Afro Asiatic languages Afro Asiatic languages Map showing the distribution of Afro Asiatic languages
The Afro Asiatic languages are a language family of about languages and million people widespread throughout North Africa East Africa the Sahel and Southwest Asia Other names sometimes given to this family include Afrasian Hamito Semitic deprecated Lisramic Hodge Erythraean Tucker.
The following language subfamilies are included.
 Berber languages
 Chadic languages
 Egyptian languages
 Semitic languages
 Cushitic languages
 Beja language subclassification controversial widely classified as part of Cushitic. Omotic languages controversial sometimes argued to be outside Afro Asiatic.
The Ongota language is often considered to be Afro Asiatic but its classification within the family remains controversial partly for lack of data Harold Fleming tentatively suggests that it is an independent branch of non Omotic Afro Asiatic.
It is not generally agreed on where Proto Afro Asiatic was spoken Africa e g Igor Diakonoff Lionel Bender has often been suggested particularly Ethiopia because it includes the majority of the diversity of the Afro Asiatic language family and has very diverse groups in close geographic proximity often considered a telltale sign for a linguistic geographic origin The western Red Sea coast and the Sahara have also been put forward e g Christopher Ehret Alexander Militarev suggests that their homeland was in the Levant specifically he identifies them with the Natufian culture.
The Semitic languages are the only Afro Asiatic subfamily based outside of Africa however in historical or near historical times some Semitic speakers crossed from South Arabia back into Ethiopia so some modern Ethiopian languages such as Amharic are Semitic rather than belonging to the substrate Cushitic or Omotic groups A minority of academics e g A Murtonen dispute this view suggesting that Semitic may have originated in Ethiopia.
Tonal languages are found in the Omotic Chadic and South amp East Cushitic branches of Afro Asiatic according to Ehret The Semitic Berber and Egyptian branches are not tonal.
Common features and cognates
Common features of the Afro Asiatic languages include. a two gender system in the singular with the feminine marked by the t sound. VSO typology with SVO tendencies. a set of emphatic consonants variously realized as glottalized pharyngealized or implosive and
 a templatic morphology in which words inflect by internal changes as well as prefixes and suffixes.
Some cognates are. b n build Ehret b n attested in Chadic Semitic bny Cushitic m n m n house and Omotic Dime bin build create. m t die Ehret maaw attested in Chadic eg Hausa mutu Egyptian mwt mt Coptic mu Berber mmet pr yemmut Semitic mwt and Cushitic Proto Somali umaaw am w t die also similar to the Latin mortis indicating a possible vocabluary drift
 s n know attested in Chadic Berber and Egyptian. l s tongue Ehret lis' to lick attested in Semitic lasaan lisaan Egyptian ns Coptic las Berber ils Chadic eg Hausa harshe and possibly Omotic Dime lits' lick. s m name Ehret s m s m attested in Semitic sm Berber ism Chadic eg Hausa suna Cushitic and Omotic though the Berber form ism and the Omotic form sunts are sometimes argued to be Semitic loanwords The Egyptian smi report announce may also be cognate. d m blood Ehret d m d m attested in Berber idammen Semitic dam Chadic and arguably Omotic Cushitic d m d m red may be cognate.
In the verbal system Semitic Berber and Cushitic including Beja all provide evidence for a prefix conjugation.
A causative affix s is widespread found in all its subfamilies but is also found in other groups such as the Niger Congo languages.
The possessive pronoun suffixes are supported by Semitic Berber Cushitic including Beja and Chadic.