Afro-Asiatic Super - Family
The term ‘Afroasiatic’ was coined by Delafosse in 1914 (cited in Newman 1980) and
was reintroduced by Greenberg in 1960. The term denotes that this is the one phylum encompassing
member families that contain languages spoken in both Africa and Asia.
Afroasiatic is the fourth largest linguistic phylum in the world, with about 375 living languages spoken
by some 300 million speakers
This super-family covers the largest sector of Ethiopia's population. It can be further divided into three
linguistic families. These are Cushitic, Semitic and Omotic.
A. Cushitic:
The vast majority speaks Cushitic language family in terms of both areal coverage and size of speakers.
There is spillover into neighbouring countries. The Cushitic languages have sub-divisions: North Cushitic,
Central Cushitic and Eastern Cushitic.
In ancient times, Northern Cushitic was widely spread between the Red Sea and the Nile Valley. North
Cushitic is represented only by the Beja people's language, spoken in what is today Northwestern
Eritrea. Central Cushitic spread during ancient times and is represented by the Bilen in Eritrea and the
Agaw languages (Qimant, Himitagna and Awign) in Ethiopia.
Eastern Cushitic is both the largest and the most diverse branch of the Cushitic
family languages in Ethiopia. For this reason, it has been subdivided into Highland and Lowland East
Cushitic. People under Lowland Cushitic, for instance include: Oromo, Afar, Somali, Konso, Gidole,
Erbore, Dassenech and Saho. They are called so because most of the speakers originally lived in the
eastern lowlands of Ethiopia and the Horn. This language family has become one of the largest in the
region following population movements in the 16th century. The speakers of Eastern Highland Cushitic
people are: Hadiya, Kambata, Tambaro, Halaba, Sidama, Gedeo, and Burji live in the highlands of central
Ethiopia. Thus, they have the collective name "Eastern Highland Cushitic". Southern Cushitic
represented by Dhalo in Kenya and Nbugua in Tanzania.
B. Semitic:
It is divided into Northern Semitic and Southern Semitic.
Northern Semitic Ge'ez is an ancient language of northern Ethiopia. Ge'ez is now confined to use in the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Others are Tegra, found in the Eritrean lowlands and Tigrigna
spoken in southern Eritrea and Tigray.
Southern Semitic consists of Amharic, Argobba, Gafat (now extinct), Guraghigna, Siltie, Harari and Zay
languages.
C. Omotic:
Most of the Omotic speakers live in and around the Omo River basin. In earlier times, it had extended
much further to the north. The Shinasha in the Benishangul-Gumuz region and Anfillo in Wallaga are
good examples of this movement. There are as many as different Omotic languages spoken in Ethiopia
today. Some examples of the Omotic language-speaking peoples are Ari, Banna, Basketo, Bench, Chara,
Dawuro, Dime, Dizi, Dorze, Gamo, Ganza, Gayil, Gofa, Hamer, Hozo, Kachama Ganjule, Karo, Keficho,
Konta, Korete, Male, Melo, Nayi, Oyda, Sezo, Shekkacho, Sheko, Wolaita, Yem, Zayse etc. Ometo
includes Wolaita and Gamo among its groups, while the main Gonga is Keficho.
Reference
ZYGMUNT FRAJZYNGIER and ERIN SHAY: THE AFROASIATIC LANGUAGES
Grade 9 History book