| Proto-Cushitic | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Cushitic languages |
| Region | Northeast Africa |
| Era | ca. 8000-7000 BC[1] |
Reconstructed ancestor | |
Proto-Cushitic is thereconstructedproto-language common ancestor of theCushitic language family. Its words and roots are not directly attested in any written works, but have been reconstructed through thecomparative method, which finds regular similarities between languages not explained by coincidence or word-borrowing, and extrapolates ancient forms from these similarities.
There is no consensus regarding the exact location of the Proto-Cushitichomeland;Christopher Ehret hypothesizes that it may have originated in theRed Sea Hills.[2] The Cushitic languages are a branch of the broaderAfroasiatic macro-family.[3][4]
Christopher Ehret argues for a unified Proto-Cushitic language in the Red Sea Hills as far back as the Early Holocene.[5] Based ononomastic evidence, theMedjay and theBlemmyes ofnorthern Nubia are believed to have spoken Cushitic languages related to the modernBeja language.[6] Less certain are hypotheses which propose that Cushitic languages were spoken by the people of theC-Group culture in northern Nubia,[7] or the people of theKerma culture in southern Nubia.[8]
A preliminary phonological reconstruction of Proto-Cushitic was proposed by Ehret (1987).
| Labial | Dental | Postalveolar / Palatal | Velar | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Fricitated | Lateral | Plain | Labialized | ||||||
| Stops | Voiceless | (*p) | *t | (*ts) | *tɬ ? | *k | *kʷ ? | *ʔ | ||
| Voiced | *b | *d | (*dz) | *dɮ / *tɬʼ ? | *g | *gʷ ? | ||||
| Ejective | (*pʼ) | *tʼ | *tsʼ | *tʃʼ | *kʼ | *kʼʷ ? | ||||
| Fricatives | Voiceless | *f | *s | *ɬ ? | *ʃ | *x | *xʷ ? | *ħ | *h | |
| Voiced | *z | *ɣ ? | *ɣʷ ? | *ʕ | ||||||
| Nasals | *m | *n | (*ŋ) | (*ŋʷ) | ||||||
| Rhotic | *r | |||||||||
| Approximants | *l | *j | *w | |||||||
Ehret notes that in particular the affricates *ts, *dz, and the velar nasals *ŋ, *ŋʷ rely on fairly little evidence, and that *p, *pʼ are difficult to distinguish from other consonants in the comparative material; these are shown on a darker background above.
Most of the remaining consonants have exact equivalents in reconstructed Proto-East Cushitic, with the exception of those marked here with following question mark. A system given by Appleyard[9] as "widely accepted" excludes these questioned segments, but includes*tʃ,*dʒ and a contrast of*ɗ and*tʼ. Bender[10] tentatively supports Ehret's*ts,*dz,*ŋ and labialized velars, but in his survey does not find unambiguous etymologies for these, nor for lateral, velar and pharyngeal fricatives or any ejectives.
The following basic correspondences ofobstruent consonants follow Sasse (1979), with Beja and Agaw correspondences from Ehret (1987) and Dahalo correspondences from Tosco (2000):[11]
| Proto-Cushitic (Ehret) | Beja | Proto-Agaw (Appleyard) | Proto-East Cushitic(Sasse) | Lowland East Cushitic? | H.E.C. | Dullay | Yaaku | Dahalo | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saho–Afar | Somali | Rendille | Arbore | Oromo | Konso | ||||||||
| *b | b | *b | *b | b | b | b | b | b | p | *b | p, b ¹ | p | ɓ-, -b- |
| *d | d | *d | *d | d | d | d | d | d | t | *d | t, d ¹ | t | ɗ-, -d̪- |
| *z | d-, -y- | *dz, *z | *z | d, z ² | d | j | z | d | t | *dz ² | s, z ¹ | s | d̪ |
| *t | t | *t | *t | t | t, -d- | t | t | t | t | *t | t, tʃ | t | t̪ |
| *g | g | *g | *g | g | g | g | g | g | k | *g | k, g ¹ | k | g |
| *k | k | *k | *k | k | k, -g- | k | k | k | k, x ³ | *k | x, h ³ | k, x | k |
| *tʼ | s | *ts | *ɗ | ɖ | ɖ | ɖ | ɗ | ɗ | ɗ | *tʼ | ɗ | ɗ | tʼ |
| *kʼ | k | *q | *kʼ | k, ∅ | q | x | kʼ | kʼ | ʛ | *kʼ | kʼ, q | q | kʼ |
| *f | f | *f | *f | f | f | f | f | f | f | *f | f | p | f |
| *s | s | *s | *s | s | s | s | s | f, s | s | *s | s | s | s |
| *ʃ | ʃ | *ts | *ʃ | s | *ʃ | ʃ | ? | ||||||
| *ħ | h | ∅ | *ħ | ħ | ħ | ħ | h | h, ∅ | h | h | ħ | h | ħ |
| *h | *h | h | h | h | ∅ | h | |||||||
| *ʕ | ʔ | *ʔ | *ʕ | ʕ | ʕ | ʕ | ʔ | ʔ, ∅ | ʔ, ∅ | ʔ | ʕ | ʔ | ʕ |
| *ʔ ⁴ | *ʔ | ʔ | ʔ | ʔ | ʔ, ∅ | ʔ | |||||||
Thesonorants*m,*n,*l,*r,*j,*w normally continue unchanged in all Cushitic languages, with the exception of*j,*w >/dʒ/,/v/ in Dahalo and a merger of*l and*r in the Highland East Cushitic languageHadiyya.[12][a]
Major conditional sound laws involvepalatalization, especially in allSomaloid languages as well as Oromo, and several simplifications ofconsonant clusters.
Ejective andimplosive consonants show multifarious correspondences between the Cushitic languages, particularly in Oromo, theKonsoid languages, theDullay languages and theHighland East Cushitic languages, and it is likely that more segments than*tʼ must be reconstructed, which have however fallen together as/ɗ/ or/ɖ/ in most Lowland East Cushitic languages.
Appleyard[13] does not posit any glottalized consonants for Proto-Agaw, and reconstructsuvular *q, *qʷ for sound correspondences of/kʼ/,/kʼʷ/ inBilin, respectively, with e.g./χ/,/χʷ/ or/q/,/qʷ/ in the rest of the subfamily. Fallon (2009)[14] argues that the Bilin value is preserved from Proto-Cushitic and that *kʼ, *kʼʷ should be reconstructed still for Proto-Agaw.
The glottalizedbilabials/pʼ/,/ɓ/ are not common in Cushitic. In Oromo,/pʼ/ seems to arise from*b plus a laryngeal consonant,*ʕ or*ʔ, e.g. Oromo/ɲaːpʼa/ 'enemy' < PEC *neʕb-, akin to Saho-Afar/-nʕeb-/ 'to hate'; Oromo/supʼeː/ 'clay', Rendille /sub/ 'mud' < PEC *subʔ-.[15] Ehret finds/pʼ/ in Dahalo as grounds to reconstruct*pʼ for Proto-South Cushitic, and finding moreover/ɓ/ in Yaaku, proposes that it occurred as a rare phoneme already in Proto-Cushitic. Most other languages show/b/.[16][b]
Sasse[17] tentatively reconstructs*x as Proto-East Cushitic based on Dullay and Yaaku, but finds correspondences elsewhere to be unclear. Ehret identifies these further with*x,*xʷ occurring in South Cushitic and Agaw, and finds in Beja reflexes as the stops/k/,/kʷ/. For corresponding voiced*ɣ,*ɣʷ in Agaw, which occur only word-medially, he proposes correspondences as Beja/g/,/gʷ/; most East Cushitic*g, but implosive/ɠ/ in Yaaku and Dullay; the voiceless fricatives*x,*xʷ in South Cushitic. A remaining word-initial correspondence of/k-/,/kʷ-/ in Beja and Agaw but again*x,*xʷ in South Cushitic is then assigned to represent Proto-Cushitic*ɣ,*ɣʷ word-initially.[18]
The following are only proposed in detail by Ehret:
Most Cushitic languages agree on a simple vowel system of/a/,/e/,/i/,/o/,/u/ as well asvowel length. This system is reconstructed as already Proto-Cushitic by Ehret.[24] Bender[25] does not find the mid vowels *e, *ee, *o, *oo to be supported by clear etymologies outside of East Cushitic.
Further instances of long vowels arise in many languages through thevocalization of the laryngeal consonants *ħ, *ʕ, *h, *ʔ and monophthongization of the combinations *ay, *ey, *aw.
A rather different vowel system appears in theAgaw languages,[26] which is identical to the neighboringEthiopian Semitic languages.[27] Ehret proposes the following development:
| Proto-Cushitic | Proto-Agaw | Proto-Cushitic | Proto-Agaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *a | *ä [ɐ] | *aa | *a | |
| *e | *a | *ee | *ə [ɨ] | |
| *o | *oo | |||
| *i | *ə [ɨ] | *ii | *i | |
| *u | *uu | *u |
At least the distinction between *i and *u often remains in theappearance ofpalatalization orlabialization on adjacent consonants.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(July 2024) |
A personal pronoun system with sixgrammatical persons can be reconstructed, with distinctmasculine and feminine forms for at least the third person singular, as well as two distinct forms: an "independent" form, normally used in the nominative case, as well as a "dependent" form, often used as anoblique stem e.g. for the accusative case. This distinction appears to be inherited already fromProto-Afro-Asiatic.[28]
Anexclusive "we" pronoun has developed in a number of East Cushitic languages, but cannot be reconstructed even for their common ancestor.[28]
SeeProto-Cushitic reconstructions (Appendix in Wiktionary).