Proto-Afroasiatic language

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Proto-Afroasiatic (PAA), also known as Proto-Hamito-Semitic, Proto-Semito-Hamitic, and Proto-Afrasian, is the hypothetical proto-language from which all modern Afroasiatic languages are descended. Though estimates vary widely, scholars believe it was spoken as a single language around 12,000 to 18,000 years ago, that is, between 16,000 and 10,000 BC. Although no consensus exists as to the location of the Proto-Afroasiatic homeland, the putative homeland of its speakers, the majority of scholars agree that it was located within West Asia or Northeast Africa. The linguistic reconstruction of Proto-Afroasiatic is problematic and has not progressed to the degree found in Indo-European linguistics. The immense amount of time over which the branches have been separated, coupled with the wide gap between the attestations of the original branches (from the 3rd millennium BC for the Egyptian and Semitic languages, to as recently as the 19th and 20th centuries for many Chadic, Cushitic, and Omotic...

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