Macro-Somali languages

When Sam - languages ​​or Eastern Omo - Tana languages ​​are referred to the Somali and related languages ​​. These languages ​​form the eastern branch of the Omo - Tana languages ​​, which in turn belong to the tieflandostkuschitischen branch of the Afro- Asian languages.

The linguist Bernd Heine coined the term in 1978 Sam for the three languages ​​Somali, Rendille and Boni and reconstructed a common precursor language of the three languages ​​, the proto- Sam. The name is derived from the word * sam for " nose " that can be reconstructed for Proto - Sam.

Other researchers have criticized both the name " Sam" as well as the classification of Heine.

Classification according to Heine

  • Afro-Asiatic Cushitic ( Ostkuschitisch ) Tieflandostkuschitisch Omo - Tana Sam-Sprachen/Ost-Omo-Tana West-Sam/Rendille (see Rendille )
  • East Sam bonuses
  • Somali.

Linguistic history by Heine

All other Omo - Tana languages ​​are spoken exclusively between the Abaya Lake and Lake Turkana in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Heine therefore assumes that the spokesman for the Sam languages ​​have spread from the southern Ethiopian highlands into their present areas; this view is shared by other linguists. Heine's assumptions for further transmission form Sam spokesman, however, are controversial.

Heine assumes that the common progenitor language of Sam languages, the proto- Sam, 2300-1700 years old and thus was spoken at the time around around. The speakers of Proto - Sam said to have lived around this time already in the lowlands in northern Kenya, perhaps in the vicinity of today's Marsabit. According to Heine (as well as according to Harold Fleming and Günther Schlee ) they were nomadic cattle breeders. For the proto- Sam can be specialized vocabulary related to livestock, especially camels reconstruct. Probably the proto- Sam took over the camel pose after their migration into the lowlands, but it is unclear by whom.

Terms to sheep and goats are also found in the proto- Sam vocabulary. The vocabulary for cattle is much less detailed, these animals will, therefore, have had less importance. Agriculture was the proto- Sam known ( so there is a common root word for " dig " or "dress " ), seems to have been not operated by them but to be ( for "Garden " have Western and Eastern Sam different basic words). Since words for " iron " (* bir ) and "blacksmith" (* tumaal ) are present, iron processing seems to have been known. More words of the Proto - Sam - language point out that circumcisions performed and the dead were buried. There are also words for a wide variety of tubes and containers and for wood carving. Three different words for water bodies suggest that they were already for the proto- Sam of vital importance.

The division between East and West Sam is likely to have occurred between AD according to Heine 300 BC and 200 AD, the precursor of the Rendille in the north of present-day Kenya were, while the eastern Sam went further to the southeast. Of them separated between 200 and 600 the bonuses, the hunter-gatherers were in coastal forest areas in what is now Kenya and southern Somalia. Of the remaining east- Sam, the precursors of Somaliland, a part went between the rivers Juba and Shabelle in southern Somalia on a combination of agriculture and animal husbandry on, while the remaining Somali moved further north, and (up to the year 1000 ), the entire Horn of Africa populated.

Views of other researchers

Marcello Lamberti classifies Rendille and Boni one not as separate languages ​​, rather than dialects of Somali. In his classification of the Rendille forms a six dialect groups, the bonuses together with the Garre another.

Günther Schlee criticized Heine's model for Verbreitungweg these languages, too much go out of their present distribution and historical developments between the initial spread of the Proto - Sam and the present situation ignores leave. According to him, is much more likely that the speaker of Somali and related languages ​​of southern Ethiopia to the south ( in present-day Kenya) and east (now Somalia and the Ogadengebiet ) spread radially. In this huge area of ​​the Sam languages ​​formed a dialect continuum, which in the 16th century by the advance of the Oromo ( Borana va ) was fragmented. So Rendille and Somali were only separated by this spread of the Borana. More Somali dialects are likely to be gone in the wake of the Oromo expansion. The Gabbra and Sakuye who today speak the Oromo Borana and were linguistically usually regarded as Borana, spoke probably originally such dialects, because culturally they are still reconstructed by Schlee "Proto - Rendille Somali " culture much closer than the Borana.

Schlee also rejected the chosen Heine designation of the language group according to the reconstructed word for "nose" from: It Should Be Considered to abandon this insulting name. ( " Consideration should be given to abandon the offensive term. " )

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