The North Cushitic languages comprise a branch of the

Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2 ...

family within the

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

language phylum. It includes the modern day

Beja language Beja ( or ) is an Afroasiatic language of the Cushitic branch spoken on the western coast of the Red Sea by the Beja people. Its speakers inhabit parts of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea. In 2022 there were 2,550,000 Beja speakers in Sudan, and 121,00 ...

, spoken primarily in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

, and parts of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, with several extinct languages such as

Medjay Medjay (also ''Medjai'', ''Mazoi'', ''Madjai'', ''Mejay'', Egyptian ''mḏꜣ.j'', a Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, nisba of ''mḏꜣ'') was a demonym used in various ways throughout History of ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian history to refe ...

and Blemmyan. It is distinguished by unique phonological and lexical features that set it apart from other spoken

Cushitic languages The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of ...

Overview

The North Cushitic branch is also sometimes called Beja or Bedawi, is a subgroup of the

family of languages. This representation under the

language family was repeatedly observed and discussed by linguists. Beja is the only living representative of this branch, spoken primarily in

, and parts of

. Traditionally, extinct languages like Medjay and Blemmyan have been considered to be part of the North Cushitic branch.

Ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

records make mention of the

and

Blemmyes The Blemmyes ( or Βλέμυες, ''Blémues'' , Latin: ''Blemmyae'') were an Eastern Desert people who appeared in written sources from the 7th century BC until the 8th century AD. By the late 4th century, they had occupied Lower Nubia and esta ...

tribes as inhabiting this land.

Identification and classification

More specifically, North Cushitic was recognized for the first time by linguists like Moreno and others as a branch in its own right. Only later did Moreno and others recognize it as a separate branch, pointing out its structural differences with other Cushitic subgroups. Although the view that Beja is a sole surviving representative has been widely accepted, other extinct languages spoken in the area, such as Blemmyan and

, are normally connected with this branch. They established structural, phonological, and lexical features distinguishing it from other Cushitic branches:

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

, Central, and

South Cushitic The South Cushitic or Rift languages of Tanzania are a branch of the Cushitic languages. The most numerous is Iraqw, with one million speakers. Scholars believe that these languages were spoken by Southern Cushitic agro-pastoralists from Ethiopi ...

. This view has been corroborated by the comparison of Beja with cognate

. Studies have also shown that the

only shares 20% of its vocabulary with its closest geographically neighbour Cushitic languages of Saho and Afar spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia and whose classification is classified as

East Cushitic The East Cushitic languages are a branch of Cushitic within the Afroasiatic phylum. Prominent East Cushitic languages include Oromo, Somali, and Sidama. The unity of East Cushitic has been contested: Robert Hetzron suggested combining the H ...

and with the

Agaw languages The Agaw or Central Cushitic languages are Afro-Asiatic languages spoken by several groups in Ethiopia and, in one case, Eritrea. They form the main substratum influence on Amharic and other Ethiopian Semitic languages. Classification The Cen ...

of Ethiopia classified as Central Cushitic.

Historical languages linked to North Cushitic

Beja,

, and Blemmyan are affiliated primarily through historical and linguistic records with North Cushitic. Medjay is named from

ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

records and represents a pastoralist people in the

Eastern desert The Eastern Desert (known archaically as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara Desert that is located east of the Nile River. It spans of northeastern Africa and is bordered by the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea to the east, a ...

. The

are recorded throughout the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and Byzantine periods and are believed to have spoken a language closely related to Beja.

References

{{reflist Cushitic languages Afroasiatic languages