Editing Berber languages (section)

==Origin==
{{main|Proto-Berber language}}
Since modern Berber languages are relatively homogeneous, the date of the [[Proto-Berber language]] from which the modern group is derived was probably comparatively recent, comparable to the age of the [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] or [[Romance languages|Romance]] subfamilies of the Indo-European family. In contrast, the split of the group from the other Afroasiatic sub-phyla is much earlier, and is therefore sometimes associated with the local [[Mesolithic]] [[Capsian culture]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/equipes/index.asp?Action=Edit&Langue=EN&Equipe=3%20%20&Page=Action&ActionNum=26 |title=DDL : Evolution – Themes and actions |publisher=Ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr |access-date=2015-07-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004213726/http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/equipes/index.asp?Action=Edit&Langue=EN&Equipe=3%20%20&Page=Action&ActionNum=26 |archive-date=2013-10-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A number of extinct populations are believed to have spoken Afroasiatic languages of the Berber branch. According to Peter Behrens and Marianne Bechaus-Gerst, linguistic evidence suggests that the peoples of the [[C-Group culture]] in present-day southern [[Egypt]] and northern [[Sudan]] spoke Berber languages.<ref name="Bechaus-Gerst">{{cite book|last=Bechaus-Gerst|first=Marianne|editor-last1=Blench|editor-first1=Roger|editor-last2=MacDonald|editor-first2=Kevin|title=The Origins and Development of African Livestock: Archaeology, Genetics, Linguistics and Ethnography – "Linguistic evidence for the prehistory of livestock in Sudan" (2000)|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1135434168|pages=453–457|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-t5QAwAAQBAJ|access-date=16 April 2015|archive-date=26 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526081804/https://books.google.com/books?id=-t5QAwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Lbant">{{cite book|last1=Behrens|first1=Peter|title=Libya Antiqua: Report and Papers of the Symposium Organized by Unesco in Paris, 16 to 18 January 1984 – "Language and migrations of the early Saharan cattle herders: the formation of the Berber branch"|date=1986|publisher=Unesco|isbn=9231023764|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p_hwAAAAMAAJ|access-date=16 April 2015|archive-date=26 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526081805/https://books.google.com/books?id=p_hwAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] [[Nobiin language]] today contains a number of key [[loanword]]s related to [[pastoralism]] that are of Berber origin, including the terms for sheep and water/[[Nile]]. This in turn suggests that the C-Group population—which, along with the [[Kerma Culture|Kerma culture]], inhabited the Nile valley immediately before the arrival of the first [[Nubian languages|Nubian]] speakers—spoke Afroasiatic languages.<ref name="Bechaus-Gerst"/>