Kushitic

Kushitic refers to the language family spoken in parts of the Horn of Africa and northeast Africa. These languages are part of the larger Afro-Asiatic language family. The primary branches of the Kushitic languages are East, Central, and South. The most widely spoken Kushitic language is Oromo, with tens of millions of speakers primarily in Ethiopia and Kenya. Somali is another major language within this family, spoken by the Somali people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya. Other notable Kushitic languages include Afar, spoken in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, and Sidamo, spoken in southern Ethiopia.

Historically, the term Kushitic has also been used to refer to the ancient Kingdom of Kush, a powerful civilization that flourished in Nubia, along the Nile River in what is now Sudan and Egypt. While the ancient Egyptians and Nubians spoke different languages, there are linguistic connections and historical interactions between the cultures. The term "Kushitic" in a linguistic context specifically denotes the branches of Afro-Asiatic languages that originated in the region historically associated with the Kushitic peoples. Scholars continue to study the relationships and historical development of these languages and their speakers.