Cushitic

The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages phylum, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. They are spoken in the Horn of Africa. The most prominent language is Oromo with about 21 million speakers, followed by Somali (in Somalia) with about 10 million speakers, Sidamo (in Ethiopia) with about 2 million speakers, and Afar (in Eritrea) with about 1.5 million. It is divided into the following subgroups, following Joseph H. Greenberg as modified by Beja language (often seen as outside Cushitic proper)

• Central Cushitic languages (or Agaw languages)
• East Cushitic languages (including Oromo, Somali, Sidamo, and Afar)
• South Cushitic languages (including Iraqw and arguably Dahalo)

Robert Hetzron has suggested regarding the South Cushitic languages as a subgroup of East Cushitic.

Cushitic was traditionally seen as also including the Omotic languages, then called West Cushitic languages, but this view has been largely abandoned.