Afroasiatic

Or Af·ro-A·si·at·ic

[af-roh-ey-zhee-at-ik, -ey-shee-, -ey-zee-]

noun

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

adjective

1. of, belonging to, or pertaining to Afroasiatic.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Afroasiatic¹

First recorded in 1955–60; Afro- + Asiatic

Example Sentences

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

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Football, basketball and all team sports have their roots in Central America’s ancient, seemingly Afroasiatic Olmec civilization.

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These were the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa who spoke Afroasiatic languages, a world away from Arabic, and who practiced various animist cults.

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Finally, speakers of ancestral Afroasiatic languages may have been involved in domesticating the crops native to Ethiopia, and they certainly introduced Fertile Crescent crops to North Africa.

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

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