Editing Cushitic languages (section)

===Beja===
{{main|Beja language#Classification}}

Beja constitutes the only member of the Northern Cushitic subgroup. As such, Beja contains a number of linguistic innovations that are unique to it, as is also the situation with the other subgroups of Cushitic (e.g. idiosyncratic features in [[Agaw languages|Agaw]] or Central Cushitic).<ref name="Zaborski1988">{{cite book|last1=Zaborski|first1=Andrzej|title=Fucus – "Remarks on the Verb in Beja"|date=1988|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=90-272-3552-X|page=491|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F5G74rBLJE4C&pg=PA491|access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Treis|first1=Yvonne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FYnDwAAQBAJ|title=Similative and Equative Constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective|last2=Vanhove|first2=Martine|date=2017-05-31|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=978-90-272-6597-5|page=189|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vanhove|first=Martine|date=2016|title=North-Cushitic|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01485896/document|journal=Halshs}}</ref> [[Robert Hetzron|Hetzron]] (1980) argues that Beja therefore may comprise an independent branch of the Afroasiatic family.{{sfnp|Hetzron|1980}} However, this suggestion has been rejected by most other scholars.{{sfnp|Güldemann|2018|pp=327–328}} The characteristics of Beja that differ from those of other Cushitic languages are instead generally acknowledged as normal branch variation.<ref name="Zaborski1988"/>

Didier Morin (2001) assigned Beja to Lowland East Cushitic on the grounds that the language shared lexical and phonological features with the Afar and Saho idioms, and also because the languages were historically spoken in adjacent speech areas. However, among linguists specializing in the Cushitic languages, the standard classification of Beja as North Cushitic is accepted.<ref name="Vanhove2016">{{cite web|last1=Vanhove|first1=Martine|title=North-Cushitic|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01485896/document|publisher=LLACAN, CNRS-INALCO, Université Sorbonne Paris-Cité|access-date=12 November 2017}}</ref>

[[Blemmyan language|Blemmyan]], an early form of Beja – mostly attested through [[onomastic]] evidence, but also directly by a small text on an [[ostracon]] from [[Saqqara]] – was spoken by the [[Blemmyes]], an ancient people of Lower Nubia that appears in the Egyptian historical records from the 6th century BCE onwards. It is also likely that the [[Medjay]] spoke a language that was ancestral to Beja.{{sfn|Rilly|2019|pp=131–134}}