Table Of ContentTHE AFROASIATIC LANGUAGES
Afroasiatic languages are spoken by some 300 million people in Northern,
Central,andEasternAfricaandtheMiddleEast.Thisbookisthefirsttypo-
logicalstudyoftheselanguages,whicharecomprisedofaround375living
andextinctvarieties.Theyareanimportantobjectofstudybecauseoftheir
typological diversity in the areas of phonology (some have tone, others do
not),morphology(somehaveextensiveinflectionalsystems,othersdonot),
positionoftheverbintheclause(someareverb-initial,someareverb-medial,
andsomeareverb-final),andinthesemanticfunctionstheyencode.Thisbook
documents this typological diversity and the typological similarities across
thelanguagesandincludesinformationonendangeredandlittle-knownlan-
guages.Requiringnopreviousknowledgeofthespecificlanguagefamilies,it
willbewelcomedbylinguistsinterestedinlinguistictheory,typology,histor-
icallinguistics,andendangeredlanguages,aswellasscholarsofAfricaand
theMiddleEast.
zygmunt frajzyngierisProfessorandformerChairofLinguisticsatthe
UniversityofColorado,Boulder.
erin shayisAdjunctAssistantProfessorofLinguisticsattheUniversityof
Colorado,Boulder.
CAMBRIDGE LANGUAGE SURVEYS
Generaleditors
P.Austin(UniversityofMelbourne)
J.Bresnan(StanfordUniversity)
B.Comrie(MaxPlanckInstituteforEvolutionaryAnthropology,Leipzig)
S.Crain(UniversityofMaryland)
W.Dressler(UniversityofVienna)
C.J.Ewen(UniversityofLeiden)
R.Lass(UniversityofCapeTown)
D.Lightfoot(UniversityofMaryland)
K.Rice(UniversityofToronto)
I.Roberts(UniversityofCambridge)
S.Romaine(UniversityofOxford)
N.V.Smith(UniversityCollege,London)
Thisseriesoffersgeneralaccountsofthemajorlanguagefamiliesofthe
world,withvolumesorganizedeitheronapurelygeneticbasisorona
geographicalbasis,whicheveryieldsthemostconvenientandintelligible
groupingineachcase.Eachvolumecomparesandcontraststhetypological
featuresofthelanguagesitdealswith.Italsotreatstherelevantgenetic
relationships,historicaldevelopment,andsociolinguisticissuesarisingfrom
theirroleanduseintheworldtoday.Thebooksareintendedforlinguists
fromundergraduatelevelupwards,butnospecialknowledgeofthelanguages
underconsiderationisassumed.VolumessuchasthoseonAustraliaandthe
AmazonBasinarealsoofwiderrelevance,asthefutureofthelanguagesand
theirspeakersraisesimportantsocialandpoliticalissues.
Volumesalreadypublishedinclude
ChineseJerryNorman
TheLanguagesofJapanMasayoshiShibatani
PidginsandCreoles(VolumeI:TheoryandStructure;VolumeII:
ReferenceSurvey)JohnA.Holm
TheIndo-AryanLanguagesColinMasica
TheCelticLanguageseditedbyDonaldMacAulay
TheRomanceLanguagesRebeccaPosner
TheAmazonianLanguageseditedbyR.M.W.Dixonand
AlexandraY.Aikhenvald
TheLanguagesofNativeNorthAmericaMarianneMithun
TheKoreanLanguageHo-HimSohn
AustralianLanguagesR.M.W.Dixon
TheDravidianLanguagesBhadrirajuKrishnamurti
TheLanguagesoftheAndesWillemAdelaarwithPieterMuysken
TheSlavicLanguagesRolandSussexandPaulCubberley
TheGermanicLanguagesWayneHarbert
SignLanguageseditedbyDianeBrentari
TheAfroasiaticLanguageseditedbyZygmuntFrajzyngierandErinShay
THE AFROASIATIC
LANGUAGES
Editedby
ZYGMUNT FRAJZYNGIER
ERIN SHAY
cambridgeuniversitypress
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,
Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity
CambridgeUniversityPress
TheEdinburghBuilding,CambridgeCB28RU,UK
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521865333
(cid:2)C CambridgeUniversityPress2012
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2012
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
TheAfroasiaticlanguages/editedbyZygmuntFrajzyngier,ErinShay.
p. cm.–(Cambridgelanguagesurveys)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-521-86533-3
1.Afroasiaticlanguages. I.Frajzyngier,Zygmunt. II.Shay,Erin.
PJ992.A37 2012
492–dc23 2012002683
ISBN978-0-521-86533-3Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyInternetwebsitesreferredto
inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
CONTENTS
Listoffigures pagevii
Listofmaps viii
Listoftables ix
Notesoncontributors xii
Acknowledgements xiv
Listofabbreviations xv
1 Introduction 1
ZygmuntFrajzyngierandErinShay
2 Berber 18
MaartenKossmann
3 AncientEgyptianandCoptic 102
AntonioLoprienoandMatthiasMu¨ller
4 Semitic 145
GeneGraggandRobertHoberman
5 Chadic 236
ZygmuntFrajzyngierandErinShay
6 Cushitic 342
MaartenMous
7 Omotic 423
AzebAmha
v
vi Contents
8 TypologicaloutlineoftheAfroasiaticphylum 505
ZygmuntFrajzyngier
Notes 625
Bibliography 628
Index 676
FIGURES
1.1 Afroasiaticclassification,basedonEhret(1995). page14
3.1 Familyrelations. 143
5.1 Asingletense/aspectsystemwithacontrastingunmarkedform. 313
5.2 TensesysteminMupun. 315
6.1 Cushiticclassificationintheclassicalview(Tosco2000a:89). 346
7.1 ClassificationofOmoticlanguages,basedonFleming(1976). 431
vii
MAPS
1.1 Afroasiaticphylum. page7
2.1 Berberfamily. 19
4.1 ModernSemiticlanguages. 146
5.1a Chadicfamily. 238
5.1b Chadicfamily(insets). 239
6.1 Cushitic,Omotic,andEthio-Semiticlanguages. 344
viii
Description:in Akkadian, morphology and syntax of the Coptic language, and Egyptian–Coptic .. predicate in the clause, the structure of the noun phrase, and the structure of the verb is one of the official languages of Israel, Amharic is one of the official Geez was probably no longer a spoken language by
