Afroasiatic

American

[af-roh-ey-zhee-at-ik, -ey-shee-, -ey-zee-] / ˌæf roʊˌeɪ ʒiˈæt ɪk, -ˌeɪ ʃi-, -ˌeɪ zi- /

Or Afro-Asiatic

noun

Formerly Hamito-Semitic. a family of languages including as subfamilies Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, and Chadic.

adjective

of, belonging to, or pertaining to Afroasiatic.

Etymology

Origin of Afroasiatic

First recorded in 1955–60; Afro- + Asiatic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But the exact point at which Hebrew and Arabic diverged from other Afroasiatic languages is heavily disputed.

From Scientific American • Aug. 24, 2023

Even with this broad time frame, contemporary linguists widely accept Afroasiatic as the oldest language family.

From Scientific American • Aug. 24, 2023

In 1987, Martin Bernal published the first volume of his controversial three-volume work Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

Thus, the evidence derived from plant names in modern African languages permits us to glimpse the existence of three languages being spoken in Africa thousands of years ago: ancestral Nilo-Saharan, ancestral Niger-Congo, and ancestral Afroasiatic.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

In East Africa they still had to compete against numerous Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic Iron Age farmers.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023