# The original Semites... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 31, 2002, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-semites/111795 "2002-05-31T20:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-semites/111795/21 "2002-06-16T19:20:26Z")
With all respect, **Piper** , I think you’re overreacting. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-semites/111795/22 "2002-06-16T19:57:26Z")
What’s a little over-rection amongst friends? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Efrem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@Efrem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Efrem)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-semites/111795/23 "2002-06-16T21:46:11Z")
Teff (an uniquely Eritrean/Ethiopian grain) is a **major** staple for Eritreans/Ethiopians, but we also grow corn, wheat, etc… Mainly, we grow what can grow in our climate (rocky, high altitude, erratic rain patterns). I don’t know if this can help but a month ago it was discovered that [the ‘Oldest’ African settlement was found in Eritrea](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_2000000/2000297.stm). It was a agricultural community that was found close to the capital of Asmara. Also here is crop zones for both countries listing what grows and where (maybe this can help): [1](http://www.fao.org/giews/english/basedocs/eri/ericul1e.stm), [2](http://www.fao.org/giews/english/basedocs/eth/ethcul1e.stm). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-semites/111795/24 "2002-06-16T22:39:28Z")
It doesn’t look to me like any grain crop fits the pattern of “the Semitic language [spread] with the domestication of [that grain].” Notice that the maps in the pictures given by efrem are for the modern spread of these grains. Maize (i.e., corn) is a New World plant and thus didn’t reach Ethiopia and Eritrea until after the time of Columbus. Teff is the best known grain of Eritrea/Ethiopia (that’s what the injera you eat at Ethiopian restaurants is made of), but it doesn’t seem to have spread beyond those countries. I can’t think of any grain crop whose spread matches that of the Semites or of the Afro-Asiatics. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-semites/111795/25 "2002-06-17T19:33:06Z")
Well, I understood his POV in the OP restriction on “religious posters” to mean “I want to eliminate religion-based commentary on language origins” because "everybody knows that they originated with the descendants of Noah’s three sons… Certainly I can spout off on what a literalist interpretation of Scripture would say, and it would be totally useless to the glottochronological question at hand. So I put on my “not a religious poster at the moment” hat\* and answered as best I could from my knowledge in linguistics (which is not overly deep). - $4.95, discount for quantity orders, from the same sources as moderator hats 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-semites/111795.md?page=1)