Ancient Semitic II: The Semitic Languages within the Afro-Asiatic Phylum

In the second video of my new series I would like to give my viewers a short overview of the Afro-Asiatic language family to which Semitic languages belong.
Contents:
00:01:09 Research History
00:17:20 Earliest Accounts and Numbers
00:24:28 Overview of Afro-Asiatic Languages
00:45:27 Common Features
01:05:22 Internal Classification
01:12:15 Proto-Afro-Asiatic and its Urheimat
Please be aware that I do not want to waste my time on trolls, ideologists, racists etc. and I will delete and ban any comment that I deem annoying.
Feel free to follow me on Instagram: / ancient_semitic
#linguistics #semiticlanguages #semiticlinguistics #semitic #arabic #hebrew #aramaic #akkadian #babylonian #ugaritic #geez #protosemitic #egyptian #egyptianlanguage #egyptianlinguistics #coptic #afroasiatic #afroasiaticlanguages #afroasiaticlinguistics #hamitosemitic

[@oldreddragon1579]

Imagine how many languages that no longer exist that show linking transformations.

[@zimriel]

Algerian here. There's no real debate in Algeria about Tamazight / Berber being separate languages in a language-family. The "Qabyle" / "Taqbaylit" language diverged from the others a long time ago, Bronze Age is what we were taught. Nobody in the Kabylia will be able to speak to a Tuareg (say) unless they agree to speak in French. Morocco might be different on account the Riffian languages there are much more closely-related to each other (and to Tuareg). I've heard about another one called Zenaga but I know very little about it.

[@hmmitj]

Excellent Job , Thank you

[@muhammadkaram6819]

it's good to have you back

[@penelopehope7100]

Hello, shukran😊, for this prompt video Doc.

[@abdullahali7237]

We really like your videos Especially the short ones 7-20 minutes as maximum Im against making tall videos to people who want details But we also want those shorts like old days Love your videos 🌷❤️

[@comandanteej]

I like these long ones too. These are basically lectures, they go deep into the topic and give an exhaustive introduction to the topics they are about. I did not watch them all at once but in multiple pieces. Maybe they are just a bit slow at places, could be somewhat faster and shorter, like 1h, to convey the same content.

[@13thdivision70]

I don't like your pfp

[@mareksagrak9527]

Very insightful video, finally a good introduction to this vast language family. The case of Afro-Asiatic numbers makes me wonder. It is possible that some Afro-Asiatic branches have assimilated numbers from other, now extinct languages that existed before them and hence such a strange variety? After all it's possible even for an entire language family to replace its native number system with a foreign one (like for example it was the case with majority of Kra-Dai languages). Maybe, for example, Beja numbers came from an otherwise unattested substratum language spoken by a population that has been linguistically assimilated by proto-Beja/Medya? Just a guess.

[@AncientSemitic]

Yes, that's a possibility. Prehistoric language contact with a significant time depth might explain some of the huge differences between the different AA branches.

[@stevenv6463]

13:30 this idea of classifying Negroids and Caucasoids on the basis of who is leading society was part of the idea of distinguishing between the Tutsi and the other ethnic group in Rwanda, right?

[@AncientSemitic]

Right. The Tutsi were seen as superior to the Hutu by European scholars which led to the assumption that they were originally "'Hamites" migrating to the region and adopting a Bantu language.

[@elmiawad1777]

It wasn’t based purely on who was leading; they also noticed significant differences in height, hair texture and skull features between groups in East Africa and some other regions. While most of us it was pseudoscience, there are some elements of truth it. When you look at modern DNA test results, one has to admit the 19th century scientists were partially right about the Hamitic theory. Many East African groups, especially Cushitic and Semetic speakers, have almost 50 percent Eurasian DNA. In fact, some of the earliest proto Cushitic would have been 60-70 percent Eurasian. Generally speaking, looser hair textures, taller and narrow features, does indicate ancient ancestry from the Egypt, Sudan area. These ancient men spread pastoralist lifestyles and afroasiatic languages across East Africa. And yes, the Tutsi do have a genetic relation to East African populations. This is confirmed by oral history and now genetic testing.

[@user-mt7rx6nl9z]

It was educational, great 👍 video, I can't wait for the next one , and thank you.

[@shlomomarkman6374]

1:00:00 Didn't know that. Can explain some strange roots in Hebrew, the S (or in this case the shin) got swallowed in or replaces a weak first consonant, usually those roots denote a verb that causes someone to do something. There are new 4 letter roots that are based on adding the S to existing root with the same purpose

[@AncientSemitic]

Exactly. There are relics of that original causative-S in those Semitic languages that weakened it to H or Aleph.

[@kobikaicalev175]

I thought this is some kind of Akkadian loan patterns in Hebrew

[@liquidoxygen819]

Would you be willing to talk about "Balkan Semitic" and its purported donation of pastoralist terms to Proto-Indo-European?

[@jasminekaram880]

Is not PIE typically put at 4000 BC? Or at least thought to have begun splitting up slowly at that time from the step. Great video.

[@AncientSemitic]

I think that's one of the different estimates.

[@ibrohimh9976]

​@@AncientSemiticfrom which archaeological culture did the Proto-Semites originate?

[@davidcooper177]

A great presentation and lecture. 🎉🎉

[@zimriel]

Next nitpicks: - loanwords in EthioSemitic. There is borrowing from Cushitic in Geez, Amharic and others. Those might count as early witnesses from Oromo, Somali &c. - Coptic itself existed in several dialects. Bohairic is the liturgical language today. Sahidic - upstream to the south - was the main language of Christianity in Late Antiquity. Also used were Mesokemic (one you mentioned) and Akhmimic although these might just be local dialects of Sahidic or even just spelling-conventions like in English "honor" and "honour".

[@drenouno]

Hi there, I had a question. Why did Ancient Egypt go over many periods of language revision? Was it due to their environment (other languages influencing their own language)? Or was it due to convenience?

[@AncientSemitic]

Every language in the world changes continuously. This happens to all languages. To those that are influenced by other languages and to those that don't. Also the spoken language in Egypt changed continuously. At several points in time, Egyptian scribes apparently decided to change the way they wrote in order to adapt the written language to the spoken language. This is how Middle Egyptian was created during the 7th Dynasty or so, and then Late Egyptian during the 18th Dynasty, and Demotic during the 26th Dynasty. In later times there was foreign language contact, for example Demotic has lots of loanwords from Semitic. In earlier times I think it was less foreign influence. Just natural change.

[@faresmohandyahiaoui6899]

I think the map is discribing some where around the 18th century cuz the berber areas are larger than present day area

[@danielvso]

Thank you for the lecture. Allow me to say that, for a video like that, high definition would be very desirable.

[@user-hh2is9kg9j]

I wish scholars just search for the truth and not adjust reality to fit what they deem non-racist.

[@AncientSemitic]

The most important thing is that linguistics focusses on languages, and that linguistic assessment of language relationships is not blurred with considerations on "race" or distorted by unscientific ideas of white surpremacy or black surpremacy or goropism.

[@qosolka3320]

@@AncientSemitic What’s goropism?

[@AncientSemitic]

@@qosolka3320 Goropism is when people claim (without convincing evidence) that their own mother tongue is the oldest language, the mother of all languages etc. Goropism is named after the 16th century Dutch scholar Johannes Goropius (Jan van Gorp) who claimed that his local Dutch dialect was the original language of mankind.

[@YoungSiamun]

Well, sorry to offend you but racism is irrational and unscientific so scholars are more than justified in trying to be "non-racist", especially when it comes to linguistic studies, a field in which modern racial classifications should not even be a factor in the pursuit of objective truth.

[@amk2321]

Questions: 1. Do you know what the parent language of Amharic was and how much does old Amharic differ from modern Amharic ? 2. Do you have access to old Amharic texts / manuscripts which I can get my hands on ? 3. A bit of a tough one, but what is the genetic origin of Ethio-Semitic speakers ? Are they descendants of Sem or Ham and if they are descended from Ham, then how did they adopt Semitic languages ? 4. Apart from Argobba, what language does Amharic sound like when spoken ? Thanks in advance!

[@tsehaye777]

Amharic's parent language is 100% Tigrigna complete vocabulary with agew properties, Eritreans and Ethiopians are From the line of Cush the word semitic only serves as a confusion to imply several false narratives

[@anthropos_94]

@@tsehaye777so not Ge’ez?

[@tsehaye777]

​​@@anthropos_94 no not Geez, remember regarding your question semetic the person who decided to group the languages a s semetic used the logic that since these languages are written in a script also labeled semetic that's semetic then they should be labeled semetic now Ethiopian and Eritreans carry this term ,swahili was first written in arabic what if we go ahead and use the same logic for the language and its speakers, Eritreans and Ethiopians are Cushites from Ham their languages are Cushitic of African origin

[@gazthejaz8910]

Ancient Egyptian was Coptic which is a Afro asiatic language

[@AncientSemitic]

So you've learned something from the video. Very good. :)

[@gazthejaz8910]

@@AncientSemitic yes but it’s just sad that the Coptic language is going extinct with the Arabization that has already happened. Not trying to sound biased but thanks!

[@stevenv6463]

@@gazthejaz8910 It is sad to see Coptic die but there are a ton of Coptic influences on Egyptian Arabic.

[@caseyrogers573]

Coptic was a descendant of ancient Egyptian

[@mesened]

ሰላም ማይን በስተር ;)

[@AncientSemitic]

ሰላም ኣውኅ ኣን ዲኅ 😄

[@mesened]

@@AncientSemitic 😄😄✌🏾

[@us3rG]

Geez is developed with African languages in mind, it can grow but it can house most sounds Africans make as it is, it can go well with most structurs, This is a long abjad in abugida Arabic is like the cursive language of this, Geez was written on rocks. Arabs had paper connects, Axumites had to curve words on rocks and arabs just used a feather

[@anthropos_94]

What about Thamudic and ancient South Arabian scripts?

[@khalidjabuuti2557]

Whay you dont you us somali language bigest cushitic prench

[@AncientSemitic]

Somali is mentioned at 38:25

[@vitriolnigredo6981]

Go back with Egyptian channel

[@AncientSemitic]

I'm working on 3 videos on Egyptian that will be released on this channel. But if you're interested in Egyptian, I also started this page 2 months ago: instagram.com/egyptiancopticlanguage

[@YoungSiamun]

@@AncientSemitic Amazing, your work on the language is greatly appreciated.

[@moorishsociety7339]

Akkadians were Arabs

[@AncientSemitic]

Strange Arabs who didn't speak Arabic and used the term "Arabs" for other people.