Page "Afroasiatic languages" Paragraph 18

* The Afroasiatic identity of Ongota is also broadly questioned, as is its position within Afroasiatic among those who accept it, due to the " mixed " appearance of the language and a paucity of research and data.

Harold Fleming ( 2006 ) proposes that Ongota constitutes a separate branch of Afroasiatic.

Symbols on Gerzean pottery resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs date back to c. 4000 BC, suggesting a still earlier possible date.

This gives us a minimum date for the age of Afroasiatic.

However, Ancient Egyptian is highly divergent from Proto-Afroasiatic ( Trombetti 1905: 1 – 2 ), and considerable time must have elapsed in between them.

Estimates of the date at which the Proto-Afroasiatic language was spoken vary widely.

They fall within a range between approximately 7500 BC ( 9, 500 years ago ) and approximately 16, 000 BC ( 18, 000 years ago ).

According to Igor M. Diakonoff ( 1988: 33n ), Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken c. 10, 000 BC.

According to Christopher Ehret ( 2002: 35 – 36 ), Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken c. 11, 000 BC at the latest and possibly as early as c. 16, 000 BC.

These dates are older than dates associated with most other proto-languages.