Afroasiatic

American  

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

Or Afro-Asiatic

noun

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

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adjective

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

Etymology

Origin of Afroasiatic

First recorded in 1955–60; Afro- + Asiatic

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Afroasiatic

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

From Scientific American ● Aug. 24, 2023

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

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

The fragmented distribution of Nilo-Saharan languages in Figure 19.2 similarly implies that many speakers of those languages have been engulfed by speakers of Afroasiatic or Niger-Congo languages.

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

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.

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