[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. innovation: 'send' > 'direct,' hence 'command, rule'), (Agaw *a allows PAA vowel reconstructions *a, *aa, *o, or *e), (Sem., Eg. Originally Posted by gihanga.rwanda. [183][184] In the Chadic family alone, there are two different roots for "two,"[185] and Berber and Semitic likewise have two different branch-internal roots for "two". Mimi-D [124] Other scholars argue that Proto-AA had a pitch accent and some branches subsequently developed tone. Amdang Afroasiatic languages have over 500 million native speakers, which is the fourth-largest number of native speakers of any language family (after Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and NigerCongo). Sandawe (abbrev. p-Bua [127], Afroasiatic Languages use the processes of reduplication and gemination (which often overlap in meaning) to derive nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs throughout the AA language family. 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. [156], There is no agreement about which tenses or aspects Proto-Afroasiatic might have had. The "s-causative" may be reflected in Hausa (as -r), however this may be a language internal development. p-Tuu [144], A second category, which partially overlaps with case, is the AA linguistic category of "state." This work provides the first truly comprehensive and systematic reconstruction of proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian). innovation: stem + *n n. suff. ), (Sem., Eg. In Arabic, ti-ktib means she writes and katab-it means she wrote. [15] Mller assumed that there existed a distinct "Hamitic" branch of the family that consisted of Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic. Like in the English example, feet foot, vowels make the difference between separate words. 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 Proto-Afrasian Phonological System Unlike the comparative-historical study of the Indo-European languagefamily, which has a long history, the comparative-historical study of the Afrasian language familyis still not far advanced, though enormous progress has been made in recent years. [97] All Afroasiatic languages contain stops and fricatives; some branches have additional types of consonants such as affricates and lateral consonants. Nara This name is possibly based upon the root "-b-r" ( . 6), (Eg., Sem., Cush. Under East Semitic rose Akkadian and Babylonian. [132] Additionally, even when nouns are not cognates, they tend to have the same gender throughout Afroasiatic ("gender stability"). p-Heiban [98] AA languages tend to have pharyngeal fricative consonants, with Egyptian, Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic sharing and . Olukumi p-Semitic, Khoisan 1995. . [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. Consider also the debate over the origins of the Afroasiastic or Afrasan languages and cultures, a linguistic group with a wide geographical distribution covering the Middle East and Northern. [48] Today, Semitic languages are spoken across North Africa, Western Asia, and the Horn of Africa, as well as on the island of Malta, making them the sole Afroasiatic branch with members originating outside Africa. all catalog, articles, website, & more in one search catalog books, media & more in the Stanford Libraries' collections articles+ journal articles & other e-resources [30] For most branches, the first person pronouns contain a nasal consonant (n, m), whereas the third person displays a sibilant consonant (s, sh). p-North Bauchi > *itsan-; Omotic innovation: stem + *m n. [140] Some languages in AA have a marked nominative alignment, a feature which may date back to Proto-Afroasiatic. He later added Semitic and Beja to Chadic-Berber-Egyptian and tentatively proposed, Alexander Militarev (2000), on the basis of. [19] Additionally, a majority of specialists consider the Omotic languages to constitute a sixth branch. Linguistic guesstimates or phylogenetic speculation date the proto-language (and thus the homeland) within a wide range, from 15,000 to 6,000 years ago. p-Guang [103] Igor M. Diakonoff proposed that Proto-AA had a three vowel system of long and short a, i, and u. >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. 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. Gule common genetic origin of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic differ considerably from the assumptions made in other works on . [167] These prefixes are clearly cognate across the branches, although their use within the verbal systems of the individual languages varies. All branches of Afroasiatic have a limited number of underlying vowels (between two and seven), but the number of phonetic vowels can be much larger. [151] Such an etymology is rejected by A. Zaborski and Gbor Takcs, the latter of whom argues for a PAA *ma- that unites all or some of the meanings in the modern languages. Omotic and Cushitic followed the example and split together, as did Egyptian, Berber, and Semitic in another group. [65] In 1844, Theodor Benfey first described the relationship between Semitic and the Egyptian language and connected both to the Berber and the Cushitic languages (which he called "Ethiopic"). There is an obvious trend (probably driven by Semitic and Egyptian researchers) to place the Afroasiatic Homeland near one of the many proposed Semitic homelands, i.e. Omotic, Cushitic, and Chadic are also spoken north of the Sahara so it must be assumed that the speakers of these "dialects" migrated north likewise, though perhaps separately from the Boreafrasian speakers (Dalby, p.6). 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. crcst test prep; crcst free test questions; paid test; crcst exam prep notes; subscribe As the Afroasiatic languages tend to be the tongues with the longest and oldest historical record, there are not many that can beat the Proto-Afroasiatic. Berkeley: University of California Press. 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. [64] In the same year T.N. [20] Omotic was formerly considered part of the Cushitic branch;[46] some scholars continue to consider it part of Cushitic. West Semitic brought forth such languages as Canaanite, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic (EL, p.906). [128] In most branches, gender is an inherent property of nouns. p-Central Chadic This family was formally described and named "Semitic" by August Ludwig von Schlzer in 1781. [81] Christopher Ehret, O. Y. Keita, and Paul Newman also argue that archaeology does not indicate a spread of migrating farmers into Africa, but rather a gradual incorporation of animal husbandry into indigenous foraging cultures. p-N. Jos In current scholarship, the most common names used for the family are Afroasiatic (or Afro-Asiatic), Hamito-Semitic, and Semito-Hamitic. [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-. [25][26], There are two extinct languages potentially related to modern Berber. suff. 1 Afro-Asiatic Language Family. The HmongMien languages also known as MiaoYao and rarely as Yangtzean1 are a highly tonal language family of southern China and northern Southeast [78] An additional complicating factor is the lack of agreement on the subgroupings of Afroasiatic (see Subgrouping) - this makes associating archaeological evidence with the spread of Afroasiatic particularly difficult. [141] However, the number and types of cases varies across AA and also within the individual branches. innovation: derivation of v. 'to sleep' by addition of *n non-fin. [13] Each of Noah's sons was traditionally presented as being the common ancestor of several apparently-related people groups, with Shem understood by the original audience as being the common ancestor of the Jews, Assyrians, and Arameans, among others, and Ham seen as the ancestor of the Egyptians and Cushites. They can occur together with subject pronouns but cannot fulfill an object function. p-Khoe Due to isolation, Icelandic has changed the least and is most similar to Old Norse, and therefore probably also to Proto-Germanic. [77] Roger Blench writes that the debate has "a strong ideological flavor", with associations between an Asian origin and "high civilization". p-Mande (p-W. Mandep-Mandekanp-Niger-Voltap-S. Mande) [127] These pronouns tend to show a masculine "u" and a feminine "i". Some languages have an additional feminine plural form in -t that is not listed here. Proto-Afroasiatic, sometimes also referred to as Proto-Afrasian, is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. p-Oti-Volta (p-E. Oti-Voltap-C. Oti-Volta) [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. [5] It includes languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africaand parts of the Sahel. He showed that, generally, any consonant from one of these groups could combine with consonants from any other group, but could not be used together with consonants from the same group. Nilo-Saharan [71] In the end, Meinhof's classification included languages from every family in Africa that is recognized by modern linguistics. Natioro p-Upper Cross River [32] It may have as many as 80 to 100 million first and second language speakers. innovation: to spoil > to sour), (Sem., Eg. [169] As there is no evidence for the "prefix conjugation" in Omotic, Chadic, or Egyptian, it is unclear whether this was a Proto-Afroasiatic feature that has been lost in those branches or is a shared innovation among Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic. p-Central Togo ), to fit on top of, go above or in front of, (Eg., Sem. It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques of the historical-comparative method. Gumuz It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques. [166] There is a general pattern in which n- is used for the first person plural, whereas t- is used for all forms of the second person regardless of plurality or gender, as well as feminine singular. [50], Most authorities divide Semitic into two branches: East Semitic, which includes the extinct Akkadian language and West Semitic, which includes Arabic, Aramaic, the Canaanite languages, including Hebrew, as well as the Ethiopian Semitic languages such as Ge'ez and Amharic. [133], A widespread pattern of gender and number marking in Afroasiatic is a consonant N for masculine, T for feminine, and N for plural. [38] The oldest text in a Cushitic language probably dates from around 1770. For example, the Hamitic component inaccurately suggests the existence of a monophyletic "Hamitic" branch alongside Semitic. [7] Nevertheless, both dictionaries agree on some items and some proposed cognates are uncontroversial. [16] Several issues with the label "Hamito-Semitic" have led to its decline in use by later scholars. Tadaksahak, p-Niger-Congo Retard. [165] This theory has been criticized by some, such as Andrzej Zaborski and Alan Kaye, as being too many extensions to be realistic, though Zygmont Frajzyngier and Erin Shay note that some Chadic languages have as many as twelve extensions. The Berber and Semitic branches share certain grammatical features (e.g. shared innovation: *als-/*ils- 'tongue': *a-/*i-attrib. [54] Greenberg rejected the Afroasiatic classification of languages that Meinhof had classified as "Hamitic" based on racial and anthropological data. Proto-Afroasiatic is a reconstructed language. innovation: narrowing of meaning to beating time to music), (Eg., Sem. p-Ogoni shared innovation: *isin-/*usun- 'they' (originally fem./masc. A relationship between Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and the Berber languages was perceived as early as the 9th century CE by the Hebrew grammarian and physician Judah ibn Quraysh, who is regarded as a forerunner of Afroasiatic studies. Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian . Afroasiatic is generally considered to be comprised of the language families Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic, and Semitic. p-Fali suff. [34] Cushitic does not appear to be related to the attested ancient languages known from its area, Meroitic or Old Nubian. [197], There are two etymological dictionaries of Afroasiatic, one by Christopher Ehret, and one by Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova, both from 1995. ), (Eg., Sem. [186] Within the Semitic language family, Lipiski counts four different roots meaning "one". [93] Most words end in a vowel in Omotic and Cushitic, making syllable-final consonant clusters rare. A main characteristic of Afro-Asiatic languages is the use of vowel changes in word formation. [175] In Egyptian, it takes the forms -j, whereas in Semitic it takes the form -i(y);[138] it thus has the same form in both language families. North of the Sahara and the Ethiopian mountains are the Afro-Asiatic languages. It's impossible to tell exactly how old Proto-Afroasiatic is, or where it was spoken, but there are a few ideas. Lafofa, p-Afroasiatic p-Songhay [40] Militarev associates the speakers of Proto-Afroasiatic with the Levantine Post-Natufian Culture, arguing that the reconstructed lexicon of flora and fauna, as well as farming vocabulary indicates that Proto-AA must have been spoken in this area. Because i notice in some cases, they seem to have vowels shifting around quite a bit, akin to the trilateral root systems of the semitic languages. Roots Beginning with P and B - Oleg Linkohr 2020-03-15 . 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. There was additional language contact within the Afro-Asiatic family when Arabs invaded Egypt in 640 A.D. Coptic, a daughter language of ancient Egyptian, had flourished until that time but was replaced eventually by Arabic (Voegelin ,p13). You guys might disagree with the results form the Shum Laka paper but don't distort their own interpretations of their findings. [79], An African origin has broad scholarly support,[75] and is favored by most linguists on the basis of the linguistic data. The languages of what is now Afro-Asiatic occupy a "vast area that stretches from Morocco to Arabia" (Dalby, p.6). ), to extend, stretch out (intr. Proto-Chadic and Proto-Cushitic are likely even older. Three dialects emerged (Omotic, Cushitic, and Chadic) from the main one and this left 'Boreafrasian,' the source of Berber, Egyptian and Semitic (Dalby ,p. 6). Ehret's dictionary lists "Proto-South-Cushitic, original homeland of the Afroasiatic family, "The feminine endings *-ay and *-y in Semitic and Berber", "A reconstruction of the system of verb aspects in proto-Berbero-Semitic", Afro-Asiatic and Semitic genealogical trees, short annotations of the talks given there, The prehistory of a dispersal: the Proto-Afrasian (Afroasiatic) farming lexicon, Once More About Glottochronology And The Comparative Method: The Omotic-Afrasian case, Root Extension And Root Formation In Semitic And Afrasian, A comparison of Orel-Stolbova's and Ehret's Afro-Asiatic reconstructions, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Afroasiatic_languages&oldid=1142726919, Linguist H. Fleming proposed that the near-exinct, Harold Fleming (1981) divides non-Omotic Afroasiatic, or "Erythraean", into three groups, Cushitic, Semitic, and Chadic-Berber-Egyptian. p-Nubian reflex), (root #723 + *x extend. to different specific animals), (possible vowel reconstructions: *a, *aa, *e, or *o), (Sem., Ch. Since there is written data available from this region, it is easier to reconstruct ancient roots and find common characteristics (ELL, p.51). [173] While some scholars posit an AA origin for this form, it is possible that the Berber and Cushitic forms are independent developments,[130] as they show significant differences from the Egyptian and Semitic forms. SOm stat. [174] It is found in Egyptian, Semitic, and possibly, in some relic forms, Berber. [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. 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, One hypothesis places it in the Levant, as the language of the Natufian hunter-gatherers who were the first to adopt a farming lifestyle more than 10,000 years ago. [164] Christopher Ehret has proposed that Proto-Afroasiatic originally had as many as thirty-seven separate verbal extensions, many of which then became fossilized as third consonants. The only branch that's actually E is Berber. [116], There is a large variety of vocalic systems in AA. [54] These five or six branches remain the academic consensus on the family. BLACK ATHENA The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization - V - $57.73. [92] Diakonoff argues that Proto-Afroasiatic syllables disallowed consonant clusters or vowels at the end of a syllable. [121] This structure is particularly visible in the verbs,[153] and is particularly noticeable in the triliteral Semitic verb. Kim [99] In Cushitic, the Ethiopian Semitic language Tigrinya, and some Chadic languages, there is no underlying phoneme [p] at all. suff. rather than the subject and object. ), (Berber, Eg. [121], As part of these templates, the alternation (apophony) between high vowels (e.g. Kanuri stretching out of arms), (Sem, Eg., Ch., Cush, innovation: 'set on top of' > 'cover'), (Sem., Eg. Map of Afro-Asiatic languages distribution (click to enlarge it) fort. In this interpretation, a contrast existed between. Temein * "Revising the Consonant Inventory of Proto-Eastern Cushitic," Studies in African Linguistics 22, 3 (1991): 211-275. The results, while confirming some previous views on proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian), revise or overturn many others, and add much that is new. < v. in #918 by V > VV; occurrence of PSC *ee (or *e?) About us. [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. p-Benue-Congo p-Akokoid ), #209 + Afroasiatic pl. ), to get up to leave, start out, come or go forth, (Eg., Sem. There are approximately 400 Afroasiatic languages, either living or recorded but extinct. [2] With the exception of its Semitic branch, all branches of the Afroasiatic family are exclusively native to the African continent. The reconstructed consonants for Proto-Afro-Asiatic are p and b, t and d, and k and g. The Egyptian bw meaning place and the Semitic bi meaning in or from are believed to be from the reconstructed root *b- meaning foot or place (ELL, p.51). . infix [also tonal shift as found in Chadic cases]), (this root is included because #871 following derives from it), (sing. suff. [18][11], The alternative name "Lisramic" is based on the AA root *lis- ("tongue") and the Egyptian word rm ("person"). The following list of Proto-Afroasiatic reconstructions is from Ehret (1995). innovation: 'lift' > 'carry', (Eg., Sem., Cush, shared innovations: *su, *usu 'he'; *si, *isi 'she': see Chap. 'to come so close as to brush against'), (Eg., Sem. in Semitic, Berber, and in Cushitic,[130][166] where it is only found on a small set of frequent verbs. Linguistics 450 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). Yendang "[81] The African languages of Afroasiatic are not more closely related to each other than they are to Semitic, as one would expect if only Semitic had remained in an Asian AA homeland while all other branches had spread from there. BLACK ATHENA: THE Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication, - $16.27. [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. [42] Egyptian was replaced by Arabic as the spoken language of Egypt,[43] but Coptic continues to be the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. p-Ukaan [107] Another widespread constraint is against two non-identical lateral obstruents, which can be found in Egyptian, Chadic, Semitic, and probably Cushitic. [183], Another factor making comparisons of AA numeral systems difficult is the possibility of borrowing. p-Plateau (p-Tarokoid) [136] These so-called "internal a" or "broken" plurals are securely attested in Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, and Chadic, although it is unclear if the Chadic examples are an independent development. Beboid The Sumerian and Etruscan languages, usually regarded as language isolates, are thought by some to be Nostratic languages as well. Afro-Asiatic is divided into six branches: Semitic, Berber, Egyptian, Cushitic, Chadic and Omotic. Proto-Afroasiatic) was spoken, most agree that it was located within a region of Northeast Africa. 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. [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. Whether this proto-language is ancestral to Berber and Semitic only, or also to other branches of Afroasiatic, still remains to be established. innovation: n. 'morning' by addition of *r n. However, not one of Militarev's proposed 32 agricultural roots can be considered diagnostic of cultivation. p-Kuliak (Ik) PSom-III. Mao This language family has now been renamed Afro-Asiatic, because this term is less culture specific (Dalby, p.6). PROTO-AFROASIATIC PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM One of the most significant characteristics of Afroasiatic consonantism is the system of triads found in the stops and affri- cates -- each series (except the lateralized affricates) contains three members: a voiceless (aspirated) member, a voiced member, and a glottalized (that is, ejective) member. [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. Pr. ref. Root Structure Patterning in Proto . sing. [129] Full or partial reduplication of the verb is often used to derive forms showing repeated action (pluractionality), though it is unclear if this is an inherited feature or has been widely borrowed. [11], Greenberg reintroduced the name "Afroasiatic" in 1960, a name seemingly coined by Maurice Delafosse (as French afroasiatique) in 1914. shared innovation: 'move, take' > 'take hold of'), (Cush., Ch., Eg., Sem. [84] Prominent in this camp is the linguist Alexander Militarev, who argues that Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken by early agriculturalists in the Levant and subsequently spread to Africa. 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. With the exception of its Semitic branch, all branches of the Afroasiatic family are . It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques of the historical-comparative method. [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. The Proto-Afroasiatic Vowel System. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary. as denom. [134] A system K (masculine), T (feminine), and H (plural) can be found in Cushitic, Chadic, with masculine K also appearing in Omotic. Semitic speakers moved into the Fertile Crescent and "emerg[ed] into history" by bringing Akkadian (a Semitic language) into what is now Iraq, a previously Sumerian-speaking area (Dalby ,p6). ); 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. Kadu Bomhard postulates that from Proto-Afroasiatic (henceforth PAA), Chadic was the first to break off. [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]. [192] Thus, it is possible that the numerals in Egyptian, Berber, and Semitic are more closely related, whereas the Cushitic and Chadic numerals are more closely related to each other. Great variety is incorporated in one family and this makes Afro-Asiatic an interesting topic of study. [180] Also common are dependent/affix pronouns (used for direct objects and to mark possession). ; Eg., Sem. [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.

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