Talk:South Semitic languages

	Language portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Languages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of languages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LanguagesWikipedia:WikiProject LanguagesTemplate:WikiProject Languageslanguage articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Africa: Eritrea / Ethiopia Mid‑importance

	Africa portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject AfricaTemplate:WikiProject AfricaAfrica articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Eritrea portal This article is supported by WikiProject Eritrea.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Ethiopia (assessed as High-importance).

Yemen

	Yemen portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Yemen, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Yemen on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.YemenWikipedia:WikiProject YemenTemplate:WikiProject YemenYemen articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Western Asia

	Asia portal This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Western Asia, which collaborates on articles related to Western Asia. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.Western AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject Western AsiaTemplate:WikiProject Western AsiaWestern Asia articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Arab world Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arab world, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Arab world on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Arab worldWikipedia:WikiProject Arab worldTemplate:WikiProject Arab worldArab world articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Backward Migration?[edit]

This section of the text:

The "homeland" of the South Semitic languages appears to have been the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula—indeed no Semitic language is thought to have originated on the continent of Africa. The modern and historic presence of South Semitic Ethiopian languages (and Ethiopic script) in Africa is believed to be due to a (backwards) migration of South Arabian speakers from Yemen within the last few thousand years. (It can be considered a "backwards migration" in that Afro-Asiatic languages are assumed to have arisen in Africa originally and moved into the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula in the form of Proto-Semitic, since all major branches of the larger Afro-Asiatic family except for Semitic are found in Africa. A minority of academics, e.g. A. Murtonen (1967), dispute this view, suggesting that Semitic may have originated in Ethiopia.)

seems to contradict what Semitic Languages says:

Since Semitic is a member of Afro-Asiatic, a principally African family, the first speakers of Proto-Semitic are generally believed to have arrived in the Middle East from Africa, in the 4th millennium BC, although this question is still much debated.

Whereas the first is affirmative in its proclamation that it did not originate in Africa, the latter says that it is more likely that Semitic languages (e.g. beginning with Proto-Semitic) began in Africa, but that it's still up for debate. The text in this article seems POV, so I'm going to change it to something more in line with the latter (which seems more accurate anyway).

Yom 01:09, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

@Yom: No contradiction. Proto-Semitic and Semitic per se are different phases, probably separated by thousands of years. --Yomal Sidoroff-Biarmskii (talk) 23:52, 24 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Part of West Semitic and other issues[edit]

I don't know why I haven't visited this article before, but there are a few things which place it out of balance with the rest of articles on Semitic languages. The most favoured sources list South Semitic as part of a large West Semitic grouping (this is discussed on various pages linked off these articles). Although there is a reasonable claim for South Semitic being a separate entity, it is not the general overview of our other articles, and we should seek consistency. Likewise, the article should be titled South Semitic languages (we have East Semitic languages, West Semitic languages, Central Semitic languages…). Once these are accepted we can use {{Infobox Language family}} in the same way as it used in other groupings. I feel that this is mostly straightforward. Does anyone disagree with this approach? — Gareth Hughes 14:53, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]