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The Proto-Afroasiatic Homeland

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There is no consensus where the original homeland (Urheimat) of the first Afroasiatic speakers was located.[1] Scholars have proposed locations both in the Middle East and in Africa.[2] An complicating factor is the lack of agreement on the subgroupings of Afroasiatic (see Subgrouping) - this makes associating archaeological evidence with the spread of Afroasiatic particularly difficult.[3]

An origin within Africa has broad scholarly support,[4] and is favored by most linguists on the basis of the linguistic data.[5] Althought there is no concensus on the exact location, a significant number of scholars place the homeland of Afroasiatic near the center of its current distribution,[6] "in the southeastern Sahara or adjacent Horn of Africa."[7] The Afroasiatic languages spoken in Africa are not more closely related to each other than they are to Semitic, as one would expect if only Semitic had remained in an Western Asian homeland while all other branches had spread from there.[8] Likewise, all Semitic languages are fairly similar to each other, whereas the African branches of Afroasiatic are very diverse; this suggests the rapid spread of Semitic out of Africa.[4] Proponents of an origin of Afroasiatic within Africa assume the proto-language to have been spoken by pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers,[9] arguing that there is no evidence of words in Proto-Afroasiatic related to agriculture or animal husbandry.[7] Christopher Ehret, O. Y. Keita, and Paul Newman also argue that archaeology does not indicate a spread of migrating farmers into Africa, but rather a gradual incorporation of animal husbandry into indigenous foraging cultures.[10]

A significant minority of scholars supports an Asian origin of Afroasiatic,[11] most of whom are specialists in Semitic or Egyptian studies.[12] The main proponent of an Asian origin is the linguist Alexander Militarev,[13] who argues that Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken by early agriculturalists in the Levant and subsequently spread to Africa.[1] Militarev associates the speakers of Proto-Afroasiatic with the Levantine Post-Natufian Culture, arguing that the reconstructed lexicon of flora and fauna, as well as farming vocabulary indicates that Proto-AA must have been spoken in this area.[14] Scholar Jared Diamond and archaeologist Peter Bellwood have taken up Militarev's arguments as part of their general argument that the spread of linguistic macrofamilies (such as Indo-European, Bantu, and Austro-Asiatic) can be associated with the development of agriculture; they argue that there is clear archaeological support for farming spreading from the Levant into Africa via the Nile valley.[15]

In 2009, Militariev however changed his view on the Afroasiatic homeland. By incorporating new evidence, he argues for a link between Western Asian pastoralist societies and the Proto-Afroasiatic language. The Proto-Afroasiatic language would have spread with pre-Neolithic movements into Africa, subsequently coming into contact with local groups, and later diverging within Africa into the various Afroasiatic branches.[16] A similar view was raised by Hogdson et al. 2014 and Mc Call in 1998, arguing for a pre-Neolithic wave into Africa (c. 12-23 kya).[17][18] A pre-agricultural movement into Africa during the Paleolithic has been confirmed by archaeogenetic studies.[19]

An intermediate view was presented by Pagani and Crevecoeur (2019), which arued for a "across-the-Sinai" solution. They argue that "given the dually "deeply-rooted" presence of Afro-Asiatic languages both in Africa and in the Levant, the linguistic debate on the origin of this family is still open (Kitchen et al. 2009; Ehret et al. 2004) and probably settling on an intermediate "across-the-Sinai" solution. This shows that even relatively well studied cultural packages such as languages point to early interactions between Africa and the neighbouring Eurasian cultures or, in other words, to a geographical shrinking of what can currently be defined as "strictly African" in a long term perspective."[20]

New version: An intermediate view was presented by Pagani and Crevecoeur (2019), which argued for a "across-the-Sinai" solution. They argument that "given the dually "deeply-rooted" presence of Afro-Asiatic languages both in Africa and in the Levant, the linguistic debate on the origin of this family is still open (Kitchen et al. 2009; Ehret et al. 2004) and probably settling on an intermediate "across-the-Sinai" solution. This shows that even relatively well studied cultural packages such as languages point to early interactions between Africa and the neighbouring Eurasian cultures or, in other words, to a geographical shrinking of what can currently be defined as "strictly African" in a long term perspective."[21] Similar views have been proposed by Hogdson et al. 2014 and Mc Call in 1998, arguing for a pre-Neolithic wave into Africa (c. 12-23 kya), which was substantial among "Proto-Afroasiatic-speakers".[22][23] A pre-agricultural movement into Africa during the Paleolithic giving rise to various cultures, such as the Iberomaurusian, has been confirmed by archaeogenetic studies.[24]

  1. ^ a b Meyer & Wolff 2019, p. 252.
  2. ^ Frajzyngier & Shay 2012, p. 13.
  3. ^ Blench 2006, pp. 148–150.
  4. ^ a b Gragg 2019, p. 43.
  5. ^ Frajzyngier 2012, p. 13.
  6. ^ Huehnergard 2004, p. 138.
  7. ^ a b Ehret, Keita & Newman 2004, p. 1680.
  8. ^ Starostin 2017, p. 226.
  9. ^ Güldemann 2018, p. 311.
  10. ^ Ehret, Keita & Newman 2004, pp. 1680–1681.
  11. ^ Blench 2006, p. 144.
  12. ^ Blench 2006, p. 150.
  13. ^ Almansa-Villatoro & Štubňová Nigrelli 2023, p. 5.
  14. ^ Militarev 2002.
  15. ^ Diamond & Bellwood 2003, p. 601.
  16. ^ Militarev 2009.
  17. ^ Hodgson, Jason A.; Mulligan, Connie J.; Al-Meeri, Ali; Raaum, Ryan L. (2014-06-12). "Early Back-to-Africa Migration into the Horn of Africa". PLOS Genetics. 10 (6): e1004393. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004393. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 4055572. PMID 24921250.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  18. ^ Mc Call, Daniel F. (1998-02). "The Afroasiatic Language Phylum: African in Origin, or Asian?". Current Anthropology. 39 (1): 139–144. doi:10.1086/204702. ISSN 0011-3204. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); no-break space character in |first= at position 7 (help)
  19. ^ Fregel, Rosa (2021-11-17), "Paleogenomics of the Neolithic Transition in North Africa", Africa, the Cradle of Human Diversity, Brill, pp. 213–235, ISBN 978-90-04-50022-8, retrieved 2023-06-01
  20. ^ What is Africa? A Human Perspective. (part of: Modern Human Origins and Dispersal, edited by Yonatan Sahle, Hugo Reyes-Centeno, Christian Bentz) April 2019 In book: Modern Human Origins and Dispersal (pp.15-24)Publisher: Kerns Verlag Tübingen https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332735884_What_is_Africa_A_Human_Perspective_part_of_Modern_Human_Origins_and_Dispersal_edited_by_Yonatan_Sahle_Hugo_Reyes-Centeno_Christian_Bentz
  21. ^ What is Africa? A Human Perspective. (part of: Modern Human Origins and Dispersal, edited by Yonatan Sahle, Hugo Reyes-Centeno, Christian Bentz) April 2019 In book: Modern Human Origins and Dispersal (pp.15-24)Publisher: Kerns Verlag Tübingen https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332735884_What_is_Africa_A_Human_Perspective_part_of_Modern_Human_Origins_and_Dispersal_edited_by_Yonatan_Sahle_Hugo_Reyes-Centeno_Christian_Bentz Quote: Given the dually "deeply-rooted" presence of Afro-Asiatic languages both in Africa and in the Levant, the linguistic debate on the origin of this family is still open (Kitchen et al. 2009;Ehret et al. 2004) and probably settling on an intermediate "across-the-Sinai" solution. This shows that even relatively well studied cultural packages such as languages point to early interactions between Africa and the neighbouring Eurasian cultures or, in other words, to a geographical shrinking of what can currently be defined as "strictly African" in a long term perspective. ...
  22. ^ Hodgson, Jason A.; Mulligan, Connie J.; Al-Meeri, Ali; Raaum, Ryan L. (2014-06-12). "Early Back-to-Africa Migration into the Horn of Africa". PLOS Genetics. 10 (6): e1004393. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004393. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 4055572. PMID 24921250. We hypothesize that a population with substantial Ethio-Somali ancestry could be the proto-Afro-Asiatic speakers. A later migration of a subset of this population back to the Levant before 6 ka would account for a Levantine origin of the Semitic languages [18] and the relatively even distribution of around 7% Ethio-Somali ancestry in all sampled Levantine populations (Table S6). Later migration from Arabia into the HOA beginning around 3 ka would explain the origin of the Ethiosemitic languages at this time [18], the presence of greater Arabian and Eurasian ancestry in the Semitic speaking populations of the HOA (Table 2, S6), and ROLLOFF/ALDER estimates of admixture in HOA populations between 1–5 ka (Table 1). The Ethio-Somali ancestry is found in all admixed HOA ethnic groups, shows little inter-individual variance within these ethnic groups, is estimated to have diverged from all other non-African ancestries by at least 23 ka, and does not carry the unique Arabian lactase persistence allele that arose about 4 ka. Taking into account published mitochondrial, Y chromosome, paleoclimate, and archaeological data, we find that the time of the Ethio-Somali back-to-Africa migration is most likely pre-agricultural. {{cite journal}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 721 (help)CS1 maint: PMC format (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  23. ^ Mc Call, Daniel F. (1998-02). "The Afroasiatic Language Phylum: African in Origin, or Asian?". Current Anthropology. 39 (1): 139–144. doi:10.1086/204702. ISSN 0011-3204. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); no-break space character in |first= at position 7 (help)
  24. ^ Fregel, Rosa (2021-11-17), "Paleogenomics of the Neolithic Transition in North Africa", Africa, the Cradle of Human Diversity, Brill, pp. 213–235, ISBN 978-90-04-50022-8, retrieved 2023-06-01Quote: First, present-day ancestry in North Africans is characterized by an autochthonous Maghrebi component related to a Paleolithic back migration to Africa from Eurasia. ... This result suggests that Iberomaurusian populations in North Africa were related to Paleolithic people in the Levant, but also that migrations of sub-Saharan African origin reached the Maghreb during the Pleistocene.
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