Afroasiatic (Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic (Chamito-Semitic),[1] is a large language family, including 300 or so living languages.[3] Afroasiatic languages are spoken predominantly in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. More than 300 million people speak an Afroasiatic language.[1] The most widely spoken Afroasiatic language is Arabic (including literary Arabic and the spoken colloquial varieties), with about 200 to 230 million native speakers, spoken mostly in the Middle East and parts of North Africa.[4] Berber (including all its varieties) is spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, northern Mali, and northern Niger by about 25 to 35 million people. Other widely spoken Afroasiatic languages are Hausa, the dominant language of northern Nigeria and southern Niger, spoken as a first language by 25 million people and used as a lingua franca by another 20 million across West Africa and the Sahel;[5][6] Oromo of Ethiopia and Kenya, with about 33 million speakers; Amharic of Ethiopia, with over 25 million native speakers, not including the millions of other Ethiopians speaking it as a secondary language; Somali, spoken by 15.5 million people in Greater Somalia; and Modern Hebrew, spoken by about seven million people worldwide. In addition to languages spoken today, Afroasiatic includes several important ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, and Aramaic. Contents
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 22:45:46 +0000
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