proto afroasiatic roots proto afroasiatic roots

tr. In Arabic, ti-ktib means she writes and katab-it means she wrote. p-Songhay The Egyptian prefix has a middle voice/intransitive/or passive meaning. [79], An African origin has broad scholarly support,[75] and is favored by most linguists on the basis of the linguistic data. Aunque las estimaciones varan ampliamente, los eruditos creen que se hablaba como un solo idioma hace entre 12.000 y 18.000 aos (12 a 18 kya ), es decir, entre 16.000 y 10.000 a . [198] Andrzej Zaborski refers to Orel and Stolbova's reconstructions as "controversial", and Ehret's as "not acceptable to many scholars". 2.10. These records make it possible to classify and reconstruct many languages. Afroasiatic languages have over 500 million native speakers, which is the fourth-largest number of native speakers of any language family (after Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and NigerCongo). [34], The Egyptian branch consists of a single language, Ancient Egyptian, which was historically spoken in the lower Nile Valley. Dogon [54] These five or six branches remain the academic consensus on the family. The proto-language of each Afroasiatic branch developed its own distinct vocabulary of food production, further supporting the view that herding and cultivation emerged separately in each branch after the proto-Afroasiatic period ( 7, 8 ). [123], Some scholars postulate that Proto-Afroasiatic was a tonal language, with tonality subsequently lost in some branches: Christopher Ehret has postulated a tonal system of at least two tonal phonemes, falling tone, rising tone, and possibly a third tone, level tone. suff. shared innovation: *als-/*ils- 'tongue': *a-/*i-attrib. 1995. A Description of the Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic - Linguistics [106] The most widespread constraint is against two different labial consonants (other than w) occurring together in a root, a constraint which can be found in all branches but Omotic. infix), fruit, seeds, foliage, plant growth in general, (Ch., Sem. Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *abaw/y- Meaning: a k. of plant Semitic: *abVw- 'reed, papyrus' Egyptian: wb 'root', cf. It is, rather, a comparison of Proto-Indo-European with Proto-Afroasiatic. These are some known features common to more than one branch, though (Hodge 1971; Lecarme, Lowenstamm, and Shlonsky 2000; Frajzyngier and Shay 2012): 4 This was Hodge's term for the ancestral proto-language of Proto-Afroasiatic and Proto-Indo-European based on Proto-Lislakh *lis- 'language' + *laxwos 'people'. The Subclassification of Afroasiatic (Afrasian) Appendix 1. [49], There there are also other proposed branches, but none has so far convinced a majority of scholars:[7]. xvii + 557. Whether this proto-language is ancestral to Berber and Semitic only, or also to other branches of Afroasiatic, still remains to be established. shared innovation: *isin-/*usun- 'they' (originally fem./masc. WCh WOT V. V. ven. [4] The most widely spoken modern Afroasiatic language or dialect continuum by far is Arabic, a de facto group of distinct language varieties within the Semitic branch. [18][11], The alternative name "Lisramic" is based on the AA root *lis- ("tongue") and the Egyptian word rm ("person"). sing. innovation: narrowing of meaning to loud kinds of response), (2nd shape: stem + *r n. A relationship between Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic and the Berber languages was perceived as early as the 9th century CE by the Hebrew grammarian and physician Judah ibn Quraysh, who is regarded as a forerunner of Afroasiatic studies. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary. The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic,or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic subregions of Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahara/Sahel. There are multiple possibilities: Egyptian had already undergone radical changes from Proto-Afroasiatic before it was recorded, the Afroasiatic family has so far been studied with an excessively Semito-centric approach, or Afroasiatic is a typological, not a genetic group of languages. Temein [186] Within the Semitic language family, Lipiski counts four different roots meaning "one". [173] While some scholars posit an AA origin for this form, it is possible that the Berber and Cushitic forms are independent developments,[130] as they show significant differences from the Egyptian and Semitic forms. Three dialects emerged (Omotic, Cushitic, and Chadic) from the main one and this left 'Boreafrasian,' the source of Berber, Egyptian and Semitic (Dalby ,p. 6). p-Idomoid It's impossible to tell exactly how old Proto-Afroasiatic is, or where it was spoken, but there are a few ideas. 1 Afro-Asiatic Language Family. p-Agaw The Proto-Afroasiatic Vowel System. Author: Martin Bernal Language: EnglishEdition: 1stBinding: HardcoverPages: 575Publisher: Rutgers Univ PressPublication Date: 304805601149 Mimi-D [187] Modern Chadic numeral systems are sometimes decimal, having separate names for the numbers 1-10, and sometimes base-5, deriving the numbers 6-9 from the numbers 1-5 in some way. ; short vowel required by derived verb #399), calabash (used as container, utensil, etc. Berkeley: University of California Press. Proto-Afroasiatic language - Wikiwand [11] Because the term "Afroasiatic" could be taken to mean that the family includes all the languages of Africa and Asia, the term "Afrasian" is sometimes used instead; this name was proposed by Igor Diakonoff (1980) and is mostly used by Russian scholars. [17] The name refers to the fact that this is the only major language family with members in both Africa and Asia. in *n, as also in #210), (Sem., Eg. [40] Coptic is the only stage written alphabetically to show vowels, whereas Egyptian was previously written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, which only represent consonants. [127], Afroasiatic Languages use the processes of reduplication and gemination (which often overlap in meaning) to derive nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs throughout the AA language family. [196][164] Such cognates tend to rely on relatively simple sound correspondences. [81] Christopher Ehret, O. Y. Keita, and Paul Newman also argue that archaeology does not indicate a spread of migrating farmers into Africa, but rather a gradual incorporation of animal husbandry into indigenous foraging cultures. ; PC variant *damn-), (Ch., Eg., Sem. [169] As there is no evidence for the "prefix conjugation" in Omotic, Chadic, or Egyptian, it is unclear whether this was a Proto-Afroasiatic feature that has been lost in those branches or is a shared innovation among Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic. For other uses, see, Distribution of the Afro-Asiatic languages, Similarities in grammar, syntax, and morphology, Common derivational and morphological processes, Consonantal root structures and verbal forms, Some scholars argue that on the basis of Coptic that Egyptian had neither "emphatic consonants" nor a phonemic distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants. [29] The Chadic languages are typically divided into three major branches, East Chadic, Central Chadic, and West Chadic. Lafofa, p-Afroasiatic p-Bantu (Swadesh list) p-Nilotic (p-E. Niloticp-S. Nilotic) About us. [33] Only about 40 Chadic languages have been fully described by linguists. Afro-Asiatic is divided into six branches: Semitic, Berber, Egyptian, Cushitic, Chadic and Omotic. i, u) and a low vowel (a) in verbal forms is usually described as one of the main characteristics of AA languages: this change codes a variety of different functions. [64] The French orientalist Guillaume Postel had also pointed out similarities between Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic in 1538, and Hiob Ludolf noted similarities also to Ge'ez and Amharic in 1701. [193][194], Afroasiatic languages share a vocabulary of Proto-Afroasiatic origin to varying extents. Afroasiatic Languages - Linguistics - Oxford Bibliographies - obo [77], Conjugation of verbs using prefixes that mark person, number, and gender can be found [42] Egyptian was replaced by Arabic as the spoken language of Egypt,[43] but Coptic continues to be the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. [19] Additionally, a majority of specialists consider the Omotic languages to constitute a sixth branch. (abbrev. Great variety is incorporated in one family and this makes Afro-Asiatic an interesting topic of study. One hypothesis places it in the Levant, as the language of the Natufian hunter-gatherers who were the first to adopt a farming lifestyle more than 10,000 years ago. ; Eg., Sem. p-Daju Afrasian. Afroasiatic languages - Wikipedia [27] The first longer written examples of modern Berber varieties only date from the 16th or 17th centuries CE. "[81] The African languages of Afroasiatic are not more closely related to each other than they are to Semitic, as one would expect if only Semitic had remained in an Asian AA homeland while all other branches had spread from there. If so, semantics are unclear), (pl. [20] Omotic was formerly considered part of the Cushitic branch;[46] some scholars continue to consider it part of Cushitic. Pr. [75] Proponents of an African origin of Afroasiatic assume the proto-language to have been spoken by pre-Neolithic African hunter-gatherers,[76] arguing that there is no evidence of words in Proto-Afroasiatic related to agriculture or animal husbandry. Momo [95], "Afro-Asiatic" redirects here. Hadza, https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Appendix:Proto-Afroasiatic_reconstructions&oldid=68902118, attributive noun and attributive deverbative suffix, attributive and complement deverbative suffix, noun derivation from verb by stem-vowel lengthening, (Sem., Eg. innovation: specialization of meaning to plant growth), (Berber, e.g., Shilh agafay 'cloud,' implies a 2nd root shape *-gaap-), to impel, make move (by pushing, pulling), (root #311+old Afroasiatic pl. This work provides the first truly comprehensive and systematic reconstruction of proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian). ), (Berber, Eg. suff. Nara in *n, as also in #323), (possible V reconstructions: *a, *aa, *e, or *o), (Sem., Eg., Ch. The Proto-Afroasiatic Vowel System" In The Nostratic Macrofamily: A Study in Distant Linguistic Relationship, 105-108. "Proto-Afroasiatic language" | Search | Stanford Libraries The Afroasiatic Languages and the Green Sahara, 10,000 Years Ago - Substack [100], All or most branches of AA have a contrast between voiceless, voiced, and "emphatic" consonants. of #724 by adding *-(a)C- where C = preceding stem-final C, is implied in Eg. p-Potou-Akanic Omotic, Cushitic, and Chadic are also spoken north of the Sahara so it must be assumed that the speakers of these "dialects" migrated north likewise, though perhaps separately from the Boreafrasian speakers (Dalby, p.6). Omotic and Cushitic followed the example and split together, as did Egyptian, Berber, and Semitic in another group. There is an obvious trend (probably driven by Semitic and Egyptian researchers) to place the Afroasiatic Homeland near one of the many proposed Semitic homelands, i.e. innovation: 'lift' > 'carry', (Eg., Sem., Cush, shared innovations: *su, *usu 'he'; *si, *isi 'she': see Chap. Benfys title was later inverted to make Hamito-Semitic but over time racial connotations were applied to this name (Voegelin, p.13). the ancient Egypto-Semitic evidence. Cognate Dictionary Studies in Baltic and Indo-European Linguistics The Roots of Hinduism Latin - nus, -na, -nus and -neus Tracing the Indo-Europeans Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo- . (PDF) The Origins of Afroasiatic - ResearchGate p-Gurunsi crcst test prep; crcst free test questions; paid test; crcst exam prep notes; subscribe It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques. fort. [83], A significant minority of scholars supports an Asian origin of Afroasiatic,[78] most of whom are specialists in Semitic or Egyptian studies. Afroasiatic(Afro-Asiatic), also known as Afrasianand in older sources as Hamito-Semitic(Chamito-Semitic)[3]or Semito-Hamitic,[4]is a large language familyof about 300 languages. [103][101] The feminine marker T is one of the most consistent aspects across the different branches of AA;[133] in addition to deriving feminine nouns in many branches, it also functions as a diminutive, pejorative, and/or singulative marker in some languages. Report Save. Social:Proto-Semitic language - HandWiki Africa is divided by geographical features, including the Sahara desert and the Ethiopian mountains. Miao-Yao - Atozwiki.com [90], Syllable weight plays an important role in AA, especially in Chadic; it can affect the form of affixes attached to a word. At the same time, linguistic similarities such as vowel changes help show relationships among languages. The modern word "Hebrew" is derived from the word "Ivri" (plural "Ivrim"; English: Hebrews), one of several names for the Israelite (Jewish and Samaritan) people. ref. Allan Bomhard's own reconstructions of Proto-Afroasiatic roots (and phonology) seem to be biased toward Proto-Indo-European and Nostratic roots . [178], The forms of the pronouns are very stable throughout the Afroasiatic (excluding Omotic),[127] and they have been used as one of the chief tools for determining whether a language belongs to the family. In An Encyclopedia of Language, Omotic is listed as a sub-set of Cushitic, and Andrew Dalby writes the Egyptian division as "Egyptian-Coptic," even though Coptic is considered to be a sub-set of Egyptian. Fig. Archaeology and the study of oral traditions helps linguists find connections between language families. Gbekli Tepe's Pillars and Architecture Reveal the Foundation of ; semantics: from closed- to open-ended action), to be wrong, bad, ill; do or function wrongly, (Eg., Ch. bw 'plant used in medicine' (med) Central Chadic: *abay 'leaf' Proto-Afro-Asiatic: * (a-)bil- Meaning: door Semitic: *abul- 'door, gate' Western Chadic: *HVbil- 'door' Central Cushitic (Agaw): *bil- 'door' 1, 'hole, window' 2 Vol.1. [6], Scholars generally consider Afroasiatic to have at least five and as many as eight separate branches, with the five universally agreed upon branches consisting of the Berber (also called "Libyco-Berber"), Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, and Semitic. The languages that evolved from Proto-Arabic have around 313 million native speakers, concentrated primarily in the Middle East and North Africa.[5]. Well-known Afroasiatic languages include Arabic, Ancient Egyptian, Somali, Tuareg, and Hausa. [69] This theory connected the "Hamites", the originators of Hamitic languages, with (supposedly cultural superior) "Caucasians", who were assumed to have migrated into Africa and intermixed with indigenous "Negroid" Africans in ancient times. . [147][148] Berber instead contrasts between the "free state" and the "annexed state," the latter of which is used for a variety of purposes, including for subjects placed after a verb and after certain prepositions. [166], The so-called "Nisba" is a suffix used to derive adjectives from nouns and, in Egyptian, also from prepositions. p-Mande (p-W. Mandep-Mandekanp-Niger-Voltap-S. Mande) Afroasiatic - Languagesgulper.com All branches of Afroasiatic have a limited number of underlying vowels (between two and seven), but the number of phonetic vowels can be much larger. [122] In some Chadic and some Omotic languages every syllable has to have a tone, whereas in most Cushitic languages this is not the case. Afroasiatic is generally considered to be comprised of the language families Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic, and Semitic. The speakers of Boreafrasian migrated north to an arid Sahara climate, then eventually pushed on west and east. They can occur together with subject pronouns but cannot fulfill an object function. Dictionary of Languages. The only group with an African origin is Ethiopian Semitic. [14], The term Semitic had already been coined in 1781 by August Ludwig von Schlzer, following an earlier suggestion by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1710. [99] In all AA languages, consonants can be bilabial, alveolar, velar, and glottal, with additional places of articulation found in some branches or languages. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian) : vowels, tone, consonants, and vocabulary / Christopher Ehret Get this Comments (0) Librarian's View Copyright Status Online In the Library Order a copy Request this item to view in the Library's reading rooms using your library card. p-Central Chadic [48] The oldest written attestations of Semitic languages come from Mesopotamia, Northern Syria, and Egypt and date as early as c. 3000 BCE. . [15] Mller assumed that there existed a distinct "Hamitic" branch of the family that consisted of Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic. For example, the Hamitic component inaccurately suggests the existence of a monophyletic "Hamitic" branch alongside Semitic. Philippine History PinoyExchange innovation: narrowing of meaning to beating time to music), (Eg., Sem. PDF Etymological Dictionary Of Egyptian Pdf | Dev.pulitzercenter [92], With the exception of some Chadic languages, all AA languages allow both closed and open syllables; many Chadic languages do not allow a syllable to end in a consonant. PDF Introduction To Lithuanian Verbs Nouns And Indo European Etymology common genetic origin of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic differ considerably from the assumptions made in other works on . Kanuri [136] These so-called "internal a" or "broken" plurals are securely attested in Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, and Chadic, although it is unclear if the Chadic examples are an independent development. 6), (Eg., Sem., Cush. [21] They are often considered to constitute a single language with multiple dialects. [6] Afroasiatic. BLACK ATHENA The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization - V - $57.73. In Cushitic and Semitic, nouns exist in the "free state" or the "construct state". Linguistic guesstimates or phylogenetic speculation date the proto-language (and thus the homeland) within a wide range, from 15,000 to 6,000 years ago. [97] All Afroasiatic languages contain stops and fricatives; some branches have additional types of consonants such as affricates and lateral consonants. [26] The second is the Guanche language, which was formerly spoken on the Canary Islands and went extinct in the 17th century CE. [48] Today, Semitic languages are spoken across North Africa, Western Asia, and the Horn of Africa, as well as on the island of Malta, making them the sole Afroasiatic branch with members originating outside Africa. shared innovation: 'move, take' > 'take hold of'), (Cush., Ch., Eg., Sem. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic Urheimat; scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant, the Sahara, or the Horn of Africa, and the view that it arose in the Arabian Peninsulahas also been common historically. innovation: integration of *t dur. [25][26], There are two extinct languages potentially related to modern Berber. Consider also the debate over the origins of the Afroasiastic or Afrasan languages and cultures, a linguistic group with a wide geographical distribution covering the Middle East and Northern. [30] A common characteristic of AA languages is the existence of a special set of "independent" pronouns, which are distinct from subject pronouns. Potential Afroasiatic Urheimat near Lake Megachad innovation: as synonym for #505), (vowel reconstruction uncertain: PAA *u, *ee, or *oo are also possible here; contrary to earlier views, this is surely a distinct root from #503), (Eg., Sem. p-Semitic, Khoisan Rashad [44], The c. 30 Omotic languages are still mostly undescribed by linguists. innovation: to spoil > to sour), (Sem., Eg. Black God: The Afroasiatic Roots of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Many of these roots have other proposed cognates that are not included on the table. The Origins of Afroasiatic | Science Root Structure Patterning in Proto-Kartvelian. [120] Ronny Meyer and H. Ekkehard Wolff instead propose that Proto-Afroasiatic may have had no vowels as such, instead employing various syllabic consonants (*l, *m, *n, *r) and semivowels or semivowel-like consonants (*w, *y, *, *, *, *h, *, *, *, *h) to form syllables. A main characteristic of Afro-Asiatic languages is the use of vowel changes in word formation. [23] In the past, Berber languages were spoken throughout North Africa except in Egypt;[24] since the 7th century CE, however, they have been heavily affected by Arabic and have been replaced by it in many places. [20], The Berber (or Libyco-Berber) languages are spoken today by perhaps 16 million people. *t: . Such evidence may reveal plants known to early Afroasiatic speakers; but it does not diagnose whether they were cultivated or wild. [15] Hamitic was coined by Ernest Renan in 1855, to refer to languages that seemed similar to the Semitic languages, but were not themselves provably a part of the family. [40] The latest possible date for the existence of Proto-Afroasiatic is c. 4000 BCE, after which Egyptian and the Semitic languages are first attested; however, the languages must have diverged and evolved for some time before this. [167] These prefixes are clearly cognate across the branches, although their use within the verbal systems of the individual languages varies. bantu semitic language [190] Some South Cushitic numerals are borrowed from Nilotic languages, other Cushitic numerals have been borrowed from Ethiopian Semitic languages. I.5. Nostratic - Indo-European p-Plateau (p-Tarokoid) [113] These rules also have a number of exceptions: Similar exceptions can be demonstrated for the other AA branches that have these restrictions to their root formation. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone [17][18] Victor Porkhomovsky suggests that the label "Hamito-Semitic" is at this point simply convention and no more implies an opposition between Semitic and "Hamitic" languages than "Indo-European" implies a "European" and an Indic branch. 2.11. The Proto-Afroasiatic Vowel System - De Gruyter Central Sudanic (p-Central Sudanicp-Sara-Bongo-BagirmiSinyarBirrip-Mangbetu) [164] Christopher Ehret has proposed that Proto-Afroasiatic originally had as many as thirty-seven separate verbal extensions, many of which then became fossilized as third consonants. + stem; PS *lisn 'tongue' is a separate and distinct derivation from the same verb root), (Sem., Eg., Ch. Semitic and Berber are quite closely related, and both are more distantly connected to Cushitic. reflex), (root #723 + *x extend. [130], Many AA languages use prefixes or suffixes (verbal extensions) to encode various pieces of information about the verb. [34] Cushitic does not appear to be related to the attested ancient languages known from its area, Meroitic or Old Nubian. with pre-PAA root *way thus having been a n. or adj. Pp. alternative feminine endings *-ay/*-y; corresponding vowel templates for verbal conjugations) which can be reconstructed for a higher-order proto-language (provisionally called "Proto-Berbero-Semitic" by Kossmann & Suchard (2018) and Van Putten (2018)). [34] The Cushitic family is traditionally spit into four branches: the single language of Beja (c. 3 million speakers), the Agaw languages, Eastern Cushitic, and Southern Cushitic. [159] The Egyptian verbal system diverges greatly from that found in the other branches. . innovation: 'knee'; Berber *afud < *puuz), to be finished, come to an end, be used up, (Sem., Cush. *y: attributive noun and attributive deverbative suffix: 2a. Because i notice in some cases, they seem to have vowels shifting around quite a bit, akin to the trilateral root systems of the semitic languages. [144], A second category, which partially overlaps with case, is the AA linguistic category of "state." [89] In Cushitic and Chadic languages, a glottal stop or glottal or fricative may be inserted to prevent a word from beginning with a vowel. [124] Other scholars argue that Proto-AA had a pitch accent and some branches subsequently developed tone. Gule [76], There is no consensus where the original homeland (Urheimat) of the first Afroasiatic speakers was located. suff. [11] In 1855, Ernst Renan named these languages, related to Semitic but not Semitic, "Hamitic," in 1860 Carl Lottner proposed that they belonged to a single language family, and in 1876 Friedrich Mller first described them as a "Hamito-Semitic" language family. [128] Proto-Chadic is reconstructed as having verb-initial word order,[80] but most Chadic languages have subject-verb-object word order. Egyptian is classified as a distinct language and the other sub-groups are: Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Omotic, and Semitic (Voegelin, p.12). [40] Tom Gldemann, however, argues that less time may have been required than is commonly assumed, as it is possible for a language to rapidly restructure due to language contact, as happened in the Chadic branch and probably also in Omotic. It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques of the historical-comparative method. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Linguistics 450 p-Heiban [77] Roger Blench writes that the debate has "a strong ideological flavor", with associations between an Asian origin and "high civilization". Voegelin, C.F. [31] Hausa is the largest Chadic language by native speakers, and is spoken by a large number of people as a lingua franca in Northern Nigeria. [76] It may have originally mostly biconsonantal, to which various affixes (verbal extensions) were then added and lexicalized. >>14700322 >Proto-Semitic language contact with PIE implies the Semitic languages themselves come from J Caucasians. Fifteen are glossed as names of plants or loose categories of plants. NE Sudanic p-South Bauchi Proto-Afroasiatic, sometimes also referred to as Proto-Afrasian, is the reconstructed proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. p-Central Khoisan [74], There is no consensus on when Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken. Afro-Asiatic is a large language family with great diversity. This is in part due to Boroafrasian speakers breaking into groups such as Berber and Egyptian in North Africa and Semitic dialects in the Arabian Peninsula. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1996. [140] Some languages in AA have a marked nominative alignment, a feature which may date back to Proto-Afroasiatic. It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham's ancestor, Eber ("Ever" in Hebrew), mentioned in Genesis 10:21. [180] Also common are dependent/affix pronouns (used for direct objects and to mark possession). [22] Other scholars, however, argue that they are a group of around twelve languages, about as different from each other as the Romance or Germanic languages. From the earliest times we have written records from Northern Africa.