Arabic as an Afro-Asiatic Language - Myth or Reality?

Arabic-Alphabet Chart

According to the traditional language classification, Arabic is classified amongst the Afro-Asiatic language cluster. However, looking at the linguistic structure of Arabic and comparing it with the rest of the African language clusters, I'm inclined to say that no link exists between Arabic and the rest of the African language clusters. If Arabic is not an Afro-Asiatic language, so what is it? Arabic is actually a Turkic language form that was brought by the Seljukian Turks, who originally came from Turkestan, via Iran, into North and North East Africa (i.e., Middle East) around the later part of 11^th century A.D.

The dominant language of the region before the arrival of the Turks was Greek. However, Greek language was gradually replaced with Arabic as the Seljukian Turks continued to invade the Byzantine Empire - the Empire which extended over North and North East Africa at this time. While the Arabic language is Turkic in its spoken form, it is actually African in its written form. What does this mean? It means that the Arabic script is 100 percent African. When the Seljukian Turks invaded Byzantine North East Africa, they brought with them a spoken language but not a written script or any form of writing system. Thus, they had to use Arabic script to transliterate their language. It is not uncommon for a people, with no writing script of their own, to use a borrowed script to write down their language. For example, the Yoruba and Ibo people of present day Nigeria adopted Latin as a writitng script for their respective indigenous languages. 

There were three forms of writing system available in North and North East Africa at the time when the Seljukian Turks invaded, and they were all Pharaonic Egypt based – namely, Hieroglyphs, Phonetic I alphabet (i.e., Heratic), and Phonetic II alphabet (i.e., demotic). Thus, it was the Phonetic I and Phonetic II alphabets that were adapted by the Arab scholars to write down the Turkic language that they spoke, and is today called the Arabic script. The Arabic alphabet today comprises of 18 letter shapes, and thus by adding one, two, or three dots to letters with similar phonetic characters a total of 28 letters is obtained (Walter Willians, 2001).

Let’s now juxtapose Arabic and some African language clusters to fully understand the argument presented above.

For example let’s look at the word “spirit.”

In Coptic language, the word “spirit” or “soul” is bai.

In Mbochi (Congo)           it is        :     ba (to be in spirit)

Bambara (Mali)               it is        :   be (to have spirit or to exist)

Pharaonic Egypt              it is        :   ba (spirit or soul)

Arabic                              it is        :  nafs (soul, essence, or being)

Note the divergence of Arabic in the cluster.

Let’s look at the word “bad.”

In Coptic                            it is         :   bane or bani (bad)

In Wolof (Senegal)            it is         :   bon (bad)

Bambara (Mali)                 it is         :   bone (bad luck)

Pharaonic Egypt                it is         :   bin (bad)

Arabic                                it is         :   sar, sayyi (bad)

Note the divergence of Arabic in the cluster.

Let’s look at “Mother”

In Coptic                             it is        :   mau, maau, meu

In Yoruba (Nigeria)            it is         :   ma ma

In Bambara (Mali)             it is         :   ma

Pharaonic Egypt                it is         :   me.t (mother)

Arabic                                it is         :   Umm

Note the divergence of Arabic in the cluster.

Let’s examine “To love”

In Coptic                             it is         :   mere, melli, meri

In Wolof (Senegal)             it is         :   mar (to love madly)

In Luo                                 it is         :   mer (to be in accord with)

Pharaonic Egypt                it is         :   mr

Arabic                                it is         :   habba
Hebrew                              it is         :   Ahab (Love)

Note how Hebrew and Arabic converge with each other, but diverge from the rest of the African language cluster.

Lastly, let’s look at one of the rare examples where Arabic actually converges with the African language cluster.

Let’s look at “Water”

In Coptic                             it is        :   mo, mi

In Yoruba (Nigeria)            it is         :   omi

In Benin(Edo, Nigeria)       it is         :   omi

Pharaonic Egypt                it is         :   mw

Tiv (Nigeria)                      it is         :   ma

Arabic                                it is         :   ma 

 Note the convergence of Arabic with the other African languages in the cluster.

From the examples given above, and from many more examples that are not recited here, it is obvious that Arabic language diverges from the rest of the African language clusters. And thus, Arabic is not an Afro-Asiatic language. As I have shown in my last example above, in a few cases, Arabic language does converge with the African language clusters, this is due probably to borrowing and racial mixing that has occurred over the centuries. Classifying Arabic as an Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic language is a misnomer. Arabic and Hebrew are related languages and perhaps came from the same source. In my opinion, it would be more appropriate to classify them as Semitic languages, but not Afro-Asiatic. On a final note, I'm calling on young scholars, more specifically young African scholars, to desist from using the scriptures (i.e., Torah, Bible and Koran) to formulate African history. The intention of these books is to confuse you about ancient world history, especially African history. Religious texts lack historicity, and should not be used under any circumstances as history books.

Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, and Latin placed side by side - notice the similarities. They all came from one source, Pharaonic Egyptian script i.e., Phonetic.

The Alphabet Chart
Showing the first writing system by the Egyptians: the hieroglyphic, hieratic-demotic and the phonetic. It's from the phonetic Pharaonic Egyptian alphabet that the Greek/Latin alphabets developed.

References:

Molefi, Asante: “African Intellectual Heritage – a book of sources.” (1996)

Anta, Diop: “Civilization or Barbarism.” (1991)

Martin Bernal: “Black Athena – vol I.” (1987)

Walter, Williams: “The Historical Origin of Islam.” (2001)

Walter, Williams: “The Historical Origin of Christianity.” (1992)

Ojo 2/12/13.