The Afroasiatic (Afro-Asiatic) languages are a large language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel.
The family of languages is also known as Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, Semito-Hamitic, or Erythraean. With the exception of Semitic, all branches of the Afroаsiatic family are spoken exclusively on the African continent. By far the most widely spoken Afroasiatic language or dialect continuum is Arabic.
The History
In addition to languages spoken today, Afroasiatic includes several important ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, which forms a distinct branch of the family, and within the Semitic family, Akkadian, Ābarayat (Biblical Hebrew), and Old Aramaic. There is no consensus among historical linguists concerning the original homeland of the Afroasiatic family or the period when the parent language (i.e. Proto-Afroasiatic) was spoken. Proposed locations include the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Eastern Sahara, and the Levant.
While there is no definitive agreement on when or where the original homeland of this language family existed, many link the first speakers to the first farmers in the Levant who would later spread to North and East Africa. Others argue the first speakers were pre-agricultural and based in North East Africa.
However, based on a historical view of the scriptures it is possible that the language emerged post-division of the lands to 𐤉𐤐𐤕 (Yaphat), 𐤔𐤌 (Sham), and 𐤇𐤌 (Kham). Once 𐤉𐤐𐤕 (Yaphat) and his descendants left the language probably emerged from interactions by the descendants of 𐤔𐤌 (Sham) and 𐤇𐤌 (Kham) over the years near the Northeast part of Africa, which is called Arabia in the 21st-century.
In the 9th-century, the Hebrew grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh of Tiaret in Algeria became the first to link two branches of Afroasiatic together; he perceived a relationship between Berber and Semitic. He knew of Semitic through his study of Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In the course of the 19th-century, Europeans also began suggesting such relationships. In 1844, Theodor Benfey proposed a language family consisting of Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic (he called the latter “Ethiopic”).
The earliest written evidence of an Afroasiatic language is an Ancient Egyptian inscription dated to c. 3400 BC (c. 525 AM). Symbols on Gerzean (Naqada II) pottery resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs date back to c. 4000 BC, suggesting an earlier possible dating. This gives us a minimum date for the age of Afroasiatic. However, the Ancient Egyptian language is highly divergent from Proto-Afroasiatic, and considerable time must have elapsed between them.
Estimates of the date at which the Proto-Afroasiatic language was spoken vary widely. Archaeologists speculate that it ranges between approximately 7,500 BC (9,522 years before 2022 AD Gregorian), and approximately 16,000 BC (18,022 years ago before 2022 AD Gregorian).
Afroasiatic is one of the four major language families spoken in Africa. It is one of the few whose speech area is transcontinental, with languages from Afroasiatic’s Semitic branch also spoken in the Middle East and Europe.
Linguistic Similarities
Some of the similarities that link the languages include:
- A two-gender system in the singular, with the feminine marked by the sound /t/.
- All Afroasiatic subfamilies show evidence of a causative affix s. (causative indicates that a subject either causes someone or something else to do or be something or causes a change in the state of a non-volitional event.)
- Semitic, Berber, Cushitic (including Beja), and Chadic support possessive suffixes.
There are two types of Hebrews when it comes to who are the Hebrews. The first is the fleshly or worldly Hebrews who are Hebrews because of their bloodline descendancy. The second is those who are called by The Most High, Yah, to crossover and become His set apart and Elect ones. Thus, making them spiritual Hebrews who were chosen to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as it is in Heaven.
The word Hebrew in language is written as עִבְרִי in Masoretic Hebrew, 𐤏𐤁𐤓𐤉 in Paleo-Hebrew, and Ἑβραῖος (Hebraios) in Greek. This stems from the ancestor Eber, whose name was written as 𐤏𐤁𐤓. Thus, making any one born from him an earthly bloodline Hebrew.
Nonetheless, Abraham was called by The Most High to leave the city of Haran, in Mesopotamia, to cross over and travel to a land that Elohim would show him. This made him the first spiritual Hebrew, and all who would follow after him and follow the command of Elohim would be set apart and called to cross over spiritually. Abraham (Abaraham)'s name has similar spelling to Eber's but uses the 𐤀 instead of the 𐤏.
The References
There is speculation that the family name Hebrew was known as Habiru or ʿApiru in other cultures. The name Habiru means "outsiders" or "wanderers". It was used to describe nomadic people, fugitives, bandits, and workers of lower social status.
ʿApiru (Ugaritic: 𐎓𐎔𐎗𐎎, romanized: ʿPRM, Ancient Egyptian: 𓂝𓊪𓂋𓅱𓀀𓏥, romanized: ꜥprw), also known in the Akkadian version Ḫabiru (sometimes written Habiru, Ḫapiru or Hapiru; Akkadian: 𒄩𒁉𒊒, ḫa-bi-ru or *ʿaperu) is a term used in 2nd-millennium BCE texts throughout the Fertile Crescent for a social status of people who were variously described as rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, bowmen, servants, slaves, and laborers.
The term was first discovered in its Akkadian version "ḫa-bi-ru" or "ḫa-pi-ru". Due to later findings in Ugaritic and Egyptian which used the consonants ʿ, p and r, and in light of the well-established sound change from Northwest Semitic ʿ to Akkadian ḫ, the root of this term is proven to be ʿ-p-r. This root means "dust, dirt", and links to the characterization of the ʿApiru as nomads, mercenaries, people who are not part of the cultural society. The morphological pattern of the word is qatilu, which point to a status, condition.
The Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–c. 1200 bce) was mainly one of Egyptian dominance in Canaan, although their power there was contested by the Hittites of Anatolia. The period was also marked by incursions of marauders called Hapiru, or Habiru (Egyptian: ʿApiru). This term was apparently applied by the Egyptians to other peoples or social groups who were of foreign origin. Many scholars feel that among the Hapiru were the original Hebrews, of whom the later Israelites were only one branch or confederation.
The Sumerogram sa.gaz
The Akkadian term Ḫabiru occasionally alternates with the Sumerograms sa.gaz. Akkadian dictionaries for Sumerograms added to sa.gaz the gloss ḫabatu "raider", which raised the suggestion to read the Sumerograms as this word. However, the Amarna letters attested the spelling sa ga.az, and letters from Ugarit attested the spelling sa.gaz, which points that these Sumerograms were read as written and did not function as ideograms. The only Akkadian word that fits such spelling is "šagašu" (barbarian), but an Akkadian gloss to an Akkadian word seems odd, and the meaning of šagašu doesn't fit the essence of the Ḫabiru. Therefore, the meaning of sa.gaz should probably be found in a West Semitic word such as Aramaic šgš, which means "muddy, restless" while the word ḫabatu should be interpreted as "nomad," which fits the meaning of the word Ḫabiru/ʿApiru.