Maps of Central Cushitic
Cushitic, Omotic: The Spread of Cushitic and Omotic (Newman)
The Spread of Cushitic and Omotic
Source: Newman, James L. 1995. The Peopling of Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press. 53.
Date Digitized: 2009
Map Description:
This map outlines the early years of Cushitic spreading and some of the resulting diversity. In his book, Newman discusses how changes in agriculture lead to the diversification of Cushitic. Central Cushitic developed among grain cultivators and herders, and when groups migrated south into Tanzania and Kenya, their language became what is now known as southern Cushitic. Northern Cushitic was located predominantly in the arid lowlands, while the eastern branch was located in the southern rift valleys. He argues that ensete cultivators, which had once been thought to speak "western Cushitic", were most likely Omotic speakers.
Date Digitized: 2009
Map Description:
This map outlines the early years of Cushitic spreading and some of the resulting diversity. In his book, Newman discusses how changes in agriculture lead to the diversification of Cushitic. Central Cushitic developed among grain cultivators and herders, and when groups migrated south into Tanzania and Kenya, their language became what is now known as southern Cushitic. Northern Cushitic was located predominantly in the arid lowlands, while the eastern branch was located in the southern rift valleys. He argues that ensete cultivators, which had once been thought to speak "western Cushitic", were most likely Omotic speakers.
Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).
North Africa: Cushitic in Northern Africa
Cushitic in Northern Africa
Data Source:
Irvine, A. K. and David Appleyard. 2007. "The Middle East and North Africa". In R. E. Asher & Christopher Moseley (eds.). Atlas of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Routledge.
"Afro-Asiatic: Composite 2010". MultiTree: A Digital Library of Language Relationships
Date Digitized: May 2011.
Map Description:
The areas pictured display locations of where Cushitic languages are spoken today. Although there are many languages within the group, only Somali has status as an official language of a country (Somalia). Most of the languages are relatively small, being spoken by anywhere between several hundred and several thousand people (Irvine and Appleyard 2007).
This original map was made by vectorizing data from the MultiTree language database and the Atlas of the World's Languages.
Other resources related to this project:
This folder (Northern African Languages) contains other maps showing linguistic subgroups. The maps may be overlaid on each other for a more complete picture.
Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process.
The Early Dispersal of Afroasiatic (Blench)
The Early Dispersal of Afroasiatic
Source: Blench, Roger. 2006. Archaeology, Language, and the African Past. Lanham: AltaMira Press. 159.
Date Digitized: 2009
Map Description:
This map illustrates the early homelands (> 10000 B.C.E and > 7500 B.C.E. respectively) of Afroasiatic as well as the homelands of the Omotic and Cushitic speakers. Surrounding the speaker locations are the migration paths the Cushitic groups took as they moved, as discussed by Roger Blench. Combined with his map entitled 'The Later Dispersal of Afroasiatic', it presents a model which explains the distribution of Afroasiatic languages prior to the Arabic expansion beginning in the seventh century.
Other LL-MAP resources related to this project:
The Later Dispersal of Afroasiatic (Blench)
The Inter-Saharan Hypothesis (Blench)
Date Digitized: 2009
Map Description:
This map illustrates the early homelands (> 10000 B.C.E and > 7500 B.C.E. respectively) of Afroasiatic as well as the homelands of the Omotic and Cushitic speakers. Surrounding the speaker locations are the migration paths the Cushitic groups took as they moved, as discussed by Roger Blench. Combined with his map entitled 'The Later Dispersal of Afroasiatic', it presents a model which explains the distribution of Afroasiatic languages prior to the Arabic expansion beginning in the seventh century.
Other LL-MAP resources related to this project:
The Later Dispersal of Afroasiatic (Blench)
The Inter-Saharan Hypothesis (Blench)
Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).
The Later Dispersal of Afroasiatic (Blench)
The Later Dispersal of Afroasiatic
Source: Blench, Roger. 2006. Archeology, Language, and the African Past. Lanham: AltaMira Press. 160.
Date Digitized: 2009
Map Description:
This map illustrates the later locations and migrations of several African language groups, including the Semitic, Bantu, Nilotic, Berber, Afroasiatic and Chadic speakers, as discussed by Roger Blench. Combined with his map entitled "The Early Dispersal of Afroasiatic", it presents a model which explains the distribution of Afroasiatic languages prior to the Arabic expansion beginning in the seventh century. Two of the languages indicated, Guanche and Elamitic, are extinct; Blench notes that the arrow marking the latter's progress is very uncertain.
Other LL-MAP resources related to this project:
The Early Dispersal of Afroasiatic (Blench)
The Inter-Saharan Hypothesis (Blench)
Date Digitized: 2009
Map Description:
This map illustrates the later locations and migrations of several African language groups, including the Semitic, Bantu, Nilotic, Berber, Afroasiatic and Chadic speakers, as discussed by Roger Blench. Combined with his map entitled "The Early Dispersal of Afroasiatic", it presents a model which explains the distribution of Afroasiatic languages prior to the Arabic expansion beginning in the seventh century. Two of the languages indicated, Guanche and Elamitic, are extinct; Blench notes that the arrow marking the latter's progress is very uncertain.
Other LL-MAP resources related to this project:
The Early Dispersal of Afroasiatic (Blench)
The Inter-Saharan Hypothesis (Blench)
Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).