The Aroid or Ari-Banna (formerly South Omotic or Somotic) languages possibly belong to the
Afro-Asiatic
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic s ...
family and are spoken in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
.
Languages
There are five Aroid languages:
* ''Aari-Gayil languages''
**
Aari Aari or AARI may refer to:
* Aari (actor) (born 1985), Indian Tamil film actor
* Aari language, an Omotic language
*Aari people
Aari or Ari are a tribal Omotic people indigenous to Omo Valley of Ethiopia. According to 2007 census there are 289 ...
**
Gayil
* ''Hamer-Karo languages''
**
Hamer-Banna
**
Karo (Ethiopia)
*
Dime
External classification
The classification of South Omotic (also called Aroid) is highly disputed and it may be a separate language family. Karo is sometimes considered as a dialect of Hamer, but considered as a separate language by Glottolog which groups both in a ''Hamer-Karo'' subfamily.
Zaborski (1986) and Lamberti (1993) consider South Omotic to be a separate branch of
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 the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
, renaming it as ''West Cushitic''.
Bender (2000, 2003) notes that South Omotic is in fact quite divergent from other
Afroasiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic ...
, and suggests that it may in fact have connections with
Nilo-Saharan
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. ...
, such as
Surmic
The Surmic languages are a branch of the Eastern Sudanic language family.
Today, the various peoples who speak Surmic languages make their living in a variety of ways, including nomadic herders, settled farmers, and slash and burn farmers. Th ...
and
Nilotic.
Citing lexical similarities with
Surmic
The Surmic languages are a branch of the Eastern Sudanic language family.
Today, the various peoples who speak Surmic languages make their living in a variety of ways, including nomadic herders, settled farmers, and slash and burn farmers. Th ...
and other non-
Nilotic Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. ...
, Yigezu (2013)
[Yigezu, Moges. 2013. ''Is Aroid Nilo-Saharan or Afro-Asiatic? Some evidences from phonological, lexical and morphological reconstructions''. Paper presented at the Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, May 22–24, 2013, Cologne, Germany.] argues that Aroid ( South Omotic) has a "
Nilo-Saharan
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. ...
origin" and had become strongly influenced by other "Omotic" language groups. The Proto-Aroid vowel system is also more similar to those of the Surmic and Nilotic languages (Yigezu 2006, 2013).
''Glottolog'' 4.0 does not recognize that South Omotic belongs to one of the disputed families, and the candidate group of Omotic languages (grouping both North and South Omotic languages) remains disputed. For this reason it is considered for now as a separate family.
Reconstruction
Below is a reconstruction of Proto-Aroid by Yigezu (2013).
[Yigezu, Moges. 2013. ''Is Aroid Nilo-Saharan or Afro-Asiatic? some evidences from phonological, lexical and morphological reconstuructions''. Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, May 22–24, 2013, Cologne, Germany.]
Numerals
Comparison of numerals in individual languages:
See also
*
List of Proto-Aroid reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
{{authority control
Language families
Languages of Ethiopia
Omotic languages