To me it is new. I thought Cushitic was one of the older branches but it turns out it's one the youngest. Egyptian is also the oldest and most divergent, followed by Semitic.
Afro-Asiatic originated between Egypt and Israel.
The Horn heimat theories are pure nonsense.
In most Afroasiatic languages the word for faeces is similar to the Somali word Xaar .
You're probably right about the HOA, but I find it hard to believe that AA originated outside of Africa. Maybe Upper Egypt, maybe north africa. But definitely not Levant and Arabia.
I take it, you also don't believe Omotic is a branch of AA?
Original Omotic is not AA, but something like Hadza. They copied a lot of words from Cushitic making it appear AA-ish.
Like modern English did with romance languages?
Omotic is an outlier when it comes to to AA languages I think it is a creoal that developed when the original Afro Asiatic people came to the horn but that's just my theoryOriginal Omotic is not AA, but something like Hadza. They copied a lot of words from Cushitic making it appear AA-ish.