 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 ] Next Last |
The following language subfamilies are included:
The Ongota language is often considered to be Afro-Asiatic, but its classification within the family remains controversial (partly for lack of data). Harold Fleming tentatively suggests that it is an independent branch of the family.
It is not generally agreed on where Proto-Afro-Asiatic was spoken; Africa (e.g., Igor Diakonoff , Lionel Bender ) has often been suggested, particularly Ethiopia based on the high diversity of its Afro-Asiatic languages, but the western Red SeaSudan The Red Sea ( Arabic Bar al-Amar al-Baru l-’Amar Hebrew Yam Suf Latin Mare Erythraeum is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb sound and the Gulf of Aden. coast and the SaharaThe Sahara is the world's largest desert, over 3,500,000 sq mi (9,065,000 sq km), located in northern Africa and is 2. 5 million years old. The whole land area of United States of America would fit inside it. Its name Sahara is the Arabic translation of t have also been put forward (e.g., Christopher EhretChristopher Ehret Professor of African History at UCLA, is a major figure in African history and African historical linguistics, particularly known for his efforts to correlate linguistic taxonomy and reconstruction with the archeological record. His hist). Alexander Militarev suggests that their homeland was in the LevantThe Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in Southwest Asia south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and in the east, the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia. The Levant does n (specifically, he identifies them with the Natufian cultureThe Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant. It was an Epipalaeolithic culture, but unusual in that it established permanent settlements even before the introduction of agriculture. The Natufians are likely to have been the ance).
The Semitic languages are the only Afro-Asiatic subfamily based outside of Africa; however, in historical or near-historical times, some Semitic speakers crossed from South Arabia back into Ethiopia, so some modern Ethiopian languages (such as Amharic) are Semitic rather than belonging to the substrate Cushitic or Omotic groups. (A minority of academics, eg A. Murtonen (1967), dispute this view, suggesting that Semitic may have originated in Ethiopia.)
Tonal languages are found in the Omotic, Chadic, and South & East Cushitic branches of Afro-Asiatic, according to Ehret (1996). The Semitic, Berber and Egyptian branches are not tonal.Common features of the Afro-Asiatic languages include:
Some cognates are:
In the verbal system, Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic (including Beja) all provide evidence for a prefix conjugation:
| English | Arabic (Semitic) | Kabyle (Berber) | Saho (Cushitic; verb is "kill") | Beja (verb is "arrive") |
| he dies | yamuutu | yemmut | yagdifé | iktim |
| she dies | tamuutu | temmut | yagdifé | tiktim |
| they (m.) die | yamuutuuna | mmuten | yagdifín | iktimna |
| you (m. sg.) die | tamuutu | temmuteḍ | tagdifé | tiktima |
| you (m. pl.) die | tamuutuuna | temmutem | tagdifín | tiktimna |
| I die | ˀamuutu | mmuteγ | agdifé | aktim |
| we die | namuutu | nemmut | nagdifé | niktim |
A causative affix s is widespread (found in all its subfamilies), but is also found in other groups, such as the Niger-Congo languages.
The possessive pronoun suffixes are supported by Semitic, Berber, Cushitic (including Beja), and Chadic.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |