Cushitic Languages - Composition

Composition

There are six clearly valid groups of languages which are usually included in the Cushitic family (Beja, Agaw, Sidamic, Lowland East Cushitic, Dullay, and South Cushitic), as well as a few poorly classified languages (Yaaku, Dahalo, Aasax and Kw'adza, Boon, and the Cushitic element of Mbugu). However, there is a wide range of opinions as to how they are interrelated.

The Beja language, or North Cushitic, is sometimes placed outside Cushitic proper, though there is no evidence that the rest of Cushitic forms a valid group.

The positions of the Dullay languages and Yaaku are uncertain. These have traditionally been assigned to an East Cushitic branch along with Highland (Sidamic) and Lowland East Cushitic. However, Hayward believes East Cushitic may not be a valid node and that its constituents should be considered separately when attempting to work out the internal relationships of Cushitic.

Hetzron (1980:70ff) and Ehret (1995) have suggested that the Rift languages (South Cushitic) are a part of Lowland East Cushitic, the only one of the six groups with much internal diversity.

Cushitic was traditionally seen as also including the Omotic languages, then called West Cushitic. However, this view has largely been abandoned, with Omotic generally agreed to be an independent branch of Afroasiatic, primarily due to the work of Harold C. Fleming (1974) and M. Lionel Bender (1975).