Lowland Eastern Cushite languages

The Lowland East Cushitic languages ( English Lowland East Cushitic ) are a group of related languages ​​spoken in large parts of Ethiopia , Eritrea and Kenya , in Djibouti and in Somalia . They belong to the Cushitic languages , which in turn are a branch of the Afro-Asian language family . The most important individual languages ​​in this branch are Oromo , Somali and Afar .

Whether they can be classified as East Cushitic languages within Cushitic together with the Highland East Cushitic languages , the Dullay languages and Yaaku is a matter of dispute .

The origins of the Lowland East Cushitic languages ​​are likely to be in southern Ethiopia, where their diversity is greatest. From there, the forerunners of the Afar and Saho are said to have emigrated to their present area in the Afar lowlands first , so that their languages ​​had enough time to develop apart; however, they are still closely related. The Sam speakers later moved to the plains of northern Kenya, from where the Somali colonized the entire Horn of Africa . The variants of Somali have developed so far apart that they are sometimes viewed as dialects and sometimes as different languages. The Oromo were the last to spread in the 16./17. Century in large parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, their language varieties are generally understood as dialects.

classification

• Afro-Asian
  • Cushy
    • ( East Kushite )
      • Lowland East Kushite
        • Afar-Saho
          • Afar
          • Saho
        • Omo-Tana languages (Somaloid)
          • (North Omo-Tana / Bayso ; also classified under West Omo-Tana)
          • West Omo Tana
            • Arbore (see Arbore (people) )
            • Dassanetch (cf. Dassanetch (people) )
            • El Molo (see El Molo (ethnicity) )
          • East Omo Tana / Sam languages
            • West-Sam / Rendille (see Rendille )
            • East Sam
              • Bonuses
              • Somali (including Maay , Maxaa)
        • (Oromoid; omitted in some classifications, so that Oromo and Konso-Gidole form two separate branches of East Kushitic)
          • Konso gidols
            • Konso
            • Dirasha (Gidole)
          • Oromo

swell

• : Cushitic , in: Siegbert Uhlig (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica , Volume 1, 2003, ISBN 978-3-447-04746-3

1. ↑ cf. Herbert S. Lewis: The Origins of the Galla and Somali , in: The Journal of African History , Vol. 7, No. 1 (1966)
2. ↑ cf. Baiso at Ethnologue
3. ↑ cf. East Kushite at Ethnologue