South Semitic languages


South Semitic is a putative branch of the Semitic languages. Semitic itself is a branch of the larger Afro-Asiatic language family found in Africa and Western Asia.

History

The "homeland" of the South Semitic languages is widely debated, with sources such as A. Murtonen and Lionel Bender, suggesting an origin in Ethiopia and others suggesting the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. A recent study based on a Bayesian model to estimate language change concluded that the latter viewpoint is more probable.

Classification

South Semitic is divided into two uncontroversial branches:
The Ethiopian Semitic languages collectively have by far the greatest numbers of modern native speakers of any Semitic language other than Arabic. Eritrea's main languages are mainly Tigrinya and Tigre, which are North Ethiopic languages, and Amharic is the main language spoken in Ethiopia. Ge'ez continues to be used in Eritrea and Ethiopia as a liturgical language for the Orthodox Tewahedo churches.
Southern Arabian languages have been increasingly eclipsed by the more dominant Arabic for more than a millennium. Ethnologue lists six modern members of the South Arabian branch and 15 members of the Ethiopian branch.