Editing Omotic languages (section)

==Classification==
Omotic is generally considered the most divergent branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages]]. In early work up to Greenberg (1963), the languages had been classified in a subgroup of [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]], called most often "West Cushitic". Fleming (1969) argued that it should instead be classified as an independent branch of Afroasiatic, a view which Bender (1971) established to most linguists' satisfaction,{{sfn|Hayward|2000|p=85}} though a few linguists maintain the West Cushitic position{{sfn|Lamberti|1991}}{{sfn|Zaborksi|1986}} or that only [[South Omotic]] forms a separate branch, with [[North Omotic]] remaining part of Cushitic.{{cn|date=March 2024}} Blench notes that Omotic shares honey-related vocabulary with Cushitic but not cattle-related vocabulary, suggesting that the split occurred before the advent of [[pastoralism]].{{sfn|Blench|2006|pp=150–152}} A few scholars have raised doubts that the Omotic languages are part of the Afroasiatic language family at all,<ref>I. M. Diakonoff (1998) ''Journal of Semitic Studies'' 43:209: "It is quite evident that cultural ties between Proto-Semitic and the African branches of the Afrasian macrofamily must have been severed at a very early date indeed. However, the grammatical structure of [Common Semitic] (especially in the verb) is obviously close to that of Common Berbero-Libyan (CBL), as well as to Bedauye. (Bedauye might, quite possibly, be classified as a family distinct from the rest of Kushitic.) The same grammatical isoglosses are somewhat more feebly felt between Semitic and (the other?) Kushitic languages. They practically disappear between the Semitic and the Omotic languages, which were formerly termed Western Kushitic, but which actually may not be Afro-Asiatic at all, like their neighbours the Nubian languages and Meroitic."</ref>{{sfn|Newman|1980}} and Theil (2006) proposes that Omotic be treated as an independent family.<ref name="Theil">Rolf Theil (2006) [http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iln/LING2110/v07/THEIL%20Is%20Omotic%20Afroasiatic.pdf ''Is Omotic Afro-Asiatic?''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224154313/https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iln/LING2110/v07/THEIL%20Is%20Omotic%20Afroasiatic.pdf |date=2021-02-24 }} pp 1–2: "I claim to show that no convincing arguments have been presented [for the inclusion of Omotic (OM) in Afro-Asiatic (AA)], and that OM should be regarded as an independent language family. No closer genetic relations have been demonstrated between OM and AA than between OM and any other language family."</ref> However, the general consensus, based primarily on morphological evidence, such as pronominal prefixes, [[grammatical number]] and [[plural form]], as well as prefix conjugation is that membership in Afroasiatic is well established.<ref>[[Gerrit Dimmendaal]] (2008) "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", in ''Language and Linguistics Compass'' 2/5:841: "Although its Afroasiatic affiliation has been disputed, the allocation of Omotic within this family is now well-established, based on the attestation of morphological properties that this family shares with other Afroasiatic branches."</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ehret|first=Christopher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iXh42PoLZIIC&q=South+Omotic+language|title=History and the Testimony of Language|date=2010-12-17|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94759-7|language=en|access-date=2020-11-02|archive-date=2024-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526080807/https://books.google.com/books?id=iXh42PoLZIIC&q=South+Omotic+language#v=snippet&q=South%20Omotic%20language&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Lecarme|first=Jacqueline|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mh8Ex2kj3CoC&q=Omotic+afroasiatic|title=Research in Afroasiatic Grammar Two|date=2003-01-01|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-90-272-4753-7|language=en|access-date=2020-11-02|archive-date=2024-05-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526080807/https://books.google.com/books?id=mh8Ex2kj3CoC&q=Omotic+afroasiatic#v=snippet&q=Omotic%20afroasiatic&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Aroid (South Omotic) languages were first included in "West Cushitic" by Greenberg; they were excluded from earlier classifications by Italian Cushiticists such as [[Enrico Cerulli]] and Mario Martino Moreno,{{sfn|Lamberti|1991}} and their inclusion in Omotic remains contested.

===''Glottolog''===
Hammarström, et al. in ''[[Glottolog]]'' does not consider Omotic to be a unified group, and also does not consider any of the "Omotic" groups to be part of the Afroasiatic phylum. ''Glottolog'' accepts the following as independent language families.

*[[Ta-Ne-Omotic languages|Ta-Ne-Omotic]]
*[[Dizoid languages|Dizoid]] (Maji)
*[[Mao languages|Mao]]
*[[Aroid languages|Aroid]] (Ari-Banna; "South Omotic")

These four families are also accepted by Güldemann (2018), who similarly doubts the validity of Omotic as a unified group.<ref name="Guldemann">{{Cite book|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Africa|last=Güldemann|first=Tom|editor-last=Güldemann|editor-first=Tom|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|chapter=Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa|year=2018|isbn=978-3-11-042606-9|doi=10.1515/9783110421668-002|location=Berlin|pages=58–444|series=The World of Linguistics series|volume=11|s2cid=133888593 }}</ref>