The Saho–Afar languages (also known as Afar–Saho) are a dialect-cluster belonging to the
Cushitic
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
branch of the
Afro-Asiatic family. They include the
Afar and
Saho languages, which are spoken in
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
,
Eritrea and
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 ...
.
Characteristic features of Saho-Afar include the following:
* Preservation of the pharyngeal fricatives // and //
* Consistent
Subject-Object-Verb word order
* Unique numerals '7' and '8': Saho ''malħin'', ''baħar'', Afar ''malħina'', ''baħra''.
* A contrast of high and low
tone;
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
is often marked by a high-low tone pattern on masculine nouns, low-high on feminine nouns, e.g. ''báḍà'' 'son', ''bàḍá'' 'daughter'.
* The Cushitic prefix conjugation is used commonly (ca. 40% of the vocabulary), and is also applied to loanwords from
Ethiopian Semitic.
* A general negative prefix ''má-'' is used in both the imperative and declarative moods. The past tense of suffix-conjugated verbs uses in addition a single negative suffix for both, the present tense lacks a distinct negative suffix entirely.
Notes
East Cushitic languages
Languages of Djibouti
Languages of Eritrea
Languages of Ethiopia
{{AfroAsiatic-lang-stub