The Afro-Asiatic background of West Rift [Glottals]

Gábor Takács (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, gabtak@datatrans.hu)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 4, 2010 - p.135-166

The main goal of the paper is to assert that the rich laryngeal inventory, reconstructed for the West Rift subgroup of Southern Cushitic languages, must be seriously archaic in origin; with direct parallels to each of its constituents in Semitic and Egyptian languages, it can be deemed as retaining the original phonology of Afro-Asiatic, thus underscoring the significant importance of West Rift languages in the task of reconstructing this macrofamily. The hypothesis is supported by numerous etymologies.

Keywords: Afrasian (Afro-Asiatic) languages, Southern Cushitic languages, comparative phonology, historical reconstruction

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