names which have not found widespread acceptance among the linguistic community include Erythraic, Lisramic, Noahitic, and Lamekhite. [16] Several issues with the label "Hamito-Semitic" have led to its decline in use by later scholars. in East Africa. innovation: stem + *n n. suff. p-Igboid [155], The degree to which the AA verbal root was triliteral (having three consonants) is debated. In An Encyclopedia of Language, Omotic is listed as a sub-set of Cushitic, and Andrew Dalby writes the Egyptian division as "Egyptian-Coptic," even though Coptic is considered to be a sub-set of Egyptian. Since there is written data available from this region, it is easier to reconstruct ancient roots and find common characteristics (ELL, p.51). Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1994. [20], There are between 40 and 80 languages in the Semitic family. [77][127] Berber, and Egyptian, and most Semitic languages are verb-initial languages, whereas Cushitic, Omotic and some Semitic subgroups are verb-final languages. This work provides the first truly comprehensive and systematic reconstruction of proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian). Fig. [68] On the other hand, the classification relied on anthropological and racial features, such as skin color, hair type, and lifestyle. [138][177] Christopher Ehret argues for its presence in Proto-Afroasiatic and for its attestation in some form in all branches, with a shape -*ay in addition to -*iy in some cases. Benfys title was later inverted to make Hamito-Semitic but over time racial connotations were applied to this name (Voegelin, p.13). Kujarge [71] In the end, Meinhof's classification included languages from every family in Africa that is recognized by modern linguistics. p-Ukaan These include Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Altaic and Dravidian (Atlas, p.74). [68] In 1969, Harold Fleming proposed that a group of languages classified as Cushitic by Greenberg were in fact an independent "Omotic" language family, a proposal that has been widely accepted but remains controversial. [193][194], Afroasiatic languages share a vocabulary of Proto-Afroasiatic origin to varying extents. [116], There is a large variety of vocalic systems in AA. [49], There there are also other proposed branches, but none has so far convinced a majority of scholars:[7]. [171][172] In Akkadian and Egyptian, the suffixes appear to be reduced forms of the independent pronouns (see Pronouns); the obvious correspondence between the endings in the two branches has been argued to show that Egyptian and Semitic are closely related. Archaeologists and anthropologists have long viewed the Bible as mankind's best guide to prehistoric religion, however, archaeologist Klaus Schmidt had no reason to . Shabo It's impossible to tell exactly how old Proto-Afroasiatic is, or where it was spoken, but there are a few ideas. p-Mande (p-W. Mandep-Mandekanp-Niger-Voltap-S. Mande) For other uses, see, Distribution of the Afro-Asiatic languages, Similarities in grammar, syntax, and morphology, Common derivational and morphological processes, Consonantal root structures and verbal forms, Some scholars argue that on the basis of Coptic that Egyptian had neither "emphatic consonants" nor a phonemic distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants. innovation: 'increase' > 'grow fat, thicken'), (root #141 + *n n. Akpes [26] The second is the Guanche language, which was formerly spoken on the Canary Islands and went extinct in the 17th century CE. Additional Proposed PAA Roots; Appendix 4. [37][34] Only one Cushitic language, Oromo, has more than 25 million speakers; other languages with more than a million speakers include Somali, Saho-Afar, Hadiyya, and Sidaama. [119] Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova instead proposed a six vowel system with a, e, o, i, ([y]), and u. As Egyptian is spelled without vowels, it is difficult to know whether it had internal change plurals. West Semitic brought forth such languages as Canaanite, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic (EL, p.906). While this is not the first attempt to demonstrate that Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic are genetically related, it is the first to use the radical revision of the Proto-Indo-European consonantal system proposed by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, Paul J. Hopper, n. pref. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary. ); to reach out, (only C. reflexes imply 2nd form with reconstructed *a), to remove (from surface), pull, tear, or scrape off, to grumble, sigh, make sounds of complaint, (Eg., Sem. Aunque las estimaciones varan ampliamente, los eruditos creen que se hablaba como un solo idioma hace entre 12.000 y 18.000 aos (12 a 18 kya ), es decir, entre 16.000 y 10.000 a . Proto-Afro-Asiatic is of great antiquity; experts tend to place it in the Mesolithic Period at about 15,000-10,000 bce. However, not one of Militarev's proposed 32 agricultural roots can be considered diagnostic of cultivation. It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques. (abbrev. fort. [131], Afroasiatic languages have a variety of ways of marking plurals; in some branches, nouns change gender from singular to plural (gender polarity),[133] while in others, plural forms are ungendered. Like in the English example, feet foot, vowels make the difference between separate words. The Afroasiatic language family is thought to have originated in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula around 15,000 years ago. Linguistics 450 p-Talodi Allan Bomhard's own reconstructions of Proto-Afroasiatic roots (and phonology) seem to be biased toward Proto-Indo-European and Nostratic roots . as denom. It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques of the historical-comparative method. The prefixes ti and it mean she. [117] In the different languages, central vowels are often inserted to break up consonant clusters (a form of epenthesis). Gule You guys might disagree with the results form the Shum Laka paper but don't distort their own interpretations of their findings. Proto-Afroasiatic is a language and NOT an ethnicity: Proto-Afroasiatic language - Wikipedia There is no proof where the Afroasiatic languages originated, but the oldest Afroasiatic language writing has been found in Egypt and dated 6000 years. [54] Greenberg rejected the Afroasiatic classification of languages that Meinhof had classified as "Hamitic" based on racial and anthropological data. Of all of the languages in the Afro-Asiatic line, Arabic is the most widely spoken language, stretching from Western Africa to the Middle East (ELL, p.51). Due to isolation, Icelandic has changed the least and is most similar to Old Norse, and therefore probably also to Proto-Germanic. p-Lakka ; PS, Eg., Ch. * "Revising the Consonant Inventory of Proto-Eastern Cushitic," Studies in African Linguistics 22, 3 (1991): 211-275. A set of constraints, developed originally by Joseph Greenberg on the basis of Arabic, has been claimed to be typical for Afroasiatic languages. Other Language Families and Fields of Study. [26] Egyptian is usually divided into two major periods, Earlier Egyptian (c. 3000-1300 BCE), which is further subdivided into Old Egyptian and Middle Egyptian, and Later Egyptian (1300 BCE-1300 CE), which is further subdivided into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic. p-Nubian These three groups are classified as being in Africa while Afro-Asiatic is listed under the term Eurasia (Atlas, p.74). (abbrev. * "The Origins of Third Consonants in Semitic Roots: An Internal Reconstruction (Applied to Arabic)," Journal of Afroasiatic Languages 3, 2 (1989): 109-202. Afroasiatic is generally considered to be comprised of the language families Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic, and Semitic. innovation: narrowing of application of v. to angry calling out), (Sem., Cush, innovation: > n. 'covering' > 'rind, bark'), (root #447+ * iter. suff. NE Sudanic The quality of the underlying vowels varies considerably by language; the most common vowel throughout AA is schwa. [130][164] In Akkadian, Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic this forms a "stative conjugation", used to express the state or result of an action; the same endings as in Akkadian and Egyptian are also present in the West Semitic perfective verb form. into stem), to take (bit of food or drink) into the mouth, (* is required by derived noun, root #641 following), (Eg., Sem. [45] Omotic is typically split into North Omotic (or Aroid) and South Omotic, with the latter more influenced by the Nilotic languages; it is unclear whether the Dizoid group of Omotic languages belongs to the Northern or Southern group. [87], Afroasiatic languages share a number of phonetic and phonological features. 4 This was Hodge's term for the ancestral proto-language of Proto-Afroasiatic and Proto-Indo-European based on Proto-Lislakh *lis- 'language' + *laxwos 'people'. [121] In contemporary Omotic, Chadic, and Cushitic languages, tone is primarily a grammatical feature: it encodes various grammatical functions, only differentiating lexical roots in a few cases. Proto-Afroasiatic phonology has been the subject of several proposals for reconstruction that are not only different from each other, but also very divergent (cf. It is, rather, a comparison of Proto-Indo-European with Proto-Afroasiatic. innovation: 'increase' > 'grow in size'), (root #838 + * part. Tula-Waja Though estimations vary widely, it is believed by scholars to have been spoken as a single language around 12,000 to 18,000 years ago (12 to 18 kya ), that is, between 16,000 and 10,000 BC. innovation: generalization of pl. innovation: 'grow' > 'live,' whence Eg. Upload your video About the author p-Central Khoisan Afro-Asiatic is divided into six branches: Semitic, Berber, Egyptian, Cushitic, Chadic and Omotic. [197], There are two etymological dictionaries of Afroasiatic, one by Christopher Ehret, and one by Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova, both from 1995. innovation: meaning shift, from avoiding per se to feeling a need or reason to avoid), to wear out, be used up, cease to function, (Eg., Cush., Ch. stretching out of arms), (Sem, Eg., Ch., Cush, innovation: 'set on top of' > 'cover'), (Sem., Eg. p-Ron [190] Some South Cushitic numerals are borrowed from Nilotic languages, other Cushitic numerals have been borrowed from Ethiopian Semitic languages. London: Routledge, 1990. Bomhard postulates that from Proto-Afroasiatic (henceforth PAA), Chadic was the first to break off. Defaka Each aspect of these reconstructions is substantiated in detail in an extensive etymological vocabulary of more than 1000 roots. Answer: Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family, which includes over 400 languages spoken across much of Africa and the Middle East. The Egyptian prefix has a middle voice/intransitive/or passive meaning. p-Ring [128] In most branches, gender is an inherent property of nouns. Once the Luwian hieroglyphics for God "" and Gate "" were discovered at Gbekli Tepe, this author was able to directly link the site's carved pillars and pillar enclosures to the Abrahamic/Mosaic "Word of God", . innovation: *agaw- 'cooked grain,' stem + *w n. p-Grassfields p-Kuliak (Ik) [25][26], There are two extinct languages potentially related to modern Berber. [9] ( C. [31], A majority of specialists consider Omotic to constitute a sixth branch of Afroasiatic. p-Mumuye These classifications of language sub-sets vary according to different texts. [195] Writing in 2004, John Huehnergaard notes the great difficulty in establishing cognate sets across the family. p-Cushitic p-Ijaw [11] Because the term "Afroasiatic" could be taken to mean that the family includes all the languages of Africa and Asia, the term "Afrasian" is sometimes used instead; this name was proposed by Igor Diakonoff (1980) and is mostly used by Russian scholars. Laal Bariba [79], An African origin has broad scholarly support,[75] and is favored by most linguists on the basis of the linguistic data. [30] Most Chadic languages are located in the Chad basin, with the exception of Hausa. [6][7], with the latter two having fallen out of favor in English but still seeing frequent usage in other languages, such as German. Momo p-Chadic Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary. : *itsim-), (2nd root shape: possible old tr. [133], A widespread pattern of gender and number marking in Afroasiatic is a consonant N for masculine, T for feminine, and N for plural. of proto-Afroasiatic cultivation. p-Gbe (Fongbe) [22] Other scholars, however, argue that they are a group of around twelve languages, about as different from each other as the Romance or Germanic languages. [188] Andrzej Zaborski further notes that the numbers "one," "two," and "five" are particularly susceptible to replacement by new words, with "five" often based on a word meaning "hand". >>14700332 There is no general consensus over the location of the Urheimat, the original homeland from which began the migrations into the present locations of the speakers. [15] Mller assumed that there existed a distinct "Hamitic" branch of the family that consisted of Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic. Among the countries included in this language family are: Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, and Ethiopia. The name Hamitic originates from Ham, one of the sons of Noah. p-Jen reflex), (root #723 + *x extend. p-South Bauchi The "s-causative" may be reflected in Hausa (as -r), however this may be a language internal development. [68] Greenberg also proposed that Hausa was part of a Chadic branch of Afroasiatic, and that Afroasiatic consisted of five main branches, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, and Semitic. In Cushitic and Semitic, nouns exist in the "free state" or the "construct state". [196][164] Such cognates tend to rely on relatively simple sound correspondences. tr. [103][53] In some branches, it can also derive abstract nouns and participles. [93] Most words end in a vowel in Omotic and Cushitic, making syllable-final consonant clusters rare. [17][18] Victor Porkhomovsky suggests that the label "Hamito-Semitic" is at this point simply convention and no more implies an opposition between Semitic and "Hamitic" languages than "Indo-European" implies a "European" and an Indic branch. Classification and Index of the Worlds Languages. There is no information on whether Egyptian had tones. for expected *ii probably reflects phonetic influence of PC root in #254), (Sem., Eg. They are not found in Chadic languages, and there is no evidence for cases in Egyptian. p-Gurunsi [11], Greenberg reintroduced the name "Afroasiatic" in 1960, a name seemingly coined by Maurice Delafosse (as French afroasiatique) in 1914. [20], The Berber (or Libyco-Berber) languages are spoken today by perhaps 16 million people. Well-known Afroasiatic languages include Arabic, Ancient Egyptian, Somali, Tuareg, and Hausa. PSom-III. Report Save. [150] Christopher Ehret has argued that this prefix is a later development that was not present in Proto-Afro-Asiatic, but rather derived from a PAA indefinite pronoun *m-. Gumuz p-Lower Cross River Many of these roots have other proposed cognates that are not included on the table. [18][11], The alternative name "Lisramic" is based on the AA root *lis- ("tongue") and the Egyptian word rm ("person"). El proto-afroasitico , a veces denominado proto-afrasiano , es el proto-lenguaje reconstruido del que descienden todas las lenguas afroasiticas modernas . This language family has now been renamed Afro-Asiatic, because this term is less culture specific (Dalby, p.6). Newman suggested a relationship between Semitic and the Hausa language, an idea that was taken up by early scholars of Afroasiatic. Nara [94], Several Afroasiatic languages have large numbers of consonants, and it is likely that Proto-Afroasiatic did as well:[95] Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova reconstruct 32 consonant phonemes,[96] while Christopher Ehret reconstructs 42. Central Sudanic (p-Central Sudanicp-Sara-Bongo-BagirmiSinyarBirrip-Mangbetu) alternative feminine endings *-ay/*-y; corresponding vowel templates for verbal conjugations) which can be reconstructed for a higher-order proto-language (provisionally called "Proto-Berbero-Semitic" by Kossmann & Suchard (2018) and Van Putten (2018)). Meredith Holt >I find it odd how Semitic is still Afroasiatic even though it's tied to a non-E haplogroup Egyptian and Semitic are both J. Cushitic is T and Chadic is J/R1b-V88.