The reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic is problematic and . Kadu 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. These include Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Altaic and Dravidian (Atlas, p.74). ; Eg., Sem. 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 ). in a word must match.
Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone [144], A second category, which partially overlaps with case, is the AA linguistic category of "state." and touches on external evidence from Afroasiatic cognate languages. 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. About us. [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. velar consonants can occur with pharyngeals or laryngeals; This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 01:29. The system in Berber, Egyptian, and Semitic, however, has independent words for the numbers 6-9. Forms that do not follow the pattern are in parentheses. innovation: derivation of n. for 'hand'), (Eg., Sem. [21] They are often considered to constitute a single language with multiple dialects. 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. [6] Rashad Gemination in particular is one of the typical features of AA. If you are not satisfied with 225345861639 [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. [117] Christopher Ehret proposed a five vowel system with long and short a, e, o, i, and u. It is, rather, a comparison of Proto-Indo-European with Proto-Afroasiatic. [104] Several Omotic languages have "sibilant harmony", meaning that all sibilants (s, sh, z, ts, etc.) Mimi-N [181] Other commonalities are masculine and feminine forms used in both the second and third persons, except in Cushitic and Omotic. [139], Nouns cases are found in the Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, and Omotic.
PDF C. Ehret, S. O. Y. Keita, and Paul Newman. "The Origins of Afroasiatic Gumuz [121] For Egyptian, evidence for the root-and-template structure exists from Coptic. [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. [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. It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques of the historical-comparative method.
Proto-Afro-Asiatic Swadesh List : r/linguistics - reddit shared innovation: *isin-/*usun- 'they' (originally fem./masc. [121] This structure is particularly visible in the verbs,[153] and is particularly noticeable in the triliteral Semitic verb. [103][101] The feminine marker T is one of the most consistent aspects across the different branches of AA;[133] in addition to deriving feminine nouns in many branches, it also functions as a diminutive, pejorative, and/or singulative marker in some languages. innovation: semantic narrowing to hitting with the hand), (probable *tliiz-, adj. innovation: to spoil > to sour), (Sem., Eg. Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *abaw/y- Meaning: a k. of plant Semitic: *abVw- 'reed, papyrus' Egyptian: wb 'root', cf. [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. Classification and Index of the Worlds Languages. [92], With the exception of some Chadic languages, all AA languages allow both closed and open syllables; many Chadic languages do not allow a syllable to end in a consonant. To the south lay the other language families of Africa: Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan (Atlas,p74).
Iberomaurasians and Proto-Afroasiatic - Page 13 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. SOm stat. Additional Proposed PAA Roots; Appendix 4. The other three are very closely related and it is not hard for, say, a Dane to learn to understand a Swede. to different specific animals), (possible vowel reconstructions: *a, *aa, *e, or *o), (Sem., Ch. 6), (Eg., Sem., Cush. innovation: addition of *b extend., imputing meaning 'to count'), to show, bring to (ones) notice or attention, (Ch., Berber, and Eg. London: Routledge, 1990. 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. A main characteristic of Afro-Asiatic languages is the use of vowel changes in word formation. [183], Another factor making comparisons of AA numeral systems difficult is the possibility of borrowing. + stem; PS *lisn 'tongue' is a separate and distinct derivation from the same verb root), (Sem., Eg., Ch. !Kung, Bangime p-Idomoid innovation: addition of *t n. Semitic and Berber are quite closely related, and both are more distantly connected to Cushitic. [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].
How did Semitic languages originate? Are they descended from Proto Carleton Taylor Hodge - JSTOR [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 "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. Proto-Afro-Asiatic is generally considered the oldest accepted one, though it's not known exactly how long ago it was spoken.
(PDF) The Origins of Afroasiatic - ResearchGate p-Jen suff. The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic ), also known as Hamito-Semitic, [3] or Semito-Hamitic, [4] and sometimes also as Afrasian or Erythraean, [5] are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahara / Sahel. The most up to . (abbrev.
Afro-Asiatic languages | Britannica Anatolian origin for Indo-European and sumerian languages The Semitic line of Afro-Asiatic has the most language sub-sets. The Proto-Afroasiatic Consonant System. [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. [164] Identifying cognates is difficult because the languages in question are often separated by thousands of years of development and many languages within the family have long been in contact with each other, raising the possibility of loanwords. p-Semitic, Khoisan Diamond and Bellwood adopt Militarev's ( 2) solitary counterclaim of proto-Afroasiatic cultivation. This page was last edited on 28 August 2022, at 11:13. [128] Proto-Chadic is reconstructed as having verb-initial word order,[80] but most Chadic languages have subject-verb-object word order. At the same time, linguistic similarities such as vowel changes help show relationships among languages. Berta Allan Bomhard's own reconstructions of Proto-Afroasiatic roots (and phonology) seem to be biased toward Proto-Indo-European and Nostratic roots . 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. The results, while confirming some previous views on proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian), revise or overturn many others, and add much that is new. Linguists use the term "state" to refer to different things in different languages. Voegelin, C.F. The Proto-Afroasiatic Vowel System" In The Nostratic Macrofamily: A Study in Distant Linguistic Relationship, 105-108. Map of Afro-Asiatic languages distribution (click to enlarge it) 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. 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. p-Songhay Momo Central Sudanic (p-Central Sudanicp-Sara-Bongo-BagirmiSinyarBirrip-Mangbetu) Proto-Afroasiatic, sometimes also referred to as Proto-Afrasian, is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. [89] Igor Diakonoff argues that the requirement to begin with a vowel goes back to Proto-Afroasiatic. [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. [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. Hadza, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Appendix:Proto-Afroasiatic_reconstructions&oldid=68902118, attributive noun and attributive deverbative suffix, attributive and complement deverbative suffix, noun derivation from verb by stem-vowel lengthening, (Sem., Eg. Fig. Some features observed in most or all Afroasiatic languages include: It remains unclear what word order Proto-Afroasiatic had. [34], The Egyptian branch consists of a single language, Ancient Egyptian, which was historically spoken in the lower Nile Valley. Proposed specific locations include the Horn of Africa, Egypt, the eastern Sahara, and the Levant. For example, the Hamitic component inaccurately suggests the existence of a monophyletic "Hamitic" branch alongside Semitic. This work provides the first truly comprehensive and systematic reconstruction of proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian). Adapted from Ruhlen 1987.
Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (The Afroasiatic languages - Wikipedia innovation: added meaning 'firm,' hence, figuratively, 'firmly established, strong'), to intertwine, to bind by twining together, to be above, be at the top, form the tip or peak, (Sem., Ch. [25][26], There are two extinct languages potentially related to modern Berber. 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. (abbrev. ; semantics: egg curves at every point? innovation: shift to outflow of water, not from body; root *-sa- seen in #540 + *t dur. 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. [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.