[...]... branches of which are Semitic, Egyptian, Cushitic, Libyco-Berber, and Chadic The Semitic group, the single languages of which are briefly described, includes such languages of antiquity as Palaeosyrian, Old Akkadian, Assyro-BabyIonian, Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Epigraphic South Arabian, as well as Arabic, Neo-Aramaic, and the con­ temporary languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea The last section of Part... B.C., are limited to Mesopotamia, North Syria, and Egypt Whereas the relation between the various Semitic languages can be compared with that of, say, the various Germanic or Romance or Slavic languages, Afro-Asiatic would more or less correspond to the group of Indo-European languages The latter have a few points of contact with Afro-Asiatic, but these are scarcely sufficient to warrant assumption of any... which are still living include Bilin, spoken in Eritrea around Keren, Khamtanga, corresponding to the Khamta and Khamir varieties of Agaw reported earlier in the northeastern part of the Amharic area (Wello province), Qemant and the Qwara or Falasha dialects, north of Lake Tana, and Southern Agaw or Awngi, spoken south and west of the lake At the request of James Bruce, the text of the Song of Songs has... This work was based mainly on the so-called classical Semitic languages, viz Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, Syriac, Classical Arabic, and Ge'ez, but paid little attention to other Semitic languages, both ancient and modern, and it abstained from a systematic treatment of the syntax and of semantic problems However, it was felt in different quarters that it is important to draw the attention of the students... (Saho-Afar) Oromo Southern Galaboid Ba'iso Sam Rendille Bani Somali CUSHITIC 31 a) Bedja 2.9 Bedja or North Cushitic is spoken on the Red Sea littoral of the Sudan and in the hinterland, to the latitude of Kassala in the south The Bedja tribes of eastern Sudan are essentially nomad pastoralists that belong to two main tribal confederacies: the Bisharin and Abdada, in the north, the Hadendowa, Amarar,... of languages J.H Greenberg, instead, considering that this is the only language family represented in both Africa and Asia, proposed 24 SEMITIC LANGUAGES to call it Afro-Asiatic in his work The Languages of Africa, issued in 1963 1.2 The languages in question are spoken nowadays in Western Asia, in North Africa, and in the Horn of northeastern Africa, but their oldest written attestations, dating back... Arabic Aramaic, Mandaic, Neo-Aramaic, Syriac Argobba Assyro-Babylonian, Late Babyloninan, Old Akkadian Bantu Bedja Chadic Coptic East and West Cushitic Egyptian Gafat Ge'ez Greek Gurage Harari Hausa Hebrew Hittite Latin Libyco-Berber, Numidic, Tuareg 681 681 684 684 685 696 702 702 713 713 714 714 714 715 716 717 720 721 724 725 725 731 731 731 16 CONTENTS Moabite North Arabian Oromo Palaeosyrian... not stand isolated among the languages of the world They form part of a larger language group often called Hamito -Semitic, but lately better known as Afro-Asiatic The existence of a relationship between Berber in North Africa and Semitic was perceived already in the second half of the 9th century A. D by Judah ibn Quraysh, from Tiaret (Algeria), in his work known as Rìsāla Ibn Quraysh is rightly regarded... Arabia, although the Arabic peninsula was the origin of an increasing immigration, probably from the 8th century A. D onwards, as well as the source of the Islamization of Somalia There is a large body of Somali oral literature, including alliterative poetry The name Somali first occurs in a praise song of Yeshaq I of Abyssinia (1412-1427) 3° Eastern Sidamo, now called Highland East Cushitic, was the main... a certain sense, that the one of earlier comparative grammars of the Semitic languages, but it is nev­ ertheless intended primarily as an introductory work, directed towards 18 PREFACE an audience consisting, on the one hand, of students of one or several Semitic languages, and, on the other, of students of linguistics Its aim is to underline the common characteristics and trends of the languages and . languages of antiquity as Palaeosyrian, Old Akkadian, Assyro-BabyIonian, Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Epi- graphic South Arabian, as well as Arabic, Neo-Aramaic, and the con- temporary . class="bi x0 y0 w1 h0" alt="" SEMITIC LANGUAGES OUTLINE OF A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR