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Proto-Cushitic Language
Proto-Cushitic is the reconstructed proto-language common ancestor of the Cushitic language family. 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 not explained by coincidence or word-borrowing, and extrapolates ancient forms from these similarities. There is no consensus regarding the exact location of the Proto-Cushitic homeland; Christopher Ehret hypothesizes that it may have originated in the Red Sea Hills. The Cushitic languages are a branch of the broader Afroasiatic macro-family. Historical settings Christopher Ehret argues for a unified Proto-Cushitic language in the Red Sea Hills as far back as the Early Holocene. Based on onomastic evidence, the Medjay and the Blemmyes of northern Nubia are believed to have spoken Cushitic languages related to the modern Beja language. Less certain are hypotheses which propose that Cushitic langu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Afroasiatic
Proto-Afroasiatic (PAA), also known as Proto-Hamito-Semitic, Proto-Semito-Hamitic, and Proto-Afrasian, is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. 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. Although no consensus exists as to the location of the Afroasiatic homeland, the putative homeland of Proto-Afroasiatic speakers, the majority of scholars agree that it was located within a region of West Asia or Northeast Africa. The reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic is problematic and has not progressed to the degree found in Indo-European linguistics. The immense amount of time over which the branches have been separated, coupled with the wide gap between the attestations of the original branches (3rd millennium BC for Egyptian language in Northeast Africa and Semitic languages in Western As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labialized
Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded. The most common labialized consonants are labialized velars. Most other labialized sounds also have simultaneous velarization, and the process may then be more precisely called labio-velarization. The "labialization" of bilabial consonants often refers to protrusion instead of a secondary articulatory feature velarization. ʷdoesn't mean ˠalthough refers to a labial–velar approximant. In phonology, labialization may also refer to a type of assimilation process. Occurrence Labialization is the most widespread secondary articulation in the world's languages. It is phonemically contrastive in Northwest Caucasian (e.g. Adyghe), Athabaskan, and Salishan language families, among others. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ts'amakko Language
Tsamai (also known as Ts'amay, S'amai, Tamaha, Tsamako, Tsamakko, Bago S'amakk-Ulo) is an Afroasiatic language spoken in Ethiopia. Tsamai is a member of the Dullay dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat .... Cule (Kuile, Kule) and evidently Dume (pseudo-pygmies) were apparently varieties. References Further reading * Graziano Savà. 2005. ''A Grammar of Ts'amakko''. Cushitic Language Studies Volume 22. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. * Languages of Ethiopia East Cushitic languages {{Ethiopia-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konso Language
Konso (Komso, Khonso, also ''Af Kareti, Afa Karatti, Conso, Gato, Karate, Kareti'') is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in southwest Ethiopia. Native speakers of Konso number about 200,000 (SIL 2005). Konso is closely related to Dirasha (also known as Gidole), and serves as a "trade language"—or ''lingua franca''—beyond the area of the Konso people. Blench (2006) considers purported dialects Gato and Turo to be separate languages. The Grammar of Konso was first described by Hellenthal (2004), and later, in more detail, by Ongaye (2013). The New Testament was published in the Konso language in 2002. Phonology Consonants Unlike its Oromoid relatives and most East African languages in general, Konso distinguishes neither voiced nor ejective consonants. Instead, it has a series of implosive stops, including the extremely rare uvular implosive /ʛ/. Vowels Typical of a Cushitic language, Konso distinguishes five short and five long vowels: See also *Kon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oromo Language
Oromo, historically also called Galla, is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Oromo people, native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia; and northern Kenya. It is used as a lingua franca in Oromia and northeastern Kenya. It is officially written in the Latin script, although traditional scripts are also informally used. With more than 41.7 million speakers making up 33.8% of the total Ethiopian population, Oromo has the largest number of native speakers in Ethiopia, and ranks as the second most widely spoken language in Ethiopia by total number of speakers (including second-language speakers) following Amharic. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by an additional half-million people in parts of northern and eastern Kenya. It is also spoken by smaller numbers of emigrants in other African countries such as South Africa, Libya, Egypt and Sudan. Oromo is the most widely spoken Cushitic language and among the five languages o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arbore Language
Arbore is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Arbore people in southern Ethiopia in a few settlements of Hamer woreda near Lake Chew Bahir. Classification That the Arbore language belongs within a "Macro-Somali" (now called Omo-Tana) group was first recognized by Sasse (1974). Other members of this group are Daasanach, Bayso, Rendille, Boni and the various Somali dialects. Omo-Tana itself is a major division of Lowland East Cushitic. Arbore's nearest relatives (jointly classified as Western Omo-Tana) are Daasanach and especially the probably extinct Kenyan language of the Elmolo fishermen of Lake Turkana. The sub-grouping is justified in terms of uniquely shared lexicon and certain common grammatical innovations, amongst which the generalizations of the absolute forms of the 1st person singular and 2nd person singular personal pronouns to subject function, thereby replacing the earlier Proto-Lowland East Cushitic forms, e.g. 2nd personal pronouns, e.g., 2nd person s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rendille Language
Rendille (also known as Rendile, Randile) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Rendille people inhabiting northern Kenya. It is part of the family's Cushitic branch. The Ariaal sub-group of the Rendille, who are of mixed Nilotic and Cushitic descent, speak the Nilo-Saharan Samburu language Samburu is a Maa language dialect spoken by Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya ... of the Samburu Nilotes, near whom they live. Phonology Consonants * /tɕ/ can be heard as �by some speakers. * Some speakers always pronounce /x/ as a uvular stop * �can be heard as a free variant of /ħ/, or when /ħ/ is heard in intervocalic position. * Voiced sounds become voiceless when in word-final position. * /b/ can be pronounced as when preceding /ħ/, or as a fricative �in intervocalic position. * /r/ can also freely be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somali Language
Somali is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Somalis, Somali people, native to Greater Somalia. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethiopia; one of the two national languages in Djibouti; and a recognised minority language in Kenya. Somali is officially written in the Latin script (Somali Latin alphabet), with the Arabic script (Wadaad's writing) and several local scripts (Osmanya script, Osmanya, Kaddare script, Kaddare and Gadabuursi Somali Script, Borama scripts) being informally used.Lewis, I.M. (1958)The Gadabuursi Somali Script ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London, Vol. 21, pp. 134–156. Classification Somali is classified within the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, specifically, Lowland East Cushitic languages, Lowland East Cushitic in addition to Afar language, Afar and Saho language, Saho. Somali is the bes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dahalo Language
Dahalo is an endangered Cushitic language spoken by around 500600 Dahalo people on the coast of Kenya, near the mouth of the Tana River. Dahalo is unusual among the world's languages in using all four airstream mechanisms found in human language: clicks, implosives, ejectives, and pulmonic consonants. While the language is known primarily as "''Dahalo''" to linguists, the term itself is an exonym supposedly used by Aweer speakers that itself essentially means “stupid” or “worthless.” The speakers themselves refer to the language as . Overview The Dahalo, former elephant hunters, are dispersed among Swahili and other Bantu peoples, with no villages of their own, and are bilingual in those languages. Children no longer learn the language, which would make it moribund, and it may be extinct. Dahalo has a highly diverse sound system using all four airstream mechanisms found in human language: clicks, ejectives, and implosives, as well as the universal pulmonic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yaaku Language
Yaaku (also known as Mukogodo, Mogogodo, Mukoquodo, Siegu, Yaakua, Ndorobo) is a moribund Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language of the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch, spoken in Kenya. Speakers are all older adults. The classification of Yaaku within Cushitic is disputed, though it is usually placed somewhere within East Cushitic. It is lexicostatistically distinct, having been influenced by Maasai language, Maasai and perhaps also by an unknown Substrate language, substratum, but it shows closest resemblance with the Western Omo–Tana languages, Arboroid languages. Bender (2020) includes it as a member of Arboroid.Bender, M. Lionel. (2020). Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology. ed. Grover Hudson. (Schriften zur Afrikanistik / Research in African Studies, 28). Berlin: Peter Lang. Language situation The Yaaku people are former hunter-gatherers and bee-keeping, bee-keepers. They adopted the pastoralism, pastoralist culture of the Maasai people, Maasai in the first half of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dullay
The Dullay languages belong to the Cushitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic language family and are spoken in Ethiopia. Dullay is a dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ... consisting of the Gawwada and Tsamai languages. Blench (2006) places most of Bussa in the Konsoid languages, and counts several Gawwada varieties as distinct languages.Roger Blench, 2006''The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List''(ms) : Gawwada (Ale), Tsamai, Dihina, Dobase (Lohu, Mashole), Gergere, Gollango (Gaba?), Gorrose, Harso The name Dullay is derived from the name Dullay-speaking groups use for the Weito River. Other terms that have been used for this language family in scientific literature are Werizoid (from the former administrative name of the ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
