Afroasiatic languages

E11738

language family macrofamily

Afroasiatic languages are a major language family of Africa and parts of Western Asia that includes languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, and Hausa.

Aliases (8)

Statements (64)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	language family → macrofamily →
alternativeName	Afrasian languages → Afro-Asiatic languages → Hamito-Semitic languages →
continent	Africa → Asia →
estimatedSpeakers	more than 400 million →
geographicOrigin	Northeast Africa → adjacent parts of the Near East →
hasAncientMember	Akkadian → Ancient Egyptian → Biblical Hebrew → Ugaritic →
hasSubfamily	Berber languages → Chadic languages → Cushitic languages → Egyptian language family → Omotic languages → Semitic languages →
historicalImportance	includes some of the earliest attested written languages →
includesLanguage	Akkadian → Amharic → Ancient Egyptian → Arabic → Aramaic → Berber languages → Chadic languages → Coptic → Geʽez → Gurage languages → Hausa → Hebrew → Kabyle → Maltese → Oromo → Sidamo → Somali → Tigre → Tigrinya → Tuareg languages → Ugaritic → Wolaytta →
linguisticTypology	mostly fusional → nonconcatenative morphology →
majorReligionAssociated	Christianity → Islam → Judaism →
notableFeature	extensive use of root-and-pattern morphology → presence of emphatic consonants in many branches →
reconstructionStatus	partially reconstructed proto-language (Proto-Afroasiatic) →
region	East Africa → Horn of Africa → Middle East → North Africa → Sahel → Western Asia →
writingSystemUsed	Arabic script → Coptic script → Egyptian hieroglyphs → Geʽez script → Hebrew script → Latin script → Tifinagh →

Referenced by (90)

Subject (surface form when different)	Predicate
Afar ("Afroasiatic") → Akkadian → Ancient Egyptian ("Afroasiatic") → Beja → Berbers → Bilen → Blue Men of the Sahara → Chadian Arabic → Chaldean Neo-Aramaic → Chaoui → East Africa → Edomite ("Afroasiatic") → Egyptian Arabic ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Egyptians → Fus’ha ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Ge'ez → Gulf Arabic ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Hausa ("Afroasiatic") → Hijazi Arabic ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Judeo-Arabic ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → MSA ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Maghrebi Arabic → Moabite ("Afroasiatic") → Modern Standard Arabic → Nabataean Arabic ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Najdi Arabic → Nigerian Arabic ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Old Arabic ("Afroasiatic") → Razihi Arabic → Riffians → Sa'idi Arabic → Sabaic → Saho ("Afroasiatic") → Shami Arabic ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Shenwa ("Afroasiatic") → Shilha → Sidamo ("Afroasiatic") → Siwi ("Afroasiatic") → Tamazight (generic) ("Afroasiatic") → Tashelhit ("Afroasiatic") → Tigre ("Afroasiatic") → Tigre people → Tihami Arabic → Tuareg → West Chadic ("Afroasiatic") → Yafiʿi Arabic → Yemeni Arabic → Zenati languages ("Afroasiatic") →	languageFamily
Ancient Egyptian → Egyptian language family → Gurage languages → Modern South Arabian languages → Northwest Semitic → Old South Arabian → Omotic languages → Semitic languages → Tamazight (generic) → Zenati languages →	subclassOf
Ammonite → Aramaic ("Afroasiatic language family") → Berber languages ("Afroasiatic language family") → Semitic languages ("Afroasiatic language family") → South Semitic languages → West Chadic →	partOf
Bilen ("Afroasiatic") → Coptic language → Maltese →	family
Central Africa → Horn of Africa → Sub-Saharan Africa →	majorLanguageFamily
Afroasiatic languages ("Afro-Asiatic languages") → Afroasiatic languages ("Afrasian languages") →	alternativeName
West African languages ("Chadic languages") → West African languages →	includesFamily
Oromo ("Afroasiatic language family") → Shenwa ("Afroasiatic") →	subfamilyOf
Egyptians →	ancientLanguageFamily
Modern South Arabian languages ("Afroasiatic linguistics") →	areaOfStudy
Egyptian language family ("Afroasiatic language family") →	branchOf
Asia →	containsMajorLanguageFamily
Nilo-Saharan phylum →	contrastedWith
West Africa →	hasLanguageFamily
Tarifit ("Proto-Afroasiatic") →	hasLinguisticAncestor
Northwest Africa →	hasMajorLanguageFamily
Semitic languages →	hasParentFamily
Afroasiatic languages ("Cushitic languages") →	hasSubfamily
Sudanese Arabic ("Cushitic languages") →	influencedBy
Shabo language ("Afroasiatic") →	languageFamilyHypothesis
Horn of Africa ("Cushitic languages") →	majorLanguageBranch
Tarifit →	partOfLanguageFamily