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 Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2 ...

branch of the

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

family. They include the Afar and Saho languages, which are spoken in

Djibouti Djibouti, 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 Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. 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 Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

;

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

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 Ethio-Semitic (also Ethiopian Semitic, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic or Abyssinian) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic, part of t ...

languages. * 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