Why Hadza is (probably) not Afroasiatic : a discussion of Militarev’s “Hadza as Afrasian?”

Title data

Sands, Bonny ; Harvey, Andrew ; Mous, Maarten ; Tosco, Mauro:
Why Hadza is (probably) not Afroasiatic : a discussion of Militarev’s “Hadza as Afrasian?”.
In: Journal of Language Relationship = Вопросы языкового родства. Vol. 21 (2023) Issue 1-2 . - pp. 91-109.
ISSN 2219-4029

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

Problems with the lexical evidence used to posit Hadza as an Afroasiatic language are discussed. The failure to identify certain loanwords and the misanalysis of certain Hadza morphemes are problems rectified by having greater familiarity with Hadza and its linguistic contact history. Other problems are more general to the specific methodology employed. The overly wide semantic range of meanings often allowed in establishing form-meaning sets increases the likelihood of chance resemblances. The use of certain words that are likely onomatopoeic also reduces the impact of the proposed cognate sets. Ultimately, it is the lack of regular, repeated sound correspondences between Hadza and Afroasiatic that makes the
proposal of their familial relationship unconvincing.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Additional notes:	Voprosy jazykovogo rodstva
Keywords:	language isolates; Hadza language; Khoisan languages; Cushitic languages; Afroasiatic languages; Chadic languages; long-distance relationship
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Languages and Literature > Junior Professor African Languages and the Construction of Knowledge > Junior Professor African Languages and the Construction of Knowledge - Juniorprof. Dr. Andrew Harvey
Result of work at the UBT:	Yes
DDC Subjects:	400 Language > 410 Linguistics
Date Deposited:	18 Dec 2023 13:39
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2023 13:39
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/88083