The Afroasiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 living languages (SIL estimate) and more than 350 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Southwest Asia, as well as parts of the Sahel, West Africa and East Africa. Arabic is the most widespread Afroasiatic language with over 280 million native speakers. Afroasiatic also includes several ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, Biblical Heb...
more
The Afroasiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 living languages (SIL estimate) and more than 350 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Southwest Asia, as well as parts of the Sahel, West Africa and East Africa. Arabic is the most widespread Afroasiatic language with over 280 million native speakers. Afroasiatic also includes several ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, Biblical Hebrew, and Akkadian.
The term "Afroasiatic" (often now spelled as Afro-Asiatic) was coined by Maurice Delafosse (1914). It did not come into general use until it was adopted by Joseph Greenberg (1950) to replace the earlier term "Hamito-Semitic", following his demonstration that Hamitic is not a valid language family. The term "Hamito-Semitic" remains in use in the academic traditions of some European countries, although some authors have now replaced it with "Afrasian", or, reflecting an opinion that it is more African than Asian, "Afrasan"....
less
