THE AFRO-ASIATIC FAMILY

Introduction

In the following paragraphs only a brief overview of the Afro-Asiatic family can be given, with some of the shared features that have prompted recognition of the family. Work on Afro-Asiatic is still in its infancy, and work on the reconstruction of Proto-Afro-Asiatic has barely begun. The remainder of this chapter will be concerned with one of the two well-known ancient branches of Afro-Asiatic, the Semitic branch (the other ancient branch is Egyptian, for which see WAL Ch. 7; for a probable ancient formof Berber, see below, §1.1.3).

The original homeland of Afro-Asiatic has been the subject of some discussion. Most scholars would place it somewhere in the vicinity of the center of the family's current geographical range, or rather further to the east, in far southern Egypt or northern Sudan. A few scholars, however, have argued for an original location in southwest Asia (see Militarev 1994; Diakonoff 1998).

Older names of the Afro-Asiatic family, still used by some scholars, include Hamito-Semitic and Semito-Hamitic, names that have generally been abandoned because they imply a subgroup of “Hamitic” languages (i.e., of all languages in the family apart from the Semitic languages) that is not indicated by any isoglosses.

The Afro-Asiatic family comprises at least five and as many as eight branches.

Egyptian

See WAL Chapter 7.

Semitic

See §§2–3 below.