Cushitic - Omotic: genetic and areal relations

Genetic and areal relations between Cushitic and Omotic languages are re-examined using the method of stepwise reconstruction. To this end, the list of about 180 most stable basic meanings is prepared. Proto-East and South Cushitic, Proto-North and South Omotic basic lexicons are reconstructed within this wordlist together with regular phonemic correspondences between daughter languages of these families. Main types of root structure in these proto-languages and patterns of their evolution in the daughter ones are established. These intermediate proto-languages are compared with the remaining Cushitic and Omotic languages, namely with Beja, Central Cushitic (Agaw), and Mao. Regular phonemic correspondences between these (proto-) languages are found, and the proto-Cushito-Omotic basic lexicon is reconstructed. By comparing these (proto-)languages with each other and with Proto-Semitic, it is argued that the oldest Afro-Asiatic lexical stratum in Omotic is borrowed from the otherwise unknown Cushitic subgroup, and before this borrowing North and South Omotic have had nothing to do neither with each other not with the Afro-Asiatic macro-phylum.