Proto-Afroasiatic, sometimes also referred to as Proto-Afrasian, is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. Though estimations vary widely, it is believed by scholars to have been spoken as a single language around 12,000 to 18,000 years ago (12 to 18

kya Kya, kya or KYA may also refer to: People or fictional characters * Kya Lau, chef and contestant on ''MasterChef Junior'', season 4 * Kya, mother of Katara and Sokka, in ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' * Kya, daughter of Aang and Katara in ''The ...

), that is, between 16,000 and 10,000 BC. The reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic is problematic and remains largely lacking. Moreover, no consensus exists as to the location of the Afroasiatic Urheimat, the putative homeland of Proto-Afroasiatic speakers, but the majority of scholars agree that it was located within a region of Northeast Africa.

Urheimat

Phonology

The consonants of Proto-Afroasiatic, as given by Bomhard (2008): NOTE: #Orël''–''Stolbova (1995) reconstructs /t͡ʃ’/, /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/ for /tʲ’/, /tʲ/, /dʲ/, respectively, #Orël''–''Stolbova (1995) doesn't reconstruct labialized consonants. Bomhard (2008) lists ten vowels for the language: /i/, /iː/, /e/, /eː/, /a/, /aː/, /o/, /oː/, /u/, /uː/.

Consonant correspondences

The following table shows consonant correspondences in Afroasiatic languages, as given in Dolgopolsky (1999), along with some reconstructed consonants for Proto-Afroasiatic. # under special conditions NOTE: # = #Symbols with dots underneath are

emphatic consonant In Semitic linguistics, an emphatic consonant is an obstruent consonant which originally contrasted with series of both voiced and voiceless obstruents. In specific Semitic languages, the members of this series may be realized as uvularized or ...

s (variously glottalized, ejective or pharyngealized). #Transcription of Ancient Egyptian follows Allen (2000); see Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian. The following are possible values for the non-IPA symbols used for Ancient Egyptian: = ; = ; = , or ejective .

Pronouns

reconstructs the following pronouns, most of which are supported by at least five of the six branches:

Numerals

reconstructs the following cardinal numbers (Ehret does not include Berber in his reconstruction): The first root for "two" has been compared to Berber (Tamazight) . There are other proposed cognate sets: *"six": Egyptian , Proto-Semitic , Berber (Tamazight) . *"seven": Egyptian , Proto-Semitic , Berber (Tamazight) .

Grammar

It has been proposed that Proto-Afroasiatic had marked nominative case marking, where the subject was overtly marked for nominative case, while the object appeared in unmarked default case. Marked nominative case marking is still found in languages of the Cushitic,

Omotic The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region. The Ge'ez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have com ...

and

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

branches. Its syntax possibly featured an exclusively default, strict word ordering of VSO. Although some Afroasiatic languages have developed free word order, it is generally surmised that PAA was originally a VO language. Open-acces
preprint version
available.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Authority control

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 su ...

Afroasiatic languages