Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *abaw/y- Meaning: a k. of plant Semitic: *abVw- 'reed, papyrus' Egyptian: wb 'root', cf. It's impossible to tell exactly how old Proto-Afroasiatic is, or where it was spoken, but there are a few ideas. [115] James P. Allen has demonstrated that slightly different rules apply to Egyptian: for instance, Egyptian allows two identical consonants in some roots, and disallows velars from occurring with pharyngeals. Afrasian. [101] The Omotic forms of the personal pronouns differ from the others, with only the plural forms in North Omotic appearing potentially to be cognate. p-Ron In addition to the languages spoken today, Afroasiatic includes many ancient languages, such as Egyptian, which forms a distinct branch of the family; and within the Semitic family, Akkadian, Hebrew, Phoenician, other Canaanite languages, Amorite, Ugaritic and Aramaic. North of the Sahara and the Ethiopian mountains are the Afro-Asiatic languages. Tiefo 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. This name is possibly based upon the root "-b-r" ( . Proto-Afro-Asiatic Swadesh List : r/linguistics - reddit [144], A second category, which partially overlaps with case, is the AA linguistic category of "state." innovation: integration of *t dur. The languages that evolved from Proto-Arabic have around 313 million native speakers, concentrated primarily in the Middle East and North Africa.[5]. Bomhard postulates that from Proto-Afroasiatic (henceforth PAA), Chadic was the first to break off. Gemination in particular is one of the typical features of AA. [174] It is found in Egyptian, Semitic, and possibly, in some relic forms, Berber. [76] It may have originally mostly biconsonantal, to which various affixes (verbal extensions) were then added and lexicalized. However, not one of Militarev's proposed 32 agricultural roots can be considered diagnostic of cultivation. p-Omotic p-Igboid shared innovation: 'raise' > 'lift, pick up'; probable further Ch., Eg., Sem. Anatolian origin for Indo-European and sumerian languages [116], There is a large variety of vocalic systems in AA. . [109] Roots that may have contained sequences that were possible in Proto-Afroasiatic but are disallowed in the daughter languages are assumed to have undergone consonant dissimilation or assimilation.[110][111]. The modern word "Hebrew" is derived from the word "Ivri" (plural "Ivrim"; English: Hebrews), one of several names for the Israelite (Jewish and Samaritan) people. Christopher Ehret. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian Archive Afroasiatic is generally considered to be comprised of the language families Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic, and Semitic. These records make it possible to classify and reconstruct many languages. p-Nilo-Saharan [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. Diamond and Bellwood adopt Militarev's ( 2) solitary counterclaim of proto-Afroasiatic cultivation. See . infix [also tonal shift as found in Chadic cases]), (this root is included because #871 following derives from it), (sing. In the series University of California Publications in Linguistics 126. [87], Afroasiatic languages share a number of phonetic and phonological features. [3] The phylum has six branches: Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Semitic, and Omotic. Many of these roots have other proposed cognates that are not included on the table. West Semitic brought forth such languages as Canaanite, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic (EL, p.906). fort. [121] This structure is particularly visible in the verbs,[153] and is particularly noticeable in the triliteral Semitic verb. They are not found in Chadic languages, and there is no evidence for cases in Egyptian. Free delivery worldwide on all books from Book Depository innovation: as synonym for #505), (vowel reconstruction uncertain: PAA *u, *ee, or *oo are also possible here; contrary to earlier views, this is surely a distinct root from #503), (Eg., Sem. ; short vowel required by derived verb #399), calabash (used as container, utensil, etc. 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, p-Atlantic-Congo [191], The Cushitic and Chadic numeral systems appear to have originally been base 5. TV. PSom-III. p-Central Togo in *n, as also in #323), (possible V reconstructions: *a, *aa, *e, or *o), (Sem., Eg., Ch. [174] The Semitic genitive case in -i is probably related to "nisba" adjective derivation. [34] The Cushitic family is traditionally spit into four branches: the single language of Beja (c. 3 million speakers), the Agaw languages, Eastern Cushitic, and Southern Cushitic. p-Agaw BLACK ATHENA: THE Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication, - $16.27. Traditionally, the Hausa subject pronouns have been compared to the prefix conjugation. p-Idomoid Online Library The Oxford Introduction To Proto Indo European And The crcst test prep; crcst free test questions; paid test; crcst exam prep notes; subscribe [77][127] Berber, and Egyptian, and most Semitic languages are verb-initial languages, whereas Cushitic, Omotic and some Semitic subgroups are verb-final languages. p-Fali [128] In most branches, gender is an inherent property of nouns. Afroasiatic languages - Wikipedia [6], Scholars generally consider Afroasiatic to have at least five and as many as eight separate branches, with the five universally agreed upon branches consisting of the Berber (also called "Libyco-Berber"), Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, and Semitic. Bariba Afroasiatic (Afro-Asiatic), also known as Afrasian or Hamito-Semitic, Semito-Hamitic, or Erythraean is a large language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and parts of the Sahel. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic Urheimat; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant, the Sahara, or the Horn of Africa, and the view that it arose in the Arabian Peninsulahas also been common historically. [89] In Cushitic and Chadic languages, a glottal stop or glottal or fricative may be inserted to prevent a word from beginning with a vowel. [17] The name refers to the fact that this is the only major language family with members in both Africa and Asia. [29] Eight other Chadic languages have around 100,000 speakers; other Chadic languages often have few speakers and may be endangered of going extinct. Afroasiatic languages - Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core [48] The oldest written attestations of Semitic languages come from Mesopotamia, Northern Syria, and Egypt and date as early as c. 3000 BCE. all catalog, articles, website, & more in one search catalog books, media & more in the Stanford Libraries' collections articles+ journal articles & other e-resources p-Upper Cross River Both works provide highly divergent reconstructions and have been heavily criticized by other scholars. Afroasiatic(Afro-Asiatic), also known as Afrasianand in older sources as Hamito-Semitic(Chamito-Semitic)[3]or Semito-Hamitic,[4]is a large language familyof about 300 languages. ), #209 + Afroasiatic pl. The results, while confirming some previous views on proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian), revise or overturn many others, and add much that is new. innovation: 'send' > 'direct,' hence 'command, rule'), (Agaw *a allows PAA vowel reconstructions *a, *aa, *o, or *e), (Sem., Eg. [113] These rules also have a number of exceptions: Similar exceptions can be demonstrated for the other AA branches that have these restrictions to their root formation. p-Aroid Appendix:Proto-Afroasiatic reconstructions - Wiktionary [83], A significant minority of scholars supports an Asian origin of Afroasiatic,[78] most of whom are specialists in Semitic or Egyptian studies. derivation by addition of *-u- tr. p-Khoe I.2. Afroasiatic - Indo-European ; Eg., Sem. [121], As part of these templates, the alternation (apophony) between high vowels (e.g. [34] Cushitic does not appear to be related to the attested ancient languages known from its area, Meroitic or Old Nubian. innovation: derivation of n. for 'hand'), (Eg., Sem. 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 , that is, between 16,000 and 10,000 BC. [20] Omotic was formerly considered part of the Cushitic branch;[46] some scholars continue to consider it part of Cushitic. It is very difficult to reconstruct ancient Proto-Afroasiatic (PAA) vocabulary, and still more difficult to reconstruct a common morphosyntax. [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. [99], The majority of AA languages are tonal languages: phonemic tonality is found in Omotic, Chadic, and Cushitic languages, but absent in Berber and Semitic. WCh WOT [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. [8][9] Other proposed names which have not found widespread acceptance among the linguistic community include Erythraic, Lisramic, Noahitic, and Lamekhite. The "t-stem" may be reflected in some forms in Hausa; however may also derive from a language internal development and has no cognates elsewhere in Chadic. Sandawe [14], The term Semitic had already been coined in 1781 by August Ludwig von Schlzer, following an earlier suggestion by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1710. [6][7], with the latter two having fallen out of favor in English but still seeing frequent usage in other languages, such as German. innovation: narrowing of application of v. to angry calling out), (Sem., Cush, innovation: > n. 'covering' > 'rind, bark'), (root #447+ * iter. [11] In 1855, Ernst Renan named these languages, related to Semitic but not Semitic, "Hamitic," in 1860 Carl Lottner proposed that they belonged to a single language family, and in 1876 Friedrich Mller first described them as a "Hamito-Semitic" language family. Olukumi How did Semitic languages originate? Are they descended from Proto This work provides the first truly comprehensive and systematic reconstruction of proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian). 3 The Phonemes of English - A. Cohen 1971-07-31 I gladly take this opportunity to convey my heartfelt thanks to those who have guided me on my way as an Ayere-Ahan Linguists use the term "state" to refer to different things in different languages. *kanf-/*kinf-wing: 325. You guys might disagree with the results form the Shum Laka paper but don't distort their own interpretations of their findings. with pre-PAA root *way thus having been a n. or adj. English and its relatives | Sciforums [10][11], Friedrich Mller introduced the name "Hamito-Semitic" to describe the family in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, published in 1876. Dictionary of Languages. [134] A system K (masculine), T (feminine), and H (plural) can be found in Cushitic, Chadic, with masculine K also appearing in Omotic. [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. [75] Consequently, scholars have offered estimates for when Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken that range between 18,000 and 8,000 BCE. p-Nilotic (p-E. Niloticp-S. Nilotic) shared innovation: *als-/*ils- 'tongue': *a-/*i-attrib. p-Songhay as EL). New York: Elsevier, 1977. The reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic is problematic and . [106] The most widespread constraint is against two different labial consonants (other than w) occurring together in a root, a constraint which can be found in all branches but Omotic. suff. Gule [31], A majority of specialists consider Omotic to constitute a sixth branch of Afroasiatic. [20], The Berber (or Libyco-Berber) languages are spoken today by perhaps 16 million people. Our assessments, publications and research spread knowledge, spark enquiry and aid understanding around the world. [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. There are approximately 400 Afroasiatic languages, either living or recorded but extinct. Proto-Afro-Asiatic language | Britannica p-Nupoid (abbrev. [51] The classification within West Semitic remains contested. Fifteen are glossed as names of plants or loose categories of plants. 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. [123], Some scholars postulate that Proto-Afroasiatic was a tonal language, with tonality subsequently lost in some branches: Christopher Ehret has postulated a tonal system of at least two tonal phonemes, falling tone, rising tone, and possibly a third tone, level tone. innovation: 'grow' > 'live,' whence Eg. [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]. [95], "Afro-Asiatic" redirects here. 2.12. in *n, as also in #210) 324. suff. [109] Additionally, he showed that Proto-Semitic restricted a sequence of two identical consonants in the first and second position of the triliteral root. BLACK ATHENA The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization - V - $57.73. Map of Afro-Asiatic languages distribution (click to enlarge it) [33] Only about 40 Chadic languages have been fully described by linguists. The speakers of Boreafrasian migrated north to an arid Sahara climate, then eventually pushed on west and east. Akpes in a word must match. Proto-Chadic reconstruction is in its infancy, Proto-Cushitic is even less developed, and according to Glottolog it's not demonstrable that Omotic languages are even related to each other, let alone as part of Afro-Asiatic. p-Katloid [182], Unlike in the Indo-European or Austronesian language families, numerals in AA languages cannot be traced to a proto-system. [179] However, there is no consensus on what the reconstructed set of Afroasiatic pronouns might have looked like. Linguistics 450 Jalaa p-Cangin Gumuz p-Grassfields 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. [82] Likewise, all Semitic languages are fairly similar to each other, whereas the African branches of Afroasiatic are very diverse; this suggests the rapid spread of Semitic out of 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. ; *m > /n/ ([])/_*x), (Sem., Eg. [196] Additionally, because Egyptian is written without vowels before the Coptic period, its use for comparative purposes often relies on vocalic reconstructions that themselves depend on comparisons with other Afroasiatic languages. Each aspect of these reconstructions is substantiated in detail in an extensive etymological vocabulary of more than 1000 roots. in *n, as also in #210), (Sem., Eg. This original biblical genealogy reflected political rather than linguistic realities: thus the Canaanites are descendants of Ham, although their language is closely related to Hebrew, and the Elamites are descendants of Shem, although their language is not related to Hebrew at all. p-Oti-Volta (p-E. Oti-Voltap-C. Oti-Volta) common genetic origin of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic differ considerably from the assumptions made in other works on . [29], There are about 30,[34] 50,[35] or 70[36] Cushitic languages, spoken around the Horn of Africa and in Sudan and Tanzania. bw 'plant used in medicine' (med) Central Chadic: *abay 'leaf' Proto-Afro-Asiatic: * (a-)bil- Meaning: door Semitic: *abul- 'door, gate' Western Chadic: *HVbil- 'door' Central Cushitic (Agaw): *bil- 'door' 1, 'hole, window' 2 Omotic and Cushitic followed the example and split together, as did Egyptian, Berber, and Semitic in another group. [121] Such scholars postulate that tones developed to compensate for lost or reduced syllables, and note that certain tones are often associated with certain syllable-final consonants.[125]. reflex), (root #723 + *x extend. [133], A widespread pattern of gender and number marking in Afroasiatic is a consonant N for masculine, T for feminine, and N for plural. [54] The "Hamitic theory" would serve as the basis for Carl Meinhof's highly influential classification of African languages in his book Die Sprache der Hamiten (1912). [29] The Chadic languages are typically divided into three major branches, East Chadic, Central Chadic, and West Chadic. [20], There are between 40 and 80 languages in the Semitic family. *iw- 'cow') (Eg., Sem. The only group with an African origin is Ethiopian Semitic. Ongota (Though I found no mention of the origin of Semito-, it is possible that this name comes from Shem, another son of Noah). The Sumerian and Etruscan languages, usually regarded as language isolates, are thought by some to be Nostratic languages as well. Proto-Afroasiatic language - Wikiwand Online Library The Oxford Introduction To Proto Indo European And The S. SC Sem. North Germanic includes Icelandic, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. Dalby, Andrew. [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. [127] These pronouns tend to show a masculine "u" and a feminine "i". >>14700332 [89] Igor Diakonoff argues that the requirement to begin with a vowel goes back to Proto-Afroasiatic. Their range extended from the Benue Trough and Lake Chad, to the Nile Valley, the Indus Valley, and Southern Europe during the African Aqualithic Period. It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham's ancestor, Eber ("Ever" in Hebrew), mentioned in Genesis 10:21. [40] Tom Gldemann, however, argues that less time may have been required than is commonly assumed, as it is possible for a language to rapidly restructure due to language contact, as happened in the Chadic branch and probably also in Omotic. [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. sing. A Description of the Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic - Linguistics There is no information on whether Egyptian had tones. Also, how do roots work? [76], There is no consensus where the original homeland (Urheimat) of the first Afroasiatic speakers was located. [77] Roger Blench writes that the debate has "a strong ideological flavor", with associations between an Asian origin and "high civilization". [49][48] Arabic, spoken in both Asia and Africa, has around 300 million native speakers, while the Ethiopian Amharic has around 25 million. Gbekli Tepe's Pillars and Architecture Reveal the Foundation of 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. [140] A common pattern in AA languages with case is for the nominative to marked by -u or -i, and the accusative to be marked by -a. We unlock the potential of millions of people worldwide. [91] Typically, syllables only begin with a single consonant. p-Guang [2] With the exception of its Semitic branch, all branches of the Afroasiatic family are exclusively native to the African continent. London, Bloomsbury, 1998. [90] Some Chadic languages allow a syllable to begin with a vowel. innovation: narrowing of meaning to loud kinds of response), (2nd shape: stem + *r n. [158] Most grammars of AA posit a distinction between perfective and imperfective verbal aspects, which can be found in Cushitic, Berber, Semitic, most Chadic languages, and some Omotic languages. Common Indo-European-Afroasiatic Roots, Supplement I (1986) - Academia.edu [99] p-Cushitic [26] The second is the Guanche language, which was formerly spoken on the Canary Islands and went extinct in the 17th century CE. Whether this proto-language is ancestral to Berber and Semitic only, or also to other branches of Afroasiatic, still remains to be established. [122] In some Chadic and some Omotic languages every syllable has to have a tone, whereas in most Cushitic languages this is not the case. E-V13. 2.11. Social:Proto-Semitic language - HandWiki It is, rather, a comparison of Proto-Indo-European with Proto-Afroasiatic. 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). [149], A prefix in m- is the most widely attested affix in AA that is used to derive nouns. Proto-Afro-Asiatic is of great antiquity; experts tend to place it in the Mesolithic Period at about 15,000-10,000 bce. 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. NE Sudanic innovation: n. 'morning' by addition of *r n. innovation: generalization of pl. The Berber and Semitic branches share certain grammatical features (e.g. [27] The first is the Numidian language, represented by over a thousand short inscriptions in the Libyco-Berber alphabet, found throughout North Africa and dating from the 2nd century BCE onward. Each aspect of these reconstructions is substantiated in detail in an extensive etymological vocabulary of more than 1000 roots. [178], The forms of the pronouns are very stable throughout the Afroasiatic (excluding Omotic),[127] and they have been used as one of the chief tools for determining whether a language belongs to the family. This page was last edited on 28 August 2022, at 11:13. + stem; PS *lisn 'tongue' is a separate and distinct derivation from the same verb root), (Sem., Eg., Ch. Defaka 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). . [97] All Afroasiatic languages contain stops and fricatives; some branches have additional types of consonants such as affricates and lateral consonants. [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. innovation: 'increase' > 'grow fat, thicken'), (root #141 + *n n. [5] It includes languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africaand parts of the Sahel. innovation: *agaw- 'cooked grain,' stem + *w n. Fig. p-Bua >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. About us. The results, while confirming some previous views on proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian), revise or overturn many others, and add much that is new. [107] Another widespread constraint is against two non-identical lateral obstruents, which can be found in Egyptian, Chadic, Semitic, and probably Cushitic. ; semantics: egg curves at every point? ), to fit on top of, go above or in front of, (Eg., Sem. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone [163] Three derivational prefixes can be reconstructed for Proto-Afroasiatic: *s- 'causative', *t- 'middle voice' or 'reflexive', and *n- 'passive'. Anaang Cognate Dictionary Studies in Baltic and Indo-European Linguistics The Roots of Hinduism Latin - nus, -na, -nus and -neus Tracing the Indo-Europeans Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo- . [34], The Egyptian branch consists of a single language, Ancient Egyptian, which was historically spoken in the lower Nile Valley. Kim into stem), to take (bit of food or drink) into the mouth, (* is required by derived noun, root #641 following), (Eg., Sem. 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).