| Notes l |
This phylosector covers 43 sets of languages (276 outer languages, comprising 683 inner languages) spoken by communities across the northern half of the African continent and in western Asia, constituting the "Afro-Asiatic" or "Hamito-Semitic" intercontinental affinity. The component phylozones are numbered in approximate clockwise order, beginning in Northwest Africa. Zones 10= and 11= cover 2 sets (and nets) of languages spoken or formerly spoken in northern Africa, otherwise known as "Berber" and "Egyptian". Zone 12= covers one set of languages spoken over an extensive area from northwest Africa to southwest and central Asia and northeast Africa: 10=TAMAZIC 11=COPTIC 12=SEMITIC Zones 13= to 16= cover 16 sets of languages spoken in northeast Africa, formerly classified together as "Cushitic". There is now evidence to suggest that the languages of Zone 13= (formerly "North Cushitic") and =16 (formerly "West Cushitic"), and probably also Zone 15= (formerly "South Cushitic" or "Paracushitic"), are more safely treated as separate components of the Afro-Asiatic affinity, and the term "Cushitic" is here restricted to the Central and Eastern languages (in Zone 14=) of a "wider Cushitic" hypothesis: 13=BEJIC phylozone 14=CUSHITIC phylozone 15=EYASIC phylozone 16=OMOTIC phylozone Zones 17= to 19= cover 24 sets of languages spoken in parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, constituting three groupings within a wider "Chadic" affinity, which itself forms the most complex component of the Afro-Asiatic intercontinental affinity: 17=CHARIC phylozone 18=MANDARIC phylozone 19=BAUCHIC phylozone Languages in zones 11= and 12=, and also 10=, were of particular importance in the early development of writing. |