The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahara and Sahel. Over 500 million people are native speakers of an Afroasiatic language, constituting the fourth-largest language family after Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Niger–Congo. Most linguists divide the family into six branches: Berber (Amazigh), Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic, and Semitic. The vast majority of Afroasiatic languages are considered indigenous to the African continent, including all those not belonging to the Semitic branch (which originated in West Asia).
The five most spoken languages in the family are: Arabic (of all varieties), which is by far the most widely spoken within the family, with around 411 million native speakers concentrated primarily in West Asia and North Africa; the Chadic Hausa language, with over 58 million speakers in West Africa; the Cushitic Oromo language, with 45 million native speakers; the Semitic Amharic language, with 35 million; and the Cushitic Somali language with 24 million, all the latter three in the Horn of Africa. Other Afroasiatic languages with millions of native speakers include the Semitic Tigrinya, Tigre and Modern Hebrew, the Cushitic Beja, Sidama and Afar languages, the Berber languages (Shilha, Kabyle, Central Atlas Tamazight, Shawiya and Tarifit), and the Omotic Wolaitta language. Most languages of the non-Semitic branches (especially Chadic and Omotic) have far fewer speakers, and many Afroasiatic languages in Africa are vulnerable or endangered.
