I wrote
> >Just a quickie for Dennis
Glen replied
> What about me? I feel so left out. ;(
<OK! Snip>
Glen again
> Alright... but then we still have this obscene error on
> the map, John, where you illustrate that Egyptian derived from
Semitic
> during the period 5800-4500 BCE! Have you fixed this problem?
Egyptian was a cognate with Semitic, the two languages split about
5,800 BCE, during the arid phase at the end of the Yarmukian Pre
Pottery Neolithic B phase. The Egyptian cultures, at Fayyum and
Merimde show the timing of the split. Then with the Badarian, and
even more with the Amratian, successive influence from Asia had a
profound effect upon the development of the Egyptian neolithic. By
the Amratian phase (NaqadaI) Egyptians had adopted the square house
form of the Semites, and by NaqadaII (Gerzian phase) a great deal of
Semitic influences are found (Crenelated settlements, the Gebel Arak
knife, etc etc). These Semitic influences can be compared to the
French intrusion into English after the Norman conquest, but came in
waves.
I wrote
> >For your hypothesis to be correct, one would expect Ethiopia to be
the
> > >centre of the cultural dispersal, Yemen and the Sudan being
second, >and
> >Egypt and the Sahara being third.
Glen suggested
> For yours to be correct, there needs to be linguistically plausible
dates
> given for the branching out of AfroAsiatic. I'm considering the
possibility
> but I am concerned that you are confused of the time-frames
involved. The
> Egyptian-Semitic split on your map isn't plausible. For clarity,
could you
> summarize your scenario of AfroAsiatic migrations with the
associated dates,
> locations and cultures?
OK I'll try to give you locations and cultures
How about this (not to scale.... sorry)
|---Sahara------------------- Chadic
| Kenya
| |---------- Omotic
| |
Ibero- | Kenya---| |---- Cushitic
Maurusian | |Capsian | | Family
11,000 BCE | |7,800BCE|-----| Develops
-----------| | Ethiopia| After
Proto A-A | | |---- 5,000 BCE
| |
| |
|Early---| |--Nth --- Berber after
Capsian | | African 5000 BCE
8,500 BCE| | Cattle
NthAfr.to| | Herders
Khartoum |Later----|
Capsian | |-Sinai- Semitic
Sahara |-| post languages
| PPNB develop
| 5,800 BCE
|
|--Badarian Egyptian
Amratian language
Gerzian post
4,500BCE
Glen, the Cushitic languages started to develop with the arrival
of the Neolithic into Ethiopia circa 5,000 BCE. This
"neolithicisation" development was in part due to influences from
Yemen, caused by the arrival there of Semitic nomadic
pastoralists who had travelled down from the Sinai (there is
clear Sinaitic influence in Yemen at this time, replacing the
earlier microlithic broad spectrum hunter gatherers, who had
spread into the area (with a Kebaran derived culture (possibly
speaking a sister language to Sumerian). This is the date from
which Cushites began to cultivate Ethiopian crops, Dennis.
Glen (not to leave you out :-), there was a "reflux" from Semitic
into
the Egyptian languages, and this spread out onto the Sahara by 2,500
BCE. Another influence was the chariot peoples (associated with the
"Peoples of the Sea" invasion from Libya 1,200 BCE).
Glen, hope this helps resolve the difficulties you are having with my
maps.
John