Cushitic

Cushitic is a branch of the Afroasiatic language family spoken in the Horn of Africa and adjacent regions. It includes languages such as Somali, Oromo, Afar, and Beja, along with many smaller languages and dialects spoken across Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, northern Kenya, and parts of Sudan. Collectively, Cushitic languages are spoken by millions of people and show considerable internal diversity.

Classification

Most classifications divide Cushitic into subgroups, with East Cushitic being the best attested and including Somali, Oromo, Afar, and Sidama, and North Cushitic (Beja) treated as a separate branch by some linguists. Other schemes recognize Lowland Cushitic varieties or further internal divisions. Because data are uneven, the exact internal structure remains a matter of scholarly debate.

Historical linguistics

Proto-Cushitic is the reconstructed ancestor of these languages. The family probably emerged in the Horn of Africa thousands of years ago, with later dispersal linked to trade routes and regional history.

Linguistic features

Common features include rich affixal morphologies in verbs and nouns, with verb agreement in person and number, and noun phrases often showing gender or number marking in some languages. Phonologies typically include emphatic consonants and a variety of vowel systems, including vowel length contrasts.

Writing systems

Writing practices vary. Somali and Oromo commonly use the Latin alphabet in contemporary contexts, while Afar also uses Latin. Beja has used Arabic script, and some Cushitic languages have been written with Ge’ez-derived scripts in Ethiopia. Orthographies are ongoing and language-specific.