The Afroasiatic (also known as Afrasan or Afrasian) are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic subregions of Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahara/Sahel. With the exception of its Semitic branch, all branches of the Afroasiatic family are exclusively native to the African continent.
The Afroasiatic languages and Afroasiatic peoples originated from the Proto-Afroasiatic speakers somewhere in the Southeastern Sahara or the adjacent Horn of Africa (~13kya). An African origin has broad scholarly support, and is favored by most linguists on the basis of the linguistic data.