[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. innovation: specialization of meaning to plant growth), (Berber, e.g., Shilh agafay 'cloud,' implies a 2nd root shape *-gaap-), to impel, make move (by pushing, pulling), (root #311+old Afroasiatic pl. Proto-Afroasiatic is a reconstructed language. Adapted from Ruhlen 1987. [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. 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. innovation: n. 'morning' by addition of *r n. all catalog, articles, website, & more in one search catalog books, media & more in the Stanford Libraries' collections articles+ journal articles & other e-resources Each aspect of these reconstructions is substantiated in detail in an extensive etymological vocabulary of more than 1000 roots. tr. p-Bantu (Swadesh list) [64] In the same year T.N. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton, 2011. . [31] Hausa is the largest Chadic language by native speakers, and is spoken by a large number of people as a lingua franca in Northern Nigeria. [92] Diakonoff argues that Proto-Afroasiatic syllables disallowed consonant clusters or vowels at the end of a syllable. (abbrev. innovation: narrowing of application of v. to angry calling out), (Sem., Cush, innovation: > n. 'covering' > 'rind, bark'), (root #447+ * iter. Afro-Asiatic is divided into six branches: Semitic, Berber, Egyptian, Cushitic, Chadic and Omotic. p-Cushitic 1 Afro-Asiatic Language Family. ; Sem., Eg. [119] Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova instead proposed a six vowel system with a, e, o, i, ([y]), and u. Since there is written data available from this region, it is easier to reconstruct ancient roots and find common characteristics (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. 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. [6][7], with the latter two having fallen out of favor in English but still seeing frequent usage in other languages, such as German. [34], The Egyptian branch consists of a single language, Ancient Egyptian, which was historically spoken in the lower Nile Valley. p-Bua Proto-Afroasiatic, sometimes also referred to as Proto-Afrasian, is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. 1995. in *n, as also in #323), (possible V reconstructions: *a, *aa, *e, or *o), (Sem., Eg., Ch. Among the countries included in this language family are: Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, and Ethiopia. in a word must match. These records make it possible to classify and reconstruct many languages. [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. 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. p-Gurunsi [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. [21] They are often considered to constitute a single language with multiple dialects. Atlantic (Guinea) p-Ijaw Pr. Benfys title was later inverted to make Hamito-Semitic but over time racial connotations were applied to this name (Voegelin, p.13). Ongota 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)). The Afroasiatic language family is thought to have originated in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula around 15,000 years ago. [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. [156] It is unclear whether this system is a common AA trait;[157] the Chadic examples, for instance, show signs of originally deriving from affixes, which could explain the origins of the alterations in other languages as well. The system in Berber, Egyptian, and Semitic, however, has independent words for the numbers 6-9. [7] Nevertheless, both dictionaries agree on some items and some proposed cognates are uncontroversial. 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. *t: . Each aspect of these reconstructions is substantiated in detail in an extensive etymological vocabulary of more than 1000 roots. Also, how do roots work? Yendang the ancient Egypto-Semitic evidence. Fig. At the same time, linguistic similarities such as vowel changes help show relationships among languages. [99] p-Mande (p-W. Mandep-Mandekanp-Niger-Voltap-S. Mande) The only branch that's actually E is Berber. innovation: addition of *t n. innovation: 'knee'; Berber *afud < *puuz), to be finished, come to an end, be used up, (Sem., Cush. [121] Besides for Semitic, vocalic templates are well attested for Cushitic and Berber,[154] where, along with Chadic, it is less productive; it is absent in Omotic. [103], A form of long-distance consonant assimilation known as consonant harmony is attested in Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, and Semitic: it usually affects features such as pharyngealization, palatalization, and labialization. p-Semitic, Khoisan [117] In the different languages, central vowels are often inserted to break up consonant clusters (a form of epenthesis). [85][86] Scholar Jared Diamond and archaeologist Peter Bellwood have taken up Militarev's arguments as part of their general argument that the spread of linguistic macrofamilies (such as Indo-European, Bantu, and Austro-Asiatic) can be associated with the development of agriculture; they argue that there is clear archaeological support for farming spreading from the Levant into Africa via the Nile valley. Other Language Families and Fields of Study. [32] It may have as many as 80 to 100 million first and second language speakers. p-Gbaya "[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. ), (root #695 + *f iter.? Author: Martin Bernal Language: EnglishEdition: 1stBinding: HardcoverPages: 575Publisher: Rutgers Univ PressPublication Date: 304805601149 See . 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. Afro-Asiatic has been hypothesized to be related to many other language families. p-Kongo It is very difficult to reconstruct ancient Proto-Afroasiatic (PAA) vocabulary, and still more difficult to reconstruct a common morphosyntax. 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. [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. The "s-causative" may be reflected in Hausa (as -r), however this may be a language internal development. A set of constraints, developed originally by Joseph Greenberg on the basis of Arabic, has been claimed to be typical for Afroasiatic languages. This family was formally described and named "Semitic" by August Ludwig von Schlzer in 1781. This great divide has made travel difficult so linguistic boundaries tend to be based on either side. [141] However, the number and types of cases varies across AA and also within the individual branches. 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). ; short vowel required by derived verb #399), calabash (used as container, utensil, etc. [34] Cushitic does not appear to be related to the attested ancient languages known from its area, Meroitic or Old Nubian. ), (root seen also in #984 + *n non-fin. ; PC variant *damn-), (Ch., Eg., Sem. 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. [83], A significant minority of scholars supports an Asian origin of Afroasiatic,[78] most of whom are specialists in Semitic or Egyptian studies. [187] Modern Chadic numeral systems are sometimes decimal, having separate names for the numbers 1-10, and sometimes base-5, deriving the numbers 6-9 from the numbers 1-5 in some way. p-Yoruboid [145] Edward Lipiski refers to Semitic nouns as having four states: absolute (free/indeterminate), construct, determinate, and predicate. [67][68], An important development in the history of Afroasiatic scholarship - and the history of African linguistics - was the creation of the "Hamitic theory" or "Hamitic hypothesis" by Lepsius, fellow Egyptologist Christian Bunsen, and linguist Christian Bleek. [19] Additionally, a majority of specialists consider the Omotic languages to constitute a sixth branch. p-Nilotic (p-E. Niloticp-S. Nilotic) 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, There is some evidence from Coptic, but this may be unrelated to AA. [11], Greenberg reintroduced the name "Afroasiatic" in 1960, a name seemingly coined by Maurice Delafosse (as French afroasiatique) in 1914. Berkeley: University of California Press. London, Bloomsbury, 1998. (Though I found no mention of the origin of Semito-, it is possible that this name comes from Shem, another son of Noah). innovation: 'fold over, bend'), (Eg., Sem. p-Fula-Sereer p-Masa [198] Andrzej Zaborski refers to Orel and Stolbova's reconstructions as "controversial", and Ehret's as "not acceptable to many scholars". With the exception of its Semitic branch, all branches of the Afroasiatic family are . Retard. It's impossible to tell exactly how old Proto-Afroasiatic is, or where it was spoken, but there are a few ideas. [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". . South Bauchi Its words and roots are not directly attested in any written works, but have been reconstructed through the comparative method, which finds regular similarities between languages that cannot be explained by coincidence or word-borrowing, and extrapolates ancient forms from these similarities. >>14700322 >Proto-Semitic language contact with PIE implies the Semitic languages themselves come from J Caucasians. [49], There there are also other proposed branches, but none has so far convinced a majority of scholars:[7]. Gemination in particular is one of the typical features of AA. suff. [4] The most widely spoken modern Afroasiatic language or dialect continuum by far is Arabic, a de facto group of distinct language varieties within the Semitic branch. suff. p-Koman [144], A second category, which partially overlaps with case, is the AA linguistic category of "state." [133][150] It forms agent nouns, place nouns, and instrument nouns. Bendi 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. [88], Egyptian, Cushitic, Berber, Omotic, and most languages in the Semitic branch all require a syllable to begin with a consonant (with the exception of some grammatical prefixes). Central Sudanic (p-Central Sudanicp-Sara-Bongo-BagirmiSinyarBirrip-Mangbetu) 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. ; PS, Eg., Ch. Allan Bomhard's own reconstructions of Proto-Afroasiatic roots (and phonology) seem to be biased toward Proto-Indo-European and Nostratic roots . [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. Archaeology and the study of oral traditions helps linguists find connections between language families. 2.10. and touches on external evidence from Afroasiatic cognate languages. The results, while confirming some previous views on proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian), revise or overturn many others, and add much that is new. Akpes 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). If so, semantics are unclear), (pl. [16] Several issues with the label "Hamito-Semitic" have led to its decline in use by later scholars. (root #311+old Afroasiatic pl. As Egyptian is spelled without vowels, it is difficult to know whether it had internal change plurals. In the above model, Taforalt draws about half of their ancestry (you can call this ANA) from a population that also (likely through a sister population) contributes the . London: Routledge, 1990. p-Central Togo p-Aroid This page was last edited on 28 August 2022, at 11:13. This work provides the first truly comprehensive and systematic reconstruction of proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian). innovation: narrowing of meaning to particular kind of joining, by sewing), to split in two, split one from the other, (proposed source: #502, with regular PAA * > PBA *n; Eg., Berber, Sem. [23] In the past, Berber languages were spoken throughout North Africa except in Egypt;[24] since the 7th century CE, however, they have been heavily affected by Arabic and have been replaced by it in many places. [51] The classification within West Semitic remains contested. p-Mumuye [105], Restrictions against the co-occurrence of certain, usually similar, consonants in verbal roots can be found in all Afroasiatic branches, though they are only weakly attested in Chadic and Omotic. Abstract The paper is a new contribution to revealing the Afro-Asiatic heritage in the lexicon of the Angas-Sura group of Chadic languages by means of interbranch comparison using a.o. [97] All Afroasiatic languages contain stops and fricatives; some branches have additional types of consonants such as affricates and lateral consonants. Greenberg, 1958 D. Cohen,. Proto-Afroasiatic English gloss Notes 1. [30] Most Chadic languages are located in the Chad basin, with the exception of Hausa. [10][11], Friedrich Mller introduced the name "Hamito-Semitic" to describe the family in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, published in 1876. [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". 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. [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. Afroasiatic. Dogon Proto-Nostratic would have been spoken between 15,000 and 12,000 BCE, in the Epipaleolithic period, close to the end of the last glacial period. ; Eg., Sem. 'be, exist'), (root seen also in #983 + probably *s caus. 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. It is, rather, a comparison of Proto-Indo-European with Proto-Afroasiatic. innovation: added sense, 'to listen to'), (Ch., Sem., Berber innovation: specialized meaning 'tooth'; but note presence of that meaning isolated in single Omotic language), (innovation: Sem., Ch. with pre-PAA root *way thus having been a n. or adj. Proposed specific locations include the Horn of Africa, Egypt, the eastern Sahara, and the Levant. [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. innovation: 'increase' > 'grow in size'), (root #838 + * part. [18][11], The alternative name "Lisramic" is based on the AA root *lis- ("tongue") and the Egyptian word rm ("person"). The only group with an African origin is Ethiopian Semitic. The results, while confirming some previous views on proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian), revise or overturn many others, and add much that is new. Pre-Proto-Semitic Roots (Additional to those presented in Ehret 1989) Appendix 2. [70] On the one hand, the classification of languages as "Hamitic" relied on linguistic features, such as the presence of male and female grammatical gender; thus Meinhof even split the Chadic family into "Hamito-Chadic" and unrelated non-Hamitic Chadic based on which languages possessed gender. [99] In all AA languages, consonants can be bilabial, alveolar, velar, and glottal, with additional places of articulation found in some branches or languages. SOm stat. Natioro ), to extend, stretch out (intr. 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. p-Ron Traditionally, the Hausa subject pronouns have been compared to the prefix conjugation. Proto-Afroasiatic) was spoken, most agree that it was located within a region of Northeast Africa. [128] Proto-Chadic is reconstructed as having verb-initial word order,[80] but most Chadic languages have subject-verb-object word order. 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. p-Tuu [147][148] Berber instead contrasts between the "free state" and the "annexed state," the latter of which is used for a variety of purposes, including for subjects placed after a verb and after certain prepositions. infix [also tonal shift as found in Chadic cases]), (this root is included because #871 following derives from it), (sing. Rashad suff. This name is possibly based upon the root "-b-r" ( . There are approximately 400 Afroasiatic languages, either living or recorded but extinct. [77][127] Berber, and Egyptian, and most Semitic languages are verb-initial languages, whereas Cushitic, Omotic and some Semitic subgroups are verb-final languages. 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. 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. [117] Christopher Ehret proposed a five vowel system with long and short a, e, o, i, and u. [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]. innovation: narrowing of meaning to loud kinds of response), (2nd shape: stem + *r n. Diamond and Bellwood adopt Militarev's ( 2) solitary counterclaim of proto-Afroasiatic cultivation. Anaang 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. [29], There are about 30,[34] 50,[35] or 70[36] Cushitic languages, spoken around the Horn of Africa and in Sudan and Tanzania. p-Atlantic-Congo shared innovation: n. for 'clay'), great (especially in size but also in number), (Ch., Eg., Sem. Item Weight : 11.2 ounces Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.75 x 9 inches Best Sellers Rank: #1,696,866 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books) #2,811 in Comparative Religion (Books) Customer Reviews: 3 ratings Videos Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! Pp. Omotic is the most controversial member of Afro-Asiatic. There is also some evidence from. Berta p-Maban (abbrev. The Sumerian and Etruscan languages, usually regarded as language isolates, are thought by some to be Nostratic languages as well. For example, the Hamitic component inaccurately suggests the existence of a monophyletic "Hamitic" branch alongside Semitic. He later added Semitic and Beja to Chadic-Berber-Egyptian and tentatively proposed, Alexander Militarev (2000), on the basis of. innovation: derivation of n. for 'hand'), (Eg., Sem. The reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic is problematic and . ; semantics: egg curves at every point? The proto-language of each Afroasiatic branch developed its own distinct vocabulary of food production, further supporting the view that herding and cultivation emerged separately in each branch after the proto-Afroasiatic period ( 7, 8 ). Jalaa * "The Origins of Third Consonants in Semitic Roots: An Internal Reconstruction (Applied to Arabic)," Journal of Afroasiatic Languages 3, 2 (1989): 109-202. p-Talodi These three groups are classified as being in Africa while Afro-Asiatic is listed under the term Eurasia (Atlas, p.74). [149], A prefix in m- is the most widely attested affix in AA that is used to derive nouns. [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. [90] Some Chadic languages allow a syllable to begin with a vowel. p-Upper Cross River p-Potou-Akanic !Kung, Bangime The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. 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). [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. SLEC Som. [104] Several Omotic languages have "sibilant harmony", meaning that all sibilants (s, sh, z, ts, etc.) Looking at present languages and going backward helps us know what languages were like anciently (Atlas, p.75). Additional Proposed PAA Roots; Appendix 4. i, u) and a low vowel (a) in verbal forms is usually described as one of the main characteristics of AA languages: this change codes a variety of different functions.
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