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Proto–Afroasiatic is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. It is believed by scholars to have been spoken as a single language around 12,000 to 18,000 years ago, although there is no consensus as to where the Afroasiatic Urheimat, the homeland of Proto-Afroasiatic speakers, was located. Although Afroasiatic is the earliest attested language family in the world, the reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic is problematic and largely lacking, a fact sometimes attributed to the sheer age of the language. Reconstructed words for fauna and flora, and evidence of linguistic contact with language families known to have been spoken in Eurasia, suggest that its home was in the Middle East, probably the Levant. Evidence of Cushitic formerly spoken in the south of Arabia also speaks for a Middle Eastern origin, though some proposals also claim North Africa and the Horn of Africa.
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Consonant correspondences
The following table shows consonant correspondences in Afroasiatic languages, as given in Dolgopolsky (1999), along with some reconstructed consonants for Proto-Afroasiatic.
- under special conditions
NOTE:
- š = /ʃ/
- Symbols with dots underneath are emphatic consonants (variously glottalized, ejective or pharyngealized).
- Transcription of Ancient Egyptian follows Allen (2000); see Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian. The following are possible values for the non-IPA symbols used for Ancient Egyptian: ẖ = [ç]; ṯ = [tʲ] or [t͡ʃ]; ḏ = [dʲ] or [d͡ʒ], or ejective [tʲʼ] or [t͡ʃʼ].
Pronouns
Ehret (1995) reconstructs the following pronouns, most of which are supported by at least five of the six branches:
Numerals
Ehret (1995) reconstructs the following cardinal numbers (Ehret does not include Berber in his reconstruction):
The first root for "two" has been compared to Berber (Tamazight) sin. There are other proposed cognate sets: