Everything about South Semitic Languages totally explained
South Semitic is one of the three macro-classifications in
Semitic linguistics, the other two being
East Semitic (for example
Akkadian) and
West Semitic (for example
Arabic,
Aramaic,
Hebrew). Semitic itself is considered a branch of the larger
Afro-Asiatic language family found, as indicated in the name, both in (northern and eastern) Africa and (southwestern) Asia. (See
Joseph Greenberg's classification of African languages.)
South Semitic is again divided into two main branches:
South Arabian, on the southern coast of the
Arabian Peninsula, and
Ethiopian Semitic, found across the
Red Sea in the
Horn of Africa, mainly in modern
Ethiopia and
Eritrea. The Ethiopian Semitic languages have by far the greatest numbers of modern native speakers. Eritrea's main languages are mainly
Tigrinya and
Tigre which are North Ethiopic languages while
Amharic (South Ethiopic) is the main language spoken in Ethiopia (along with
Tigrinya in the northern province of
Tigray). Southern Arabian languages have withered at the expense of the more dominant Arabic (also a Semitic language) for more than a millennium. The
Ethnologue
lists six modern members of the South Arabian branch and 14 members of the Ethiopian branch.
The "homeland" of the South Semitic languages is widely debated, but is believed to have been Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea or the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The modern and historic presence of South Semitic Ethiopian languages (and
Ethiopic script) in Africa is believed by some to be due to a (backwards) migration of South Arabian speakers from
Yemen within the last few thousand years. Such a migration would be a "backwards" one in that Afro-Asiatic languages are assumed to have arisen in Africa originally and moved into the
Middle East and Arabian Peninsula in the form of
Proto-Semitic, since all major branches of the larger Afro-Asiatic are found in Africa. Others, such as A. Murtonen (1967), dispute this view, suggesting that Semitic may have originated in Ethiopia.
List
Western South Semitic
- Old South Arabian languages -- extinct, formerly believed to be the linguistic ancestors of modern South Arabian Semitic languages, now classified as Eastern South Semitic)
- Ethiopic languages (Ethio-Semitic, Ethiopian Semitic):
- North
- South
- Transversal
- Amharic-Argobba
- Harari-East Gurage
Further Information
Get more info on 'South Semitic Languages'.
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