Cushitic languages

The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia), as well as the Nile Valley (Sudan and Egypt), and parts of the African Great Lakes region (Tanzania and Kenya). Speakers of Cushitic languages and the descendants of speakers of Cushitic languages are referred to as Cushitic peoples. The phylum was first designated as Cushitic in 1858.[2] Major Cushitic languages include Oromo, Somali, Beja, Agaw, Afar, Saho and Sidamo.[3]

"Cushitic" redirects here. For the ethnolinguistic group, see Cushitic peoples.

Cushitic
Geographic distribution	Egypt, Sudan, Horn of Africa, East Africa
Linguistic classification	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic
Proto-language	Proto-Cushitic
Subdivisions	Beja Agaw languages (Central) Dullay Highland East Cushitic (Sidamic) Lowland East Cushitic South Cushitic
ISO 639-2 / 5	cus
Glottolog	cush1243[1]
Distribution of the Cushitic languages in Africa
Map of the Cushitic languages

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.[4] Less certain are hypotheses which propose that Cushitic languages were spoken by the people of the C-Group culture in northern Nubia,[5] or the people of the Kerma culture in southern Nubia.[6] Historical linguistic analysis indicates that the languages spoken in the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture of the Rift Valley and surrounding areas, may have been languages of the South Cushitic branch.[7]

Major and official languages

The Cushitic languages with the greatest number of total speakers are Oromo (25 million),[8] Somali (16.2 million),[9] Beja (3.2 million),[10] Sidamo (3 million),[11] and Afar (2 million).[12] Oromo is the working language of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia.[13] Somali is one of two official languages of Somalia, and as such is the only Cushitic language accorded official language status at the country level.[14] It also serves as a language of instruction in Djibouti,[15] and as the working language of the Somali Region in Ethiopia.[13] 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.[16] The constitution of Eritrea also recognizes the equality of all natively spoken languages.[17] Additionally, Afar is a language of instruction in Djibouti,[15] as well as the working language of the Afar Region in Ethiopia.[13]

Origin

Main article: Cushitic peoples § History

There is some evidence of a Proto-Cushitic language as far back as the Early Holocene.[18][19][20][21][22]

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.[3][23] 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/.[24] Less common are pharyngeal consonants /ħ ʕ/, which appear e.g. in Somali or the Saho–Afar languages.[3][24]

Pitch acccent is found most Cushitic languages, and plays a prominent role in morphology and syntax.[3][25]

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).[26]

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.[27] 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.[28][29]

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.[30]

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 dəmmura "several cats" can be formed. Plural formation is very diverse, and employs ablaut (i.e. changes of root vowels or consonants), suffixes and reduplication.[31][32]

Verbs

Verbs are inflected for person/number and tense/aspect. Many languages also have a special form of the verb in negative clauses.[33]

Most 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.[34] The following table gives an example for the suffix and prefix conjugations in affirmative present tense in Somali.[35]

	suffix conjugation	prefix conjugation
	"bring"	"come"
1.sg.	keen-aa	i-maadd-aa
2.sg.	keen-taa	ti-maadd-aa
3.sg.masc.	keen-aa	yi-maadd-aa
3.sg.fem.	keen-taa	ti-maadd-aa
1.pl.	keen-naa	ni-maad-naa
2.pl.	keen-taan	ti-maadd-aan
3.pl.	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.[36][37]

Classification

Overview

The Cushitic languages usually include the following branches:[38]

• North Cushitic (Beja)
• Central Cushitic (Agaw languages)
• East Cushitic
  • Lowland East Cushitic
  • Highland East Cushitic
  • Yaaku-Dullay
  • Dahalo
• South Cushitic

These classifications have not been without contention, and many other classifications have been proposed over the years.

Proposed classification of Cushitic and its sub-divisions

Greenberg (1963)[39]	Hetzron (1980)[40]	Fleming (post-1981)	Orel & Stobova (1995)
Afro-Asiatic Semitic Berber Ancient Egyptian Cushitic Northern Cushitic (Beja) Central Cushitic Eastern Cushitic Western Cushitic (Omotic) Southern Cushitic Chad (Chadic)	Afro-Asiatic Beja (not part of Cushitic) Cushitic Highland Rift Valley (Highland East Cushitic) Agaw Lowland Southern Omo-Tana Oromoid Dullay Yaaku Iraqw Saho-Afar	Afro-Asiatic Omotic Erythraean Cushitic Ongota Non-Ethiopian Beja	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Omotic Beja Agaw Sidamic East Lowlands Rift
Diakonoff (1996)	Militarev (2000)	Tosco (2000)[41]	Ehret (2011)[42]
Afro-Asiatic East–West Afrasian Cushitic (Does not include Omotic)	Afro-Asiatic South Afrasian Omotic Cushitic	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Beja Agaw East Highland Lowland Southern Nuclear Omo-Tana Oromoid Transversal Dullay Yaaku Saho-'Afar Dahalo Iraqw (+South Cushitic)	Afrasian Omotic Erythraic Cushitic North Cushitic Beja Agäw-East-South Cushitic Agäw East-South Cushitic Eastern Cushitic Southern Cushitic North Erythraic Chado-Berber Chadic Berber (Amazight) Boreafrasian Egyptian Semitic

Beja

Main article: Beja language § Classification

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).[43][44][45] Hetzron (1980) argues that Beja therefore may comprise an independent branch of the Afroasiatic family.[40] However, this suggestion has been rejected by most other scholars.[46] The characteristics of Beja that differ from those of other Cushitic languages are instead generally acknowledged as normal branch variation.[43] These unique features are also attributed to the fact that the Beja language, along with the Saho-Afar dialect cluster, are the most conservative forms of Cushitic speech.[47]

Joseph Halévy (1873) identified linguistic similarities shared between Beja and other neighboring Cushitic languages (viz. Afar, Agaw, Oromo and Somali). Leo Reinisch subsequently grouped Beja with Saho-Afar, Somali and Oromo in a Lowland Cushitic sub-phylum, representing one half of a two-fold partition of Cushitic. Moreno (1940) proposed a bipartite classification of Beja similar to that of Reinisch, but lumped Beja with both Lowland Cushitic and Central Cushitic. Around the same period, Enrico Cerulli (c. 1950) asserted that Beja constituted an independent sub-group of Cushitic. During the 1960s, Archibald N. Tucker (1960) posited an orthodox branch of Cushitic that comprised Beja, East Cushitic and Agaw, and a fringe branch of Cushitic that included other languages in the phylum. Although also similar to Reinisch's paradigm, Tucker's orthodox-fringe dichotomy was predicated on a different typological approach. Andrzej Zaborski (1976) suggested, on the basis of genetic features, that Beja constituted the only member of the North Cushitic sub-phylum.[48] Due to its linguistic innovations, Robert Hetzron (1980) argued that Beja may constitute an independent branch of the Afroasiatic family.[40] Hetzron's suggestion was arrived at independently,[49] and was largely ignored or rejected by almost all linguists (Zaborski 1984[50] & 1997; Tosco 2000;[48] Morin 2001[51]). Appleyard (2004) later also demonstrated that the innovations in Beja, which Hetzron had identified, were centered on a typological argument involving a presumed change in syntax and also consisted of only five differing Cushitic morphological features. Marcello Lamberti (1991) elucidated Cerulli's traditional classification of Beja, juxtaposing the language as the North Cushitic branch alongside three other independent Cushitic sub-phyla, Lowland Cushitic, Central Cushitic and Sidama. Didier Morin (2001) assigned Beja to Lowland 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, Cerulli's traditional paradigm is accepted as the standard classification for Beja.[48]

Other divergent languages

There are also a few poorly-classified languages, including Yaaku, Dahalo, Aasax, Kw'adza, Boon, the Cushitic element of Mbugu (Ma'a) and Ongota. There is a wide range of opinions as to how the languages are interrelated.[52]

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.[52]

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.[53] 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.[54][55]

Hetzron (1980)[56] 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.

Cushitic was formerly seen as also including the Omotic languages, then called West Cushitic. However, this view has been abandoned. Omotic is generally agreed to be 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.

Extinct languages

A number of extinct populations have been proposed to have spoken Afroasiatic languages of the Cushitic branch. Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst (2000) proposed that the peoples of the Kerma Culture – which inhabited the Nile Valley in present-day Sudan immediately before the arrival of the first Nubian speakers – spoke Cushitic languages.[6] She argues that the Nilo-Saharan Nobiin language today contains a number of key pastoralism related loanwords that are of proto-Highland East Cushitic origin, including the terms for sheep/goatskin, hen/cock, livestock enclosure, butter and milk. However, more recent linguistic research indicates that the people of the Kerma culture (who were based in southern Nubia) instead spoke Nilo-Saharan languages of the Eastern Sudanic branch, and that the peoples of the C-Group culture to their north (in northern Nubia) and other groups in northern Nubia (such as the Medjay and Belmmyes) spoke Cushitic languages with the latter being related to the modern Beja language.[57][58][59][60] The linguistic affinity of the ancient A-Group culture of northern Nubia—the predecessor of the C-Group culture—is unknown, but Rilly (2019) suggests that it is unlikely to have spoken a language of the Northern East Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan, and may have spoken a Cushitic language, other Afro-Asiatic language, or a language belonging to another (non-Northern East Sudanic) branch of the Nilo-Saharan family.[61] Rilly also criticizes proposals (by Behrens and Bechaus-Gerst) of significant early Afro-Asiatic influence on Nobiin, and considers evidence of substratal influence on Nobiin from an earlier now extinct Eastern Sudanic language to be stronger.[62][63][64][5]

Linguistic evidence indicates that Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia, an ancient region which straddles present day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan, before the arrival of North Eastern Sudanic languages from Upper Nubia.

Julien Cooper (2017) states that in antiquity, Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia (the northernmost part of modern day Sudan).[65] He also states that Eastern Sudanic speaking populations from southern and west Nubia gradually replaced the earlier Cushitic speaking populations of this region.[66]

In Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Claude Rilly (2019) states that Cushitic languages once dominated Lower Nubia along with the Ancient Egyptian language.[67] He mentions historical records of the Blemmyes, a Cushitic speaking tribe which controlled Lower Nubia and some cities in Upper Egypt.[68][69] He mentions the linguistic relationship between the modern Beja language and the ancient Blemmyan language, and that the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.[70]

Additionally, historiolinguistics indicate that the makers of the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (Stone Bowl Culture) in the Great Lakes area likely spoke South Cushitic languages.[7]

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.[71]

Also, historically, the Southern Nilotic languages have undergone extensive contact with a "missing" branch of East Cushitic that Heine (1979) refers to as Baz.[72][73]

Reconstruction

Christopher Ehret proposed a reconstruction of Proto-Cushitic in 1987, but did not base this on individual branch reconstructions.[74] Grover Hudson (1989) has done some preliminary work on Highland East Cushitic,[75] David Appleyard (2006) has proposed a reconstruction of Proto-Agaw,[76] and Roland Kießling and Maarten Mous (2003) have jointly proposed a reconstruction of West Rift Southern Cushitic.[77] No reconstruction been published for Lowland East Cushitic, though Paul D. Black wrote his (unpublished) dissertation on the topic in 1974.[78] No comparative work has yet brought these branch reconstructions together.

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:[79]

Classification	Language	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
North	Beja (Bedawi)	ɡaːl	ˈmale	mheːj	ˈfaɖiɡ	eːj (lit: 'hand')	aˈsaɡʷir (5 + 1)	asaːˈrama (5 + 2)	asiˈmheːj (5 + 3)	aʃˈʃaɖiɡ (5 + 4)	ˈtamin
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	Dahalo	vattúkʷe (mascu) / vattékʷe (fem)	líima	kʼaba	saʕála	dáwàtte < possible from 'hand'	sita < Swahili	saba	nane	kenda / tis(i)a	kumi
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
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, 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, Highland	Alaaba	matú	lamú	sasú	ʃɔːlú	ʔɔntú	lehú	lamalá	hizzeːtú	hɔnsú	tɔnnsú
East, Highland	Burji	mičča	lama	fadia	foola	umutta	lia	lamala	hiditta	wonfa	tanna
East, Highland	Gedeo	mitte	lame	sase	šoole	onde	ǰaane	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, Konso-Gidole	Bussa (Harso-Bobase)	tóʔo	lakki, lam(m)e, lamay	ezzaħ, siséħ	salaħ	xúpin	cappi	caħħan	sásse /sésse	kollan	húddʼan
East, Konso-Gidole	Dirasha (Gidole)	ʃakka(ha) fem., ʃokko(ha) masculine	lakki	halpatta	afur	hen	lehi	tappa	lakkuʃeti	tsinqoota	hunda
East, Konso-Gidole	Konso	takka	lakki	sessa	afur	ken	lehi	tappa	sette	saɡal	kuɗan
East, Oromo	Orma	tokkō	lamā	sadi	afurī	ʃanī	ja	tolbā	saddeetī	saɡalī	kuɗenī
East, Oromo	West Central Oromo	tokko	lama	sadii	afur	ʃani	jaha	tolba	saddet	saɡal	kuɗan
East, Rendille-Boni	Boni	kóów, hál-ó (mascu) / 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, 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, 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, Western Omo-Tana	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, Western Omo-Tana	Bayso (Baiso)	koo (masculine) / too (feminine)	lɑ́ɑmɑ	sédi	ɑ́fɑr	ken	le	todobɑ́	siddéd	sɑ́ɑɡɑɑl	tómon
East, Western Omo-Tana	Daasanach	tɪ̀ɡɪ̀ɗɪ̀ (adj.)/ tàqàt͡ʃ ̚ (crd.)/ ʔɛ̀ɾ (ord.)	nàːmə̀	sɛ̀d̪ɛ̀	ʔàfʊ̀ɾ	t͡ʃɛ̀n	lɪ̀ʰ	t̪ɪ̀ːjə̀	síɪ̀t̚	sàːl	t̪òmòn
East, Western Omo-Tana	El Molo	t'óko / t'áka	l'ááma	séépe	áfur	kên, cên	yíi	tíípa, s'ápa	fúe	s'áákal	t'ómon

See also

• List of Proto-Cushitic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
• Meroitic language
• Cushitic peoples

Notes

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Cushitic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Lipiński, Edward (2001). Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar Volume 80 of Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. Peeters Publishers. p. 21. ISBN 9042908157. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
3. Appleyard (2012), p. 202.
4. Rilly (2019), pp. 132–133.
5. Cooper (2017). sfnp error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCooper2017 (help)
6. Bechhaus-Gerst 2000, p. 453.
7. Ambrose (1984), p. 234.
8. "Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia (2007)". Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia. p. 118. Archived from the original on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
9. "Somali". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
10. "Bedawiyet". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
11. "Sidamo". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
12. "Afar". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
13. "Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia" (PDF). Government of Ethiopia. pp. 2 & 16. Retrieved 22 November 2017. Members of the Federation may by law determine their respective working languages.[...] Member States of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia are the Following: 1) The State of Tigray 2) The State of Afar 3) The State of Amhara 4) The State of Oromia 5) The State of Somalia 6) The State of Benshangul/Gumuz 7) The State of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples 8) The State of the Gambela Peoples 9) The State of the Harari People
14. • "The Constitution of the Somali Republic (as amended up to October 12, 1990)" (PDF). Government of Somalia. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017. Article 4 (Official language) The official languages of the state shall be Somali and Arabic.
    • "The Federal Republic of Somalia Provisional Constitution" (PDF). Government of Somalia. p. 10. Retrieved 22 November 2017. Article 5. Official Languages[...] The official language of the Federal Republic of Somalia is Somali (Maay and Maxaa-tiri), and Arabic is the second language.
    • "The Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic" (PDF). Government of Somalia. p. 5. Retrieved 23 November 2017. ARTICLE 7 LANGUAGES. 1. The official languages of the Somali Republic shall be Somali (Maay and Maxaatiri) and Arabic.
    • "Somalia – Languages". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 23 November 2017. Somali (official, according to the 2012 Transitional Federal Charter), Arabic (official, according to the 2012 Transitional Federal Charter), Italian, English
15. • "Journal Officiel de la République de Djibouti – Loi n°96/AN/00/4èmeL portant Orientation du Système Educatif Djiboutien" (PDF). Government of Djibouti. Retrieved 22 November 2017. Article 5 : L’Education et la Formation sont dispensées dans les langues officielles et dans les langues nationales. Un Décret pris en Conseil des Ministres fixe les modalités de l’enseignement en français, en arabe, en Afar et en Somali.
    • "Djibouti in Brief" (PDF). Chamber of Commerce of Djibouti. Retrieved 23 November 2017. Languages: Arab, French (official) Afar, Somali (national)
16. 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. Retrieved 23 November 2017. the following other languages have been introduced in the elementary school curriculum[...] ‘Afar, Beja, Bilin, and Saho (languages of the Cushitic branch of Afroasiatic)CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
17. "The Constitution of Eritrea" (PDF). Government of Eritrea. p. 524. Retrieved 22 November 2017. The equality of all Eritrean languages is guaranteed
18. 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.
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41. Tosco, Mauro (November 2000). "Cushitic Overview". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 33 (2): 108. JSTOR 41966109.
42. Ehret, Christopher (2011). History and the Testimony of Language. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 138, 147. ISBN 9780520262041.
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45. Vanhove, Martine (2016). "North-Cushitic". halshs.
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48. Vanhove, Martine. "North-Cushitic". LLACAN, CNRS-INALCO, Université Sorbonne Paris-Cité. Retrieved 12 November 2017.
49. Ekkehard Wolff, Hilke Meyer-Bahlburg (1983). Studies in Chadic and Afroasiatic linguistics: papers from the International Colloquium on the Chadic Language Family and the Symposium on Chadic within Afroasiatic, at the University of Hamburg, September 14-18, 1981. H. Buske. p. 23. ISBN 3871186074. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
50. Zaborski, Andrzej (1984). "Remarks on the Genetic Classification and Relative Chronology of the Cushitic Languages". In James Bynon (ed.). Current Progress in Afro-Asiatic Linguistics. Third International Hamito-Semitic Congress. pp. 127–135.
51. Morin, Didier (2001). "Bridging the gap between Northern and Eastern Cushitic". In Zaborski, Andrzej (ed.). New Data and New Methods in Afroasiatic Linguistics. Robert Hetzron in memoriam. Otto Harassowitz. pp. 117–124.
52. Richard Hayward, "Afroasiatic", in Heine & Nurse, 2000, African Languages
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54. Savà, Graziano; Tosco, Mauro (2003). "The classification of Ongota". In Bender, M. Lionel; et al. (eds.). Selected comparative-historical Afrasian linguistic studies. LINCOM Europa.
55. Sands, Bonny (2009). "Africa's Linguistic Diversity". Language and Linguistics Compass. 3 (2): 559–580. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00124.x.
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57. Rilly C (2010). "Recent Research on Meroitic, the Ancient Language of Sudan" (PDF). Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
58. Rilly, Claude (2008). "Enemy brothers. Kinship and relationship between Meroites and Nubians (Noba)". Between the Cataracts. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference for Nubian Studies Warsaw University 27 August-2 September 2006. Part 1. Main Papers. doi:10.31338/uw.9788323533269.pp.211-226. ISBN 9788323533269.
59. Cooper, Julien (25 October 2017). "Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubia Until the Common Era". Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies. 4 (1). Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
60. Raue, Dietrich (4 June 2019). Handbook of Ancient Nubia. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-3-11-042038-8.
61. Rilly (2019), p. 134.
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63. Rilly (2011).
64. Rilly (2016).
65. Cooper (2017), pp. 199: "In antiquity, Afroasiatic languages in Sudan belonged chiefly to the phylum known as Cushitic, spoken on the eastern seaboard of Africa and from Sudan to Kenya, including the Ethiopian Highlands." sfnp error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCooper2017 (help)
66. Cooper (2017), pp. 208–209: "The toponymic data in Egyptian texts has broadly identified at least three linguistic blocs in the Middle Nile region of the second and first millennium BCE, each of which probably exhibited a great degree of internal variation. In Lower Nubia there was an Afroasiatic language, likely a branch of Cushitic. By the end of the first millennium CE this region had been encroached upon and replaced by Eastern Sudanic speakers arriving from the south and west, to be identified first with Meroitic and later migrations attributable to Nubian speakers." sfnp error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFCooper2017 (help)
67. Rilly (2019), p. 130: "Two Afro-Asiatic languages were present in antiquity in Nubia, namely Ancient Egyptian and Cushitic."
68. Rilly (2019), p. 133: "The Blemmyes are another Cushitic speaking tribe, or more likely a subdivision of the Medjay/Beja people, which is attested in Napatan and Egyptian texts from the 6th century BC on."
69. Rilly (2019), p. 134a: "From the end of the 4th century until the 6th century AD, they held parts of Lower Nubia and some cities of Upper Egypt."
70. Rilly (2019), p. 134b: "The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay."
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73. Heine, Bernd, Franz Rottland & Rainer Voßen. 1979. Proto-Baz: Some aspects of early Nilotic-Cushitic contacts. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 1. 75‒92.
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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 0520045742. 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 9783447066952.
• 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.
• 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 978-1135434168. 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.
• 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.
• 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 9788323533269.
• Rilly, Claude (2011). "Recent Research on Meroitic, the Ancient Language of Sudan" (PDF). ITYOPIS – Northeast African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (NEAJ). 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