
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 2012, the Cushitic languages with over one million speakers were Oromo, Somali, Beja, Afar, Hadiyya, Kambaata, and Sidama.
Cushitic | |
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Geographic distribution | Egypt, Sudan, Horn of Africa, East Africa |
Linguistic classification | Afro-Asiatic
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Proto-language | Proto-Cushitic |
Subdivisions |
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 / 5 | cus |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | cush1243 |
![]() Distribution of the Cushitic languages in Africa | |
Map of the Cushitic languages |
Official status
The Cushitic languages with the greatest number of total speakers are Oromo (37 million),Somali (22 million),Beja (3.2 million),Sidamo (3 million), and Afar (2 million).
Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of Ethiopia and is also the working language of several of the states within the Ethiopian federal system including Oromia,Harari and Dire Dawa regional states and of the Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region.
Somali is the first of two official languages of Somalia and three official languages of Somaliland. It also serves as a language of instruction in Djibouti, and as the working language of the Somali Region in Ethiopia.
Beja, Afar, Blin and Saho, the languages of the Cushitic branch of Afroasiatic that are spoken in Eritrea, are languages of instruction in the Eritrean elementary school curriculum. The constitution of Eritrea also recognizes the equality of all natively spoken languages. Additionally, Afar is a language of instruction in Djibouti, as well as the working language of the Afar Region in Ethiopia.
Origin and prehistory
Christopher Ehret argues for a unified Proto-Cushitic language in the Red Sea Hills as far back as the Early Holocene. The expansion of Cushitic languages of the Southern Cushitic branch into the Rift Valley is associated with the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic.
Typological characteristics
Phonology
Most Cushitic languages have a simple five-vowel system with phonemic length (/a a: e e: i i: o o: u u:/); a notable exception are the Agaw languages, which do not contrast vowel length, but have one or two additional central vowels. The consonant inventory of many Cushitic languages includes glottalic consonants, e.g. in Oromo, which has the ejectives /pʼ tʼ tʃʼ kʼ/ and the implosive /ᶑ/. Less common are pharyngeal consonants /ħ ʕ/, which appear e.g. in Somali or the Saho–Afar languages.
Most Cushitic languages have a system of restrictive tone also known as ‘pitch accent’ in which tonal contours overlaid on the stressed syllable play a prominent role in morphology and syntax.
Grammar
Nouns
Nouns are inflected for case and number. All nouns are further grouped into two gender categories, masculine gender and feminine gender. In many languages, gender is overtly marked directly on the noun (e.g. in Awngi, where all female nouns carry the suffix -a).
The case system of many Cushitic languages is characterized by marked nominative alignment, which is typologically quite rare and predominantly found in languages of Africa. In marked nominative languages, the noun appears in unmarked "absolutive" case when cited in isolation, or when used as predicative noun and as object of a transitive verb; on the other hand, it is explicitly marked for nominative case when it functions as subject in a transitive or intransitive sentence.
Possession is usually expressed by genitive case marking of the possessor. South Cushitic—which has no case marking for subject and object—follows the opposite strategy: here, the possessed noun is marked for construct case, e.g. Iraqw afé-r mar'i "doors" (lit. "mouths of houses"), where afee "mouth" is marked for construct case.
Most nouns are by default unmarked for number, but can be explicitly marked for singular ("singulative") and plural number. E.g. in Bilin, dəmmu "cat(s)" is number-neutral, from which singular dəmmura "a single cat" and plural dəmmut "several cats" can be formed. Plural formation is very diverse, and employs ablaut (i.e. changes of root vowels or consonants), suffixes and reduplication.
Verbs
Verbs are inflected for person/number and tense/aspect. Many languages also have a special form of the verb in negative clauses.
Most Cushitic languages distinguish seven person/number categories: first, second, third person, singular and plural number, with a masculine/feminine gender distinction in third person singular. The most common conjugation type employs suffixes. Some languages also have a prefix conjugation: in Beja and the Saho–Afar languages, the prefix conjugation is still a productive part of the verb paradigm, whereas in most other languages, e.g. Somali, it is restricted to only a few verbs. It is generally assumed that historically, the suffix conjugation developed from the older prefix conjugation, by combining the verb stem with a suffixed auxiliary verb. The following table gives an example for the suffix and prefix conjugations in affirmative present tense in Somali.
suffix conjugation | prefix conjugation | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
"bring" | "come" | |||
1st person | singular | keen-aa | i-maadd-aa | |
plural | keen-naa | ni-maad-naa | ||
2nd person | singular | keen-taa | ti-maadd-aa | |
plural | keen-taan | ti-maadd-aan | ||
3rd person | singular | masc. | keen-aa | yi-maadd-aa |
fem. | keen-taa | ti-maadd-aa | ||
plural | keen-aan | yi-maadd-aan |
Syntax
Basic word order is verb final, the most common order being subject–object–verb (SOV). The subject or object can also follow the verb to indicate focus.
Classification
Overview
The phylum was first designated as Cushitic in 1858. Traditionally, Cushitic has been divided into North Cushitic (consisting solely of Beja), Central Cushitic (the Agaw languages), and the large East Cushitic group. Greenberg (1950) argued for the inclusion of the South Cushitic group. The Omotic languages, once classified as West Cushitic, have almost universally been reclassified as a separate branch of Afroasiatic.
- Cushitic
- North Cushitic (Beja)
- Central Cushitic (Agaw)
- East Cushitic
- South Cushitic
This classification has not been without contention. For example, it has been argued that Southern Cushitic belongs in the Eastern branch, with its divergence explained by contact with Hadza- and Sandawe-like languages. Hetzron (1980) and Fleming (post-1981) exclude Beja altogether, though this is rejected by other linguists. Some of the classifications that have been proposed over the years are summarized here:
Greenberg (1963) | Hetzron (1980) | Orel & Stolbova (1995) | Ehret (2011) |
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For debate on the placement of the Cushitic branch within Afroasiatic, see Afroasiatic languages.
Beja
Beja constitutes the only member of the Northern Cushitic subgroup. As such, Beja contains a number of linguistic innovations that are unique to it, as is also the situation with the other subgroups of Cushitic (e.g. idiosyncratic features in Agaw or Central Cushitic).Hetzron (1980) argues that Beja therefore may comprise an independent branch of the Afroasiatic family. However, this suggestion has been rejected by most other scholars. The characteristics of Beja that differ from those of other Cushitic languages are instead generally acknowledged as normal branch variation.
Didier Morin (2001) assigned Beja to Lowland East Cushitic on the grounds that the language shared lexical and phonological features with the Afar and Saho idioms, and also because the languages were historically spoken in adjacent speech areas. However, among linguists specializing in the Cushitic languages, the standard classification of Beja as North Cushitic is accepted.
Blemmyan, an early form of Beja – mostly attested through onomastic evidence, but also directly by a small text on an ostracon from Saqqara – was spoken by the Blemmyes, an ancient people of Lower Nubia that appears in the Egyptian historical records from the 6th century BCE onwards. It is also likely that the Medjay spoke a language that was ancestral to Beja.
Omotic
Cushitic was formerly seen as also including most or all of the Omotic languages. An early view by Enrico Cerulli proposed a "Sidama" subgroup comprising most of the Omotic languages and the Sidamic group of Highland East Cushitic. Mario Martino Moreno in 1940 divided Cerulli's Sidama, uniting the Sidamic proper and the Lowland Cushitic languages as East Cushitic, the remainder as West Cushitic or ta/ne Cushitic. The Aroid languages were not considered Cushitic by either scholar (thought by Cerulli to be instead Nilotic); they were added to West Cushitic by Joseph Greenberg in 1963. Further work in the 1960s soon led to the putative West Cushitic being seen as typologically divergent and renamed as "Omotic".
Today the inclusion of Omotic as a part of Cushitic has been abandoned. Omotic is most often seen as an independent branch of Afroasiatic, primarily due to the work of Harold C. Fleming (1974) and Lionel Bender (1975); some linguists like Paul Newman (1980) challenge Omotic's classification within the Afroasiatic family itself.
Other divergent languages
There are also a few languages of uncertain classification, including Yaaku, Dahalo, Aasax, Kw'adza, Boon, Ongota and the Cushitic component of Mbugu (Ma'a). There is a wide range of opinions as to how the languages are interrelated.
The positions of the Dullay languages and of Yaaku are uncertain. They have traditionally been assigned to an East Cushitic subbranch along with Highland (Sidamic) and Lowland East Cushitic. However, Hayward thinks that East Cushitic may not be a valid node and that its constituents should be considered separately when attempting to work out the internal relationships of Cushitic. Bender (2020) suggests Yaaku to be a divergent member of the Arboroid group.
The Afroasiatic identity of Ongota has also been broadly questioned, as is its position within Afroasiatic among those who accept it, because of the "mixed" appearance of the language and a paucity of research and data. Harold C. Fleming (2006) proposes that Ongota is a separate branch of Afroasiatic. Bonny Sands (2009) thinks the most convincing proposal is by Savà and Tosco (2003), namely that Ongota is an East Cushitic language with a Nilo-Saharan substratum. In other words, it would appear that the Ongota people once spoke a Nilo-Saharan language but then shifted to speaking a Cushitic language while retaining some characteristics of their earlier Nilo-Saharan language.
Hetzron (1980) and Ehret (1995) have suggested that the South Cushitic languages (Rift languages) are a part of Lowland East Cushitic, the only one of the six groups with much internal diversity.
Hypothesized Cushitic substrate languages
Some of the ancient peoples of Nubia are hypothesized to have spoken languages belonging to the Cushitic group, especially the people of the C-Group culture. It has been speculated that these people left a substratum of Cushitic words in the modern Nubian languages. Given the scarcity of data (all omomastic or toponymic), however, it remains unclear if the C-Group culture in fact spoke a Cushitic language.
Christopher Ehret (1998) proposed on the basis of loanwords that South Cushitic languages (called "Tale" and "Bisha" by Ehret) were spoken in an area closer to Lake Victoria than are found today.
Also, historically, the Southern Nilotic languages have undergone extensive contact with a "missing" branch of East Cushitic that Heine (1979) refers to as Baz.
Reconstruction
Christopher Ehret proposed a reconstruction of Proto-Cushitic in 1987, but did not base this on individual branch reconstructions.Grover Hudson (1989) has done some preliminary work on Highland East Cushitic, David Appleyard (2006) has proposed a reconstruction of Proto-Agaw, and Roland Kießling and Maarten Mous (2003) have jointly proposed a reconstruction of West Rift Southern Cushitic. No reconstruction has been published for Lowland East Cushitic, though Paul D. Black wrote his (unpublished) dissertation on the topic in 1974. Hans-Jürgen Sasse (1979) proposed a reconstruction of the consonants of Proto-East Cushitic. No comparative work has yet brought these branch reconstructions together.
Comparative vocabulary
Basic vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary of Cushitic languages from Vossen & Dimmendaal (2020:318) (with PSC denoting Proto-Southern Cushitic):
Branch | Northern | Southern | Eastern | Central | ||
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Gloss | Beja | Iraqw | Oromo | Somali | Awŋi | Kemantney |
'foot' | ragad/lagad | yaaee | miila/luka | lug | lɨkw | lɨkw |
'tooth' | kwire | siħinoo | ilkee | ilig | ɨrkwí | ɨrkw |
'hair' | hami/d.ifi | seʔeengw | dabbasaa | timo | ʧiʧifí | ʃibka |
'heart' | gin'a | muuná | onnee | wadne | ɨʃew | lɨbäka |
'house' | gau/'anda | doʔ | mana | guri/min | ŋɨn | nɨŋ |
'wood' | hindi | ɬupi | mukha | qori/alwaax | kani | kana |
'meat' | ʃa/dof | fuʔnaay | foon | so'/hilib | ɨʃʃi | sɨya |
'water' | yam | maʔay | biʃan | biyo/maayo | aɣu | axw |
'door' | ɖefa/yaf | piindo | balbala | irrid/albaab | lɨmʧi/sank | bäla |
'grass' | siyam/ʃuʃ | gitsoo | ʧ'itaa | caws | sigwi | ʃanka |
'black' | hadal/hadod | boo | gurraʧʧa | madow | ʧárkí | ʃämäna |
'red' | adal/adar | daaʕaat | diimaa | cas/guduud | dɨmmí | säraɣ |
'road' | darab | loohi | karaa/godaana | jid/waddo | dad | gorwa |
'mountain' | reba | tɬooma | tuullu | buur | kán | dɨba |
'spear' | fena/gwiʃ'a | *laabala (PSC) | waraana | waran | werém | ʃämärgina |
'stick' (n) | 'amis/'adi | *ħada | ulee/dullaa | ul | gɨmb | kɨnbɨ |
'fire' | n'e | ʔaɬa | ibidda | dab | leg | wɨzɨŋ |
'donkey' | mek | daqwaay | haare | dameer | dɨɣwarí | dɨɣora |
'cat' | bissa/kaffa | maytsí | adure | bisad/dummad | anguʧʧa | damiya |
'dog' | yas/mani | seeaay | seere | eey | gɨséŋ | gɨzɨŋ |
'cow' | ʃ'a/yiwe | ɬee | sa'a | sac | ɨllwa | käma |
'lion' | hada | diraangw | lenʧ'a | libaax | wuʤi | gämäna |
'hyena' | galaba/karai | *bahaa (PSC) | waraabo | waraabe | ɨɣwí | wäya |
'sister' | kwa | ħoʔoo | obboleeytii | walaalo/abbaayo | séná | ʃän |
'brother' | san | nana | obboleessa | walaal/abboowe | sén | zän |
'mother' | de | aayi | haaɗa | hooyo | ʧwá | gäna |
'father' | baba | taata | aabba | aabbe | tablí | aba |
'sit' | s'a/ʈaʈam | iwiit | taa'uu | fadhiiso | ɨnʤikw- | täkosɨm- |
'sleep' | diw/nari | guuʔ | rafuu | hurud | ɣur\y- | gänʤ- |
'eat' | tam/'am | aag | ɲaaʧʧu | cun | ɣw- | xw- |
'drink' | gw'a/ʃifi | wah | ɗugaaiti | cab | zɨq- | ʤax- |
'kill' | dir | gaas | aʤʤeesuu | dil | kw- | kw- |
'speak' | hadid/kwinh | ʔooʔ | dubbattu | hadal | dibs- | gämär- |
'thin' | 'iyai/bilil | *ʔiiraw (PSC) | hap'ii | caato | ɨnʧu | k'ät'än- |
'fat' | dah/l'a | *du/*iya (PSC) | furdaa | shilis/buuran | morí | wäfär- |
'small' | dis/dabali | *niinaw (PSC) | t'innoo | yar | ʧɨlí | ʃigwey |
'big' | win/ragaga | *dir (PSC) | guddaa/dagaaga | weyn | dɨngulí | fɨraq |
Numerals
Comparison of numerals in individual Cushitic languages:
Classification | Language | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
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North | Beja (Bedawi) | ɡaːl | ˈmale | mheːj | ˈfaɖiɡ | eːj (lit: 'hand') | aˈsaɡwir (5 + 1) | asaːˈrama (5 + 2) | asiˈmheːj (5 + 3) | aʃˈʃaɖiɡ (5 + 4) | ˈtamin |
Central | Bilin (Bilen) | laxw / la | ləŋa | səxwa | sədʒa | ʔankwa | wəlta | ləŋəta | səxwəta | səssa | ʃɨka |
Central, Eastern | Xamtanga | lə́w | líŋa | ʃáqwa | síza | ákwa | wálta | láŋta / lánta | sə́wta | sʼájtʃʼa | sʼɨ́kʼa |
Central, Southern | Awngi | ɨ́mpɨ́l / láɢú | láŋa | ʃúɢa | sedza | áŋkwa | wɨ́lta | láŋéta | sóɢéta | sésta | tsɨ́kka |
Central, Western | Kimant (Qimant) | laɣa / la | liŋa | siɣwa | sədʒa | ankwa | wəlta | ləŋəta | səɣwəta | səssa | ʃɨka |
East, Highland | Alaaba | matú | lamú | sasú | ʃɔːlú | ʔɔntú | lehú | lamalá | hizzeːtú | hɔnsú | tɔnnsú |
East, Highland | Burji | mitʃːa | lama | fadia | foola | umutta | lia | lamala | hiditta | wonfa | tanna |
East, Highland | Gedeo | mitte | lame | sase | ʃoole | onde | dʒaane | torbaane | saddeeta | sallane | tomme |
East, Highland | Hadiyya | mato | lamo | saso | sooro | onto | loho | lamara | sadeento | honso | tommo |
East, Highland | Kambaata | máto | lámo | sáso | ʃóolo | ónto | lého | lamála | hezzéeto | hónso | tordúma |
East, Highland | Libido | mato | lamo | saso | sooro | ʔonto | leho | lamara | sadeento | honso | tommo |
East, Highland | Sidamo (Sidaama) | mite | lame | sase | ʃoole | onte | lee | lamala | sette | honse | tonne |
East, Dullay | Gawwada | tóʔon | lákke | ízzaħ | sálaħ | xúpin | tappi | táʔan | sétten | kóllan | ħúɗɗan |
East, Dullay | Tsamai (Ts'amakko) | doːkːo | laːkːi | zeːħ | salaħ | χobin | tabːen | taħːan | sezːen | ɡolːan | kuŋko |
East, Konsoid | Bussa (Harso-Bobase) | tóʔo | lakki, lam(m)e, lamay | ezzaħ, siséħ | salaħ | xúpin | cappi | caħħan | sásse /sésse | kollan | húddʼan |
East, Konsoid | Dirasha (Gidole) | ʃakka(ha) (fem.) / ʃokko(ha) (masc.) | lakki | halpatta | afur | hen | lehi | tappa | lakkuʃeti | tsinqoota | hunda |
East, Konsoid | Konso | takka | lakki | sessa | afur | ken | lehi | tappa | sette | saɡal | kuɗan |
East, Oromo | Orma | tokkō | lamā | sadi | afurī | ʃanī | dʒa | torbā | saddeetī | saɡalī | kuɗenī |
East, Oromo | West Central Oromo | tokko | lama | sadii | afur | ʃani | dʒaha | torba | saddet | saɡal | kuɗan |
East, Saho-Afar | Afar | enèki / inìki | nammàya | sidòħu / sidòħoòyu | ferèyi / fereèyi | konòyu / konoòyu | leħèyi / leħeèyi | malħiini | baħaàra | saɡaàla | tàbana |
East, Saho-Afar | Saho | inik | lam:a | adoħ | afar | ko:n | liħ | malħin | baħar | saɡal | taman |
East, Rendille-Boni | Boni | kóów, hál-ó (masc.) / hás-só (fem) | lába | síddéh | áfar | ʃan | líh | toddóu | siyyéèd | saaɡal | tammán |
East, Rendille-Boni | Rendille | kôːw / ko:kalɖay (isolated form) | lámːa | sɛ́jːaħ | áfːar | t͡ʃán | líħ | tɛːbá | sijːɛ̂ːt | saːɡáːl | tomón |
East, Somali | Garre (Karre) | kow | lamma | siddeh | afar | ʃan | liʔ | toddobe | siyeed | saɡaal | tommon |
East, Somali | Somali | ków | labá | sáddeħ | áfar | ʃán | liħ | toddobá | siddèed | saɡaal | toban |
East, Somali | Tunni (Af-Tunni) | ków | lámma | síddiʔ | áfar | ʃán | líʔ | toddóbo | siyéed | saɡáal | tómon |
East, Arboroid | Arbore | tokkó (masc.) / takká (fem.), ˈtaˈka | laamá, ˈlaːma | sezzé, ˈsɛːze | ʔafúr, ʔaˈfur | tʃénn, t͡ʃɛn | dʒih, ˈd͡ʒi | tuzba, ˈtuːzba | suyé, suˈjɛ | saaɡalɗ, ˈsaɡal | tommoɲɗ, ˈtɔmːɔn |
East, Arboroid | Bayso (Baiso) | koo (masc.) too (fem.) | lɑ́ɑmɑ | sédi | ɑ́fɑr | ken | le | todobɑ́ | siddéd | sɑ́ɑɡɑɑl | tómon |
East, Arboroid | Daasanach | tɪ̀ɡɪ̀ɗɪ̀ (adj.) / tàqàt͡ʃ ̚ (ord.)/ ʔɛ̀ɾ (ord.) | nàːmə̀ | sɛ̀d̪ɛ̀ | ʔàfʊ̀ɾ | t͡ʃɛ̀n | lɪ̀h | t̪ɪ̀ːjə̀ | síɪ̀t̚ | sàːl | t̪òmòn |
East, Arboroid | El Molo | t'óko / t'áka | l'ááma | séépe | áfur | kên, cên | yíi | tíípa, s'ápa | fúe | s'áákal | t'ómon |
South or East | Dahalo | vattúkwe (masc.) / vattékwe (fem.) | líima | kʼaba | saʕála | dáwàtte, possibly ← 'hand' | sita < Swahili | saba < Swahili | nane | kenda / tis(i)a | kumi |
South | Alagwa (Wasi) | wák | ndʒad | tam | tsʼiɡaħ | kooʔan | laħooʔ | faanqʼw | dakat | ɡwelen | mibi |
South | Burunge | leyiŋ / leẽ | t͡ʃʼada | tami | t͡ʃʼiɡaħa | koːʔani | laħaʔu | faɴqʼu | daɡati | ɡweleli | mili |
South | Gorowa (Gorwaa) | wak | tsʼar | tám | tsʼiyáħ | kooʔán | laħóoʔ | fâanqʼw | dakáat | ɡwaléel / ɡweléel | mibaanɡw |
South | Iraqw | wák | tsár | tám | tsíyáħ | kooán | laħoóʔ | faaɴw | dakaát | ɡwaleél | mibaaɴw |
See also
- Cushitic speaking peoples
- List of Proto-Cushitic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
- Meroitic language
Notes
- Mous (2012), pp. 343–345.
- Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2021). "Oromo". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Twenty-fourth ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2021). "Somali". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Twenty-fourth ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
- "Bedawiyet". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- "Sidamo". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- "Afar". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- Shaban, Abdurahman. "One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages". Africa News. Archived from the original on 15 December 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
- "Ethiopia". The World Factbook (2025 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency. 6 June 2022. (Archived 2022 edition.)
- "Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia" (PDF). Government of Ethiopia. pp. 2 & 16. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- "Somaliland profile". BBC News. 14 December 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- "The Constitution of the Somali Republic (as amended up to October 12, 1990)" (PDF). Government of Somalia. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017. "The Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic" (PDF). Government of Somalia. p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
- "Journal Officiel de la République de Djibouti – Loi n°96/AN/00/4èmeL portant Orientation du Système Educatif Djiboutien" (PDF). Government of Djibouti. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- Graziano Savà; Mauro Tosco (January 2008). ""Ex Uno Plura": the uneasy road of Ethiopian languages toward standardization". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2008 (191): 117. doi:10.1515/ijsl.2008.026. S2CID 145500609. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
- "The Constitution of Eritrea" (PDF). Government of Eritrea. p. 524. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- Stevens, Chris J.; Nixon, Sam; Murray, Mary Anne; Fuller, Dorian Q. (July 2016). Archaeology of African Plant Use. Routledge. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-315-43400-1.
- Ambrose (1984), p. 234.
- Appleyard (2012), p. 202.
- Mous (2012), p. 353.
- Mous (2012), p. 355.
- Mous (2012), p. 350–351.
- Appleyard (2012), pp. 204–206.
- König (2008), p. 138.
- Appleyard (2012), pp. 205.
- Mous (2012), p. 369.
- Mous (2012), pp. 373–374.
- Appleyard (2012), p. 204.
- Mous (2012), pp. 361–363.
- Mous (2012), p. 389.
- Appleyard (2012), pp. 207–208.
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- Richard Hayward, "Afroasiatic", in Heine & Nurse, 2000, African Languages
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- Schoenbrun, David L. (1993). "We Are What We Eat: Ancient Agriculture between the Great Lakes". The Journal of African History. 34 (1): 1–31. doi:10.1017/S0021853700032989. JSTOR 183030. S2CID 162660041.
- Güldemann (2018).
- Heine, Bernd, Franz Rottland & Rainer Voßen. 1979. Proto-Baz: Some aspects of early Nilotic-Cushitic contacts. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 1. 75‒92.
- Ehret, Christopher. 1987. Proto-Cushitic Reconstruction. In Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 8: 7–180. University of Cologne.
- Hudson, Grover (1989). Highland East Cushitic Dictionary. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. ISBN 3-87118-947-2.
- Appleyard, David (2006). A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. ISBN 3-89645-481-1.
- Kießling, Roland; Mous, Maarten (2003). The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-89645-068-9.
- Black, Paul (1974). Lowland East Cushitic: Subgrouping and Reconstruction (PhD). Yale University.
- Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1979). "Consonant Phonemes of Proto East Cushitic". Afro-Asiatic Linguistics. 7 (1): 1–57.
- Vossen, Rainer and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds.). 2020. The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Roper, E.M. (1928). Tu Beḍawiɛ: Grammar, texts and vocabulary. Hertford: Stephen Austin and Sons.
- Kieβling, Roland (2002). Iraqw texts. (Archiv afrikanistischer Manuskripte, 4.) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
- Kieβling, R., and Mous, M. (2003). The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Mahdi Hamid Muudee (1995). Oromo Dictionary I. Atlanta: Sagalee Oromoo Publishing.
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- Zelealem Leyew (2003). The Kemantney Language: A sociolinguistic and grammatical study of language replacement. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Chan, Eugene (2019). "The Niger-Congo Language Phylum". Numeral Systems of the World's Languages.
References
- Ethnologue on the Cushitic branch
- Ambrose, Stanley H. (1984). "The Introduction of Pastoral Adaptations to the Highlands of East Africa". In Clark, J. Desmond; Brandt, Steevn A. (eds.). From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. University of California Press. pp. 212–239. ISBN 0-520-04574-2. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
- Appleyard, David (2012). "Cushitic". In Edzard, Lutz (ed.). Semitic and Afroasiatic: Challenges and Opportunities. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 199–295. ISBN 978-3-447-06695-2.
- Bender, Marvin Lionel. 1975. Omotic: a new Afroasiatic language family. Southern Illinois University Museum series, number 3.
- Bender, M. Lionel. 1986. A possible Cushomotic isomorph. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 6:149–155.
- Bender, M. Lionel (2019). Grover Hudson (ed.). Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology. Schriften Zur Afrikanistik – Research in African Studies. Vol. 28. Berlin: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-631-60089-4.
- Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne (2000). "Linguistic evidence for the prehistory of livestock in Sudan". In Blench, Roger; MacDonald, Kevin (eds.). The Origins and Development of African Livestock: Archaeology, Genetics, Linguistics and Ethnography. Routledge. pp. 449–461. ISBN 978-1-135-43416-8. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
- Cooper, Julien (2017). "Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubia Until the Common Era". Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies. 4: 197–212. doi:10.5070/D64110028.
- Fleming, Harold C. 1974. Omotic as an Afroasiatic family. In: Proceedings of the 5th annual conference on African linguistics (ed. by William Leben), p 81-94. African Studies Center & Department of Linguistics, UCLA.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. (1950). "Studies in African linguistic classification: IV. Hamito-Semitic". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 6 (1): 47–63.
- Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics, Volume 11. Berlin: De Mouton Gruyter. pp. 58–444.
- Hetzron, Robert (1980). "The limits of Cushitic". Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika. 2: 7–126.
- Kießling, Roland & Maarten Mous. 2003. The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic. Cushitic Language Studies Volume 21
- König, Christa (2008). Case in Africa. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-923282-6.
- Lamberti, Marcello. 1991. Cushitic and its classification. Anthropos 86(4/6):552-561.
- Mous, Maarten (2012). "Cushitic". In Frayzingier, Zygmunt; Shay, Erin (eds.). The Afroasiatic Languages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 342–422.
- Newman, Paul. 1980. The Classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic. Universitaire Pers.
- Rilly, Claude (2008). "Enemy brothers. Kinship and relationship between Meroites and Nubians (Noba)". In Godlewski, Włodzimierz; Łajtar, Adam (eds.). Between the Cataracts. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference for Nubian Studies Warsaw University 27 August-2 September 2006. Part 1. Main Papers. Warszawa: PAM Supplement Series. pp. 211–225. doi:10.31338/uw.9788323533269.pp.211-226. ISBN 978-83-235-3326-9.
- Rilly, Claude (2011). "Recent Research on Meroitic, the Ancient Language of Sudan" (PDF). ITYOPIS – Northeast African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 1: 10–24.
- Rilly, Claude (2016). "The Wadi Howar Diaspora and its role in the spread of East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millenia BCE". Faits de Langues. 47: 151–163. doi:10.1163/19589514-047-01-900000010.
- Rilly, Claude (2019). "Languages of Ancient Nubia". In Dietrich Raue (ed.). Handbook of Ancient Nubia. Berlin: Walter de Gryuter. pp. 129–151.
- Zaborski, Andrzej. 1986. Can Omotic be reclassified as West Cushitic? In Gideon Goldenberg, ed., Ethiopian Studies: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference, pp. 525–530. Rotterdam: Balkema.
- Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary (1995) Christopher Ehret
Further reading
- Skoglund, Pontus; Thompson, Jessica C.; Prendergast, Mary E.; Mittnik, Alissa; Sirak, Kendra; Hajdinjak, Mateja; Salie, Tasneem; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan (21 September 2017). "Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure". Cell. 171 (1): 59–71.e21. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.049. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 5679310. PMID 28938123.
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica: Cushitic languages
- BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HIGHLAND EAST CUSHITIC
- Faculty of Humanities – Leiden University
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 2012 the Cushitic languages with over one million speakers were Oromo Somali Beja Afar Hadiyya Kambaata and Sidama CushiticGeographic distributionEgypt Sudan Horn of Africa East AfricaLinguistic classificationAfro AsiaticCushiticProto languageProto CushiticSubdivisionsNorth Central East South DahaloLanguage codesISO 639 2 5 a href https iso639 3 sil org code cus class extiw title iso639 3 cus cus a ISO 639 3 Glottologcush1243Distribution of the Cushitic languages in AfricaMap of the Cushitic languagesOfficial statusThe Cushitic languages with the greatest number of total speakers are Oromo 37 million Somali 22 million Beja 3 2 million Sidamo 3 million and Afar 2 million Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of Ethiopia and is also the working language of several of the states within the Ethiopian federal system including Oromia Harari and Dire Dawa regional states and of the Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region Somali is the first of two official languages of Somalia and three official languages of Somaliland It also serves as a language of instruction in Djibouti and as the working language of the Somali Region in Ethiopia Beja Afar Blin and Saho the languages of the Cushitic branch of Afroasiatic that are spoken in Eritrea are languages of instruction in the Eritrean elementary school curriculum The constitution of Eritrea also recognizes the equality of all natively spoken languages Additionally Afar is a language of instruction in Djibouti as well as the working language of the Afar Region in Ethiopia Origin and prehistoryChristopher Ehret argues for a unified Proto Cushitic language in the Red Sea Hills as far back as the Early Holocene The expansion of Cushitic languages of the Southern Cushitic branch into the Rift Valley is associated with the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic Typological characteristicsPhonology Most Cushitic languages have a simple five vowel system with phonemic length a a e e i i o o u u a notable exception are the Agaw languages which do not contrast vowel length but have one or two additional central vowels The consonant inventory of many Cushitic languages includes glottalic consonants e g in Oromo which has the ejectives pʼ tʼ tʃʼ kʼ and the implosive ᶑ Less common are pharyngeal consonants ħ ʕ which appear e g in Somali or the Saho Afar languages Most Cushitic languages have a system of restrictive tone also known as pitch accent in which tonal contours overlaid on the stressed syllable play a prominent role in morphology and syntax Grammar Nouns Nouns are inflected for case and number All nouns are further grouped into two gender categories masculine gender and feminine gender In many languages gender is overtly marked directly on the noun e g in Awngi where all female nouns carry the suffix a The case system of many Cushitic languages is characterized by marked nominative alignment which is typologically quite rare and predominantly found in languages of Africa In marked nominative languages the noun appears in unmarked absolutive case when cited in isolation or when used as predicative noun and as object of a transitive verb on the other hand it is explicitly marked for nominative case when it functions as subject in a transitive or intransitive sentence Possession is usually expressed by genitive case marking of the possessor South Cushitic which has no case marking for subject and object follows the opposite strategy here the possessed noun is marked for construct case e g Iraqw afe r mar i doors lit mouths of houses where afee mouth is marked for construct case Most nouns are by default unmarked for number but can be explicitly marked for singular singulative and plural number E g in Bilin demmu cat s is number neutral from which singular demmura a single cat and plural demmut several cats can be formed Plural formation is very diverse and employs ablaut i e changes of root vowels or consonants suffixes and reduplication Verbs Verbs are inflected for person number and tense aspect Many languages also have a special form of the verb in negative clauses Most Cushitic languages distinguish seven person number categories first second third person singular and plural number with a masculine feminine gender distinction in third person singular The most common conjugation type employs suffixes Some languages also have a prefix conjugation in Beja and the Saho Afar languages the prefix conjugation is still a productive part of the verb paradigm whereas in most other languages e g Somali it is restricted to only a few verbs It is generally assumed that historically the suffix conjugation developed from the older prefix conjugation by combining the verb stem with a suffixed auxiliary verb The following table gives an example for the suffix and prefix conjugations in affirmative present tense in Somali suffix conjugation prefix conjugation bring come 1st person singular keen aa i maadd aaplural keen naa ni maad naa2nd person singular keen taa ti maadd aaplural keen taan ti maadd aan3rd person singular masc keen aa yi maadd aafem keen taa ti maadd aaplural keen aan yi maadd aanSyntax Basic word order is verb final the most common order being subject object verb SOV The subject or object can also follow the verb to indicate focus ClassificationOverview The phylum was first designated as Cushitic in 1858 Traditionally Cushitic has been divided into North Cushitic consisting solely of Beja Central Cushitic the Agaw languages and the large East Cushitic group Greenberg 1950 argued for the inclusion of the South Cushitic group The Omotic languages once classified as West Cushitic have almost universally been reclassified as a separate branch of Afroasiatic Cushitic North Cushitic Beja Central Cushitic Agaw East Cushitic South Cushitic This classification has not been without contention For example it has been argued that Southern Cushitic belongs in the Eastern branch with its divergence explained by contact with Hadza and Sandawe like languages Hetzron 1980 and Fleming post 1981 exclude Beja altogether though this is rejected by other linguists Some of the classifications that have been proposed over the years are summarized here Other subclassifications of Cushitic Greenberg 1963 Hetzron 1980 Orel amp Stolbova 1995 Ehret 2011 Cushitic Northern Cushitic Beja Central Cushitic Eastern Cushitic Western Cushitic Omotic Southern Cushitic Beja not part of Cushitic Cushitic Highland Rift Valley Highland East Cushitic Agaw Lowland Saho Afar Southern Omo Tana Oromoid Dullay Yaaku Iraqw i e Southern Cushitic Cushitic Omotic Beja Agaw Sidamic i e Highland East Cushitic East Lowlands Rift Southern Cushitic North Cushitic Beja Agaw East South Cushitic Agaw East South Cushitic Eastern Cushitic Southern Cushitic For debate on the placement of the Cushitic branch within Afroasiatic see Afroasiatic languages Beja Beja constitutes the only member of the Northern Cushitic subgroup As such Beja contains a number of linguistic innovations that are unique to it as is also the situation with the other subgroups of Cushitic e g idiosyncratic features in Agaw or Central Cushitic Hetzron 1980 argues that Beja therefore may comprise an independent branch of the Afroasiatic family However this suggestion has been rejected by most other scholars The characteristics of Beja that differ from those of other Cushitic languages are instead generally acknowledged as normal branch variation Didier Morin 2001 assigned Beja to Lowland East Cushitic on the grounds that the language shared lexical and phonological features with the Afar and Saho idioms and also because the languages were historically spoken in adjacent speech areas However among linguists specializing in the Cushitic languages the standard classification of Beja as North Cushitic is accepted Blemmyan an early form of Beja mostly attested through onomastic evidence but also directly by a small text on an ostracon from Saqqara was spoken by the Blemmyes an ancient people of Lower Nubia that appears in the Egyptian historical records from the 6th century BCE onwards It is also likely that the Medjay spoke a language that was ancestral to Beja Omotic Cushitic was formerly seen as also including most or all of the Omotic languages An early view by Enrico Cerulli proposed a Sidama subgroup comprising most of the Omotic languages and the Sidamic group of Highland East Cushitic Mario Martino Moreno in 1940 divided Cerulli s Sidama uniting the Sidamic proper and the Lowland Cushitic languages as East Cushitic the remainder as West Cushitic or ta ne Cushitic The Aroid languages were not considered Cushitic by either scholar thought by Cerulli to be instead Nilotic they were added to West Cushitic by Joseph Greenberg in 1963 Further work in the 1960s soon led to the putative West Cushitic being seen as typologically divergent and renamed as Omotic Today the inclusion of Omotic as a part of Cushitic has been abandoned Omotic is most often seen as an independent branch of Afroasiatic primarily due to the work of Harold C Fleming 1974 and Lionel Bender 1975 some linguists like Paul Newman 1980 challenge Omotic s classification within the Afroasiatic family itself Other divergent languages There are also a few languages of uncertain classification including Yaaku Dahalo Aasax Kw adza Boon Ongota and the Cushitic component of Mbugu Ma a There is a wide range of opinions as to how the languages are interrelated The positions of the Dullay languages and of Yaaku are uncertain They have traditionally been assigned to an East Cushitic subbranch along with Highland Sidamic and Lowland East Cushitic However Hayward thinks that East Cushitic may not be a valid node and that its constituents should be considered separately when attempting to work out the internal relationships of Cushitic Bender 2020 suggests Yaaku to be a divergent member of the Arboroid group The Afroasiatic identity of Ongota has also been broadly questioned as is its position within Afroasiatic among those who accept it because of the mixed appearance of the language and a paucity of research and data Harold C Fleming 2006 proposes that Ongota is a separate branch of Afroasiatic Bonny Sands 2009 thinks the most convincing proposal is by Sava and Tosco 2003 namely that Ongota is an East Cushitic language with a Nilo Saharan substratum In other words it would appear that the Ongota people once spoke a Nilo Saharan language but then shifted to speaking a Cushitic language while retaining some characteristics of their earlier Nilo Saharan language Hetzron 1980 and Ehret 1995 have suggested that the South Cushitic languages Rift languages are a part of Lowland East Cushitic the only one of the six groups with much internal diversity Hypothesized Cushitic substrate languagesSome of the ancient peoples of Nubia are hypothesized to have spoken languages belonging to the Cushitic group especially the people of the C Group culture It has been speculated that these people left a substratum of Cushitic words in the modern Nubian languages Given the scarcity of data all omomastic or toponymic however it remains unclear if the C Group culture in fact spoke a Cushitic language Christopher Ehret 1998 proposed on the basis of loanwords that South Cushitic languages called Tale and Bisha by Ehret were spoken in an area closer to Lake Victoria than are found today Also historically the Southern Nilotic languages have undergone extensive contact with a missing branch of East Cushitic that Heine 1979 refers to as Baz ReconstructionChristopher Ehret proposed a reconstruction of Proto Cushitic in 1987 but did not base this on individual branch reconstructions Grover Hudson 1989 has done some preliminary work on Highland East Cushitic David Appleyard 2006 has proposed a reconstruction of Proto Agaw and Roland Kiessling and Maarten Mous 2003 have jointly proposed a reconstruction of West Rift Southern Cushitic No reconstruction has been published for Lowland East Cushitic though Paul D Black wrote his unpublished dissertation on the topic in 1974 Hans Jurgen Sasse 1979 proposed a reconstruction of the consonants of Proto East Cushitic No comparative work has yet brought these branch reconstructions together Comparative vocabularyBasic vocabulary Sample basic vocabulary of Cushitic languages from Vossen amp Dimmendaal 2020 318 with PSC denoting Proto Southern Cushitic Branch Northern Southern Eastern CentralGloss Beja Iraqw Oromo Somali Awŋi Kemantney foot ragad lagad yaaee miila luka lug lɨkw lɨkw tooth kwire siħinoo ilkee ilig ɨrkwi ɨrkw hair hami d ifi seʔeengw dabbasaa timo ʧiʧifi ʃibka heart gin a muuna onnee wadne ɨʃew lɨbaka house gau anda doʔ mana guri min ŋɨn nɨŋ wood hindi ɬupi mukha qori alwaax kani kana meat ʃa dof fuʔnaay foon so hilib ɨʃʃi sɨya water yam maʔay biʃan biyo maayo aɣu axw door ɖefa yaf piindo balbala irrid albaab lɨmʧi sank bala grass siyam ʃuʃ gitsoo ʧ itaa caws sigwi ʃanka black hadal hadod boo gurraʧʧa madow ʧarki ʃamana red adal adar daaʕaat diimaa cas guduud dɨmmi saraɣ road darab loohi karaa godaana jid waddo dad gorwa mountain reba tɬooma tuullu buur kan dɨba spear fena gwiʃ a laabala PSC waraana waran werem ʃamargina stick n amis adi ħada ulee dullaa ul gɨmb kɨnbɨ fire n e ʔaɬa ibidda dab leg wɨzɨŋ donkey mek daqwaay haare dameer dɨɣwari dɨɣora cat bissa kaffa maytsi adure bisad dummad anguʧʧa damiya dog yas mani seeaay seere eey gɨseŋ gɨzɨŋ cow ʃ a yiwe ɬee sa a sac ɨllwa kama lion hada diraangw lenʧ a libaax wuʤi gamana hyena galaba karai bahaa PSC waraabo waraabe ɨɣwi waya sister kwa ħoʔoo obboleeytii walaalo abbaayo sena ʃan brother san nana obboleessa walaal abboowe sen zan mother de aayi haaɗa hooyo ʧwa gana father baba taata aabba aabbe tabli aba sit s a ʈaʈam iwiit taa uu fadhiiso ɨnʤikw takosɨm sleep diw nari guuʔ rafuu hurud ɣur y ganʤ eat tam am aag ɲaaʧʧu cun ɣw xw drink gw a ʃifi wah ɗugaaiti cab zɨq ʤax kill dir gaas aʤʤeesuu dil kw kw speak hadid kwinh ʔooʔ dubbattu hadal dibs gamar thin iyai bilil ʔiiraw PSC hap ii caato ɨnʧu k at an fat dah l a du iya PSC furdaa shilis buuran mori wafar small dis dabali niinaw PSC t innoo yar ʧɨli ʃigwey big win ragaga dir PSC guddaa dagaaga weyn dɨnguli fɨraqNumerals Comparison of numerals in individual Cushitic languages Classification Language 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10North Beja Bedawi ɡaːl ˈmale mheːj ˈfaɖiɡ eːj lit hand aˈsaɡwir 5 1 asaːˈrama 5 2 asiˈmheːj 5 3 aʃˈʃaɖiɡ 5 4 ˈtaminCentral Bilin Bilen laxw la leŋa sexwa sedʒa ʔankwa welta leŋeta sexweta sessa ʃɨkaCentral Eastern Xamtanga le w liŋa ʃaqwa siza akwa walta laŋta lanta se wta sʼajtʃʼa sʼɨ kʼaCentral Southern Awngi ɨ mpɨ l laɢu laŋa ʃuɢa sedza aŋkwa wɨ lta laŋeta soɢeta sesta tsɨ kkaCentral Western Kimant Qimant laɣa la liŋa siɣwa sedʒa ankwa welta leŋeta seɣweta sessa ʃɨkaEast Highland Alaaba matu lamu sasu ʃɔːlu ʔɔntu lehu lamala hizzeːtu hɔnsu tɔnnsuEast Highland Burji mitʃːa lama fadia foola umutta lia lamala hiditta wonfa tannaEast Highland Gedeo mitte lame sase ʃoole onde dʒaane torbaane saddeeta sallane tommeEast Highland Hadiyya mato lamo saso sooro onto loho lamara sadeento honso tommoEast Highland Kambaata mato lamo saso ʃoolo onto leho lamala hezzeeto honso tordumaEast Highland Libido mato lamo saso sooro ʔonto leho lamara sadeento honso tommoEast Highland Sidamo Sidaama mite lame sase ʃoole onte lee lamala sette honse tonneEast Dullay Gawwada toʔon lakke izzaħ salaħ xupin tappi taʔan setten kollan ħuɗɗanEast Dullay Tsamai Ts amakko doːkːo laːkːi zeːħ salaħ xobin tabːen taħːan sezːen ɡolːan kuŋkoEast Konsoid Bussa Harso Bobase toʔo lakki lam m e lamay ezzaħ siseħ salaħ xupin cappi caħħan sasse sesse kollan huddʼanEast Konsoid Dirasha Gidole ʃakka ha fem ʃokko ha masc lakki halpatta afur hen lehi tappa lakkuʃeti tsinqoota hundaEast Konsoid Konso takka lakki sessa afur ken lehi tappa sette saɡal kuɗanEast Oromo Orma tokkō lama sadi afuri ʃani dʒa torba saddeeti saɡali kuɗeniEast Oromo West Central Oromo tokko lama sadii afur ʃani dʒaha torba saddet saɡal kuɗanEast Saho Afar Afar eneki iniki nammaya sidoħu sidoħooyu fereyi fereeyi konoyu konooyu leħeyi leħeeyi malħiini baħaara saɡaala tabanaEast Saho Afar Saho inik lam a adoħ afar ko n liħ malħin baħar saɡal tamanEast Rendille Boni Boni koow hal o masc has so fem laba siddeh afar ʃan lih toddou siyyeed saaɡal tammanEast Rendille Boni Rendille koːw ko kalɖay isolated form lamːa sɛ jːaħ afːar t ʃan liħ tɛːba sijːɛ ːt saːɡaːl tomonEast Somali Garre Karre kow lamma siddeh afar ʃan liʔ toddobe siyeed saɡaal tommonEast Somali Somali kow laba saddeħ afar ʃan liħ toddoba siddeed saɡaal tobanEast Somali Tunni Af Tunni kow lamma siddiʔ afar ʃan liʔ toddobo siyeed saɡaal tomonEast Arboroid Arbore tokko masc takka fem ˈtaˈka laama ˈlaːma sezze ˈsɛːze ʔafur ʔaˈfur tʃenn t ʃɛn dʒih ˈd ʒi tuzba ˈtuːzba suye suˈjɛ saaɡalɗ ˈsaɡal tommoɲɗ ˈtɔmːɔnEast Arboroid Bayso Baiso koo masc too fem lɑ ɑmɑ sedi ɑ fɑr ken le todobɑ sidded sɑ ɑɡɑɑl tomonEast Arboroid Daasanach tɪ ɡɪ ɗɪ adj taqat ʃ ord ʔɛ ɾ ord naːme sɛ d ɛ ʔafʊ ɾ t ʃɛ n lɪ h t ɪ ːje siɪ t saːl t omonEast Arboroid El Molo t oko t aka l aama seepe afur ken cen yii tiipa s apa fue s aakal t omonSouth or East Dahalo vattukwe masc vattekwe fem liima kʼaba saʕala dawatte possibly hand sita lt Swahili saba lt Swahili nane kenda tis i a kumiSouth Alagwa Wasi wak ndʒad tam tsʼiɡaħ kooʔan laħooʔ faanqʼw dakat ɡwelen mibiSouth Burunge leyiŋ leẽ t ʃʼada tami t ʃʼiɡaħa koːʔani laħaʔu faɴqʼu daɡati ɡweleli miliSouth Gorowa Gorwaa wak tsʼar tam tsʼiyaħ kooʔan laħooʔ faanqʼw dakaat ɡwaleel ɡweleel mibaanɡwSouth Iraqw wak tsar tam tsiyaħ kooan laħooʔ faaɴw dakaat ɡwaleel mibaaɴwSee alsoCushitic speaking peoples List of Proto Cushitic reconstructions Wiktionary Meroitic languageNotesMous 2012 pp 343 345 Eberhard David M Simons Gary F Fennig Charles D eds 2021 Oromo Ethnologue Languages of the World Twenty fourth ed Dallas Texas SIL International Retrieved 2 March 2021 Eberhard David M Simons Gary F Fennig Charles D eds 2021 Somali Ethnologue Languages of the World Twenty fourth ed Dallas Texas SIL International Retrieved 20 April 2021 Bedawiyet Ethnologue Retrieved 22 November 2017 Sidamo Ethnologue Retrieved 22 November 2017 Afar Ethnologue Retrieved 22 November 2017 Shaban Abdurahman One to five Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages Africa News Archived from the original on 15 December 2020 Retrieved 12 April 2021 Ethiopia The World Factbook 2025 ed Central Intelligence Agency 6 June 2022 Archived 2022 edition Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia PDF Government of Ethiopia pp 2 amp 16 Archived PDF from the original on 15 June 2015 Retrieved 22 November 2017 Somaliland profile BBC News 14 December 2017 Retrieved 19 October 2021 The Constitution of the Somali Republic as amended up to October 12 1990 PDF Government of Somalia p 2 Archived PDF from the original on 1 December 2017 Retrieved 23 November 2017 The Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic PDF Government of Somalia p 5 Archived PDF from the original on 1 December 2017 Retrieved 23 November 2017 Journal Officiel de la Republique de Djibouti Loi n 96 AN 00 4emeL portant Orientation du Systeme Educatif Djiboutien PDF Government of Djibouti Archived PDF from the original on 1 December 2017 Retrieved 22 November 2017 Graziano Sava Mauro Tosco January 2008 Ex Uno Plura the uneasy road of Ethiopian languages toward standardization International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2008 191 117 doi 10 1515 ijsl 2008 026 S2CID 145500609 Retrieved 23 November 2017 The Constitution of Eritrea PDF Government of Eritrea p 524 Archived from the original PDF on 15 December 2017 Retrieved 22 November 2017 Stevens Chris J Nixon Sam Murray Mary Anne Fuller Dorian Q July 2016 Archaeology of African Plant Use Routledge p 239 ISBN 978 1 315 43400 1 Ambrose 1984 p 234 Appleyard 2012 p 202 Mous 2012 p 353 Mous 2012 p 355 Mous 2012 p 350 351 Appleyard 2012 pp 204 206 Konig 2008 p 138 Appleyard 2012 pp 205 Mous 2012 p 369 Mous 2012 pp 373 374 Appleyard 2012 p 204 Mous 2012 pp 361 363 Mous 2012 p 389 Appleyard 2012 pp 207 208 Appleyard 2012 pp 254 255 Appleyard 2012 pp 210 211 Mous 2012 pp 411 412 Lipinski Edward 2001 Semitic Languages Outline of a Comparative Grammar Volume 80 of Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta Peeters Publishers p 21 ISBN 90 429 0815 7 Retrieved 21 November 2016 Greenberg Joseph 1963 The Languages of Africa Bloomington Indiana University pp 48 49 Hetzron 1980 Ehret Christopher 2011 History and the Testimony of Language Berkeley University of California Press pp 138 147 ISBN 978 0 520 26204 1 Zaborski Andrzej 1988 Fucus Remarks on the Verb in Beja John Benjamins Publishing p 491 ISBN 90 272 3552 X Retrieved 30 September 2017 Treis Yvonne Vanhove Martine 31 May 2017 Similative and Equative Constructions A cross linguistic perspective John Benjamins Publishing Company p 189 ISBN 978 90 272 6597 5 Vanhove Martine 2016 North Cushitic Halshs Guldemann 2018 pp 327 328 Vanhove Martine North Cushitic LLACAN CNRS INALCO Universite Sorbonne Paris Cite Retrieved 12 November 2017 Rilly 2019 pp 131 134 Lamberti Marcello 1991 Cushitic and its Classifications Anthropos 552 561 Richard Hayward Afroasiatic in Heine amp Nurse 2000 African Languages Bender M Lionel 2020 Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology ed Grover Hudson Schriften zur Afrikanistik Research in African Studies 28 Berlin Peter Lang ISBN 978 3 631 60089 4 Harrassowitz Verlag The Harrassowitz Publishing House Archived from the original on 16 July 2011 Retrieved 16 July 2011 Sava Graziano Tosco Mauro 2003 The classification of Ongota In Bender M Lionel et al eds Selected comparative historical Afrasian linguistic studies LINCOM Europa Sands Bonny 2009 Africa s Linguistic Diversity Language and Linguistics Compass 3 2 559 580 doi 10 1111 j 1749 818x 2008 00124 x Robert Hetzron The Limits of Cushitic Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 2 1980 7 126 Rilly 2019 pp 134 137 Kiessling Roland Mous Maarten Nurse Derek 2007 The Tanzanian Rift Valley area In Bernd Heine Derek Nurse eds A Linguistic Geography of Africa Cambridge University Press Retrieved 22 March 2020 Schoenbrun David L 1993 We Are What We Eat Ancient Agriculture between the Great Lakes The Journal of African History 34 1 1 31 doi 10 1017 S0021853700032989 JSTOR 183030 S2CID 162660041 Guldemann 2018 Heine Bernd Franz Rottland amp Rainer Vossen 1979 Proto Baz Some aspects of early Nilotic Cushitic contacts Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 1 75 92 Ehret Christopher 1987 Proto Cushitic Reconstruction In Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 8 7 180 University of Cologne Hudson Grover 1989 Highland East Cushitic Dictionary Hamburg Helmut Buske Verlag ISBN 3 87118 947 2 Appleyard David 2006 A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages Koln Rudiger Koppe ISBN 3 89645 481 1 Kiessling Roland Mous Maarten 2003 The Lexical Reconstruction of West Rift Southern Cushitic Koln Rudiger Koppe Verlag ISBN 3 89645 068 9 Black Paul 1974 Lowland East Cushitic Subgrouping and Reconstruction PhD Yale University Sasse Hans Jurgen 1979 Consonant Phonemes of Proto East Cushitic Afro Asiatic Linguistics 7 1 1 57 Vossen Rainer and Gerrit J Dimmendaal eds 2020 The Oxford Handbook of African Languages Oxford Oxford University Press Roper E M 1928 Tu Beḍawiɛ Grammar texts and vocabulary Hertford Stephen Austin and Sons Kiebling Roland 2002 Iraqw texts Archiv afrikanistischer Manuskripte 4 Koln Rudiger Koppe Verlag Kiebling R and Mous M 2003 The Lexical Reconstruction of West Rift Southern Cushitic Cologne Rudiger Koppe Mahdi Hamid Muudee 1995 Oromo Dictionary I Atlanta Sagalee Oromoo Publishing Puglielli A amp Mansuur C 2012 Qaamuuska Af Soomaaliga Roma RomaTrE Press Appleyard D 2006 A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages Cologne Rudiger Koppe Zelealem Leyew 2003 The Kemantney Language A sociolinguistic and grammatical study of language replacement Cologne Rudiger Koppe Chan Eugene 2019 The Niger Congo Language Phylum Numeral Systems of the World s Languages ReferencesEthnologue on the Cushitic branch Ambrose Stanley H 1984 The Introduction of Pastoral Adaptations to the Highlands of East Africa In Clark J Desmond Brandt Steevn A eds From Hunters to Farmers The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa University of California Press pp 212 239 ISBN 0 520 04574 2 Retrieved 23 February 2020 Appleyard David 2012 Cushitic In Edzard Lutz ed Semitic and Afroasiatic Challenges and Opportunities Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag pp 199 295 ISBN 978 3 447 06695 2 Bender Marvin Lionel 1975 Omotic a new Afroasiatic language family Southern Illinois University Museum series number 3 Bender M Lionel 1986 A possible Cushomotic isomorph Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 6 149 155 Bender M Lionel 2019 Grover Hudson ed Cushitic Lexicon and Phonology Schriften Zur Afrikanistik Research in African Studies Vol 28 Berlin Peter Lang ISBN 978 3 631 60089 4 Bechhaus Gerst Marianne 2000 Linguistic evidence for the prehistory of livestock in Sudan In Blench Roger MacDonald Kevin eds The Origins and Development of African Livestock Archaeology Genetics Linguistics and Ethnography Routledge pp 449 461 ISBN 978 1 135 43416 8 Retrieved 22 February 2020 Cooper Julien 2017 Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubia Until the Common Era Dotawo A Journal of Nubian Studies 4 197 212 doi 10 5070 D64110028 Fleming Harold C 1974 Omotic as an Afroasiatic family In Proceedings of the 5th annual conference on African linguistics ed by William Leben p 81 94 African Studies Center amp Department of Linguistics UCLA Greenberg Joseph H 1950 Studies in African linguistic classification IV Hamito Semitic Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 6 1 47 63 Guldemann Tom 2018 Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa In Guldemann Tom ed The Languages and Linguistics of Africa The World of Linguistics Volume 11 Berlin De Mouton Gruyter pp 58 444 Hetzron Robert 1980 The limits of Cushitic Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 2 7 126 Kiessling Roland amp Maarten Mous 2003 The Lexical Reconstruction of West Rift Southern Cushitic Cushitic Language Studies Volume 21 Konig Christa 2008 Case in Africa Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 923282 6 Lamberti Marcello 1991 Cushitic and its classification Anthropos 86 4 6 552 561 Mous Maarten 2012 Cushitic In Frayzingier Zygmunt Shay Erin eds The Afroasiatic Languages Cambridge University Press pp 342 422 Newman Paul 1980 The Classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic Universitaire Pers Rilly Claude 2008 Enemy brothers Kinship and relationship between Meroites and Nubians Noba In Godlewski Wlodzimierz Lajtar Adam eds Between the Cataracts Proceedings of the 11th International Conference for Nubian Studies Warsaw University 27 August 2 September 2006 Part 1 Main Papers Warszawa PAM Supplement Series pp 211 225 doi 10 31338 uw 9788323533269 pp 211 226 ISBN 978 83 235 3326 9 Rilly Claude 2011 Recent Research on Meroitic the Ancient Language of Sudan PDF ITYOPIS Northeast African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 1 10 24 Rilly Claude 2016 The Wadi Howar Diaspora and its role in the spread of East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millenia BCE Faits de Langues 47 151 163 doi 10 1163 19589514 047 01 900000010 Rilly Claude 2019 Languages of Ancient Nubia In Dietrich Raue ed Handbook of Ancient Nubia Berlin Walter de Gryuter pp 129 151 Zaborski Andrzej 1986 Can Omotic be reclassified as West Cushitic In Gideon Goldenberg ed Ethiopian Studies Proceedings of the 6th International Conference pp 525 530 Rotterdam Balkema Reconstructing Proto Afroasiatic Proto Afrasian Vowels Tone Consonants and Vocabulary 1995 Christopher EhretFurther readingSkoglund Pontus Thompson Jessica C Prendergast Mary E Mittnik Alissa Sirak Kendra Hajdinjak Mateja Salie Tasneem Rohland Nadin Mallick Swapan 21 September 2017 Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure Cell 171 1 59 71 e21 doi 10 1016 j cell 2017 08 049 ISSN 0092 8674 PMC 5679310 PMID 28938123 External linksEncyclopaedia Britannica Cushitic languages BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HIGHLAND EAST CUSHITIC Faculty of Humanities Leiden University