<P> With the exception of the extinct Sumerian (a language isolate) of Mesopotamia, Afro - Asiatic has the oldest documented history of any language family in the world . Egyptian was recorded as early as 3200 BCE . The Semitic branch was recorded as early as 2900 BCE in the form of the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia) and circa 2500 BCE in the form of the Eblaite language of north eastern Syria . </P> <P> The distribution of the Afroasiatic languages within Africa is principally concentrated in North Africa and the Horn of Africa . Languages belonging to the family's Berber branch are mainly spoken in the north, with its speech area extending into the Sahel (northern Mauritania, northern Mali, northern Niger). The Cushitic branch of Afroasiatic is centered in the Horn, and is also spoken in the Nile Valley and parts of the African Great Lakes region . Additionally, the Semitic branch of the family, in the form of Arabic, is widely spoken in the parts of Africa that are within the Arab world . South Semitic languages are also spoken in parts of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea). The Chadic branch is distributed in Central and West Africa . Hausa, its most widely spoken language, serves as a lingua franca in West Africa (Niger, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, and Chad). </P> <P> The several families lumped under the term Khoi - San include languages indigenous to Southern Africa and Tanzania, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion . In Southern Africa, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and San (Bushmen), in Southeast Africa, the Sandawe and Hadza . </P> <P> The Niger--Congo family is the largest in the world in terms of the number of languages (1,436) it contains . The vast majority of languages of this family are tonal such as Yoruba, and Igbo, However, others such as Fulani and Wolof are not . A major branch of Niger--Congo languages is the Bantu family, which covers a greater geographic area than the rest of the family put together . Bantu speakers represent the majority of inhabitants in southern, central and southeastern Africa, though San, Pygmy, and Nilotic groups, respectively, can also be found in those regions . Bantu - speakers can also be found in parts of Central Africa such as the Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and southern Cameroon . Swahili, a Bantu language with many Arabic, Persian and other Middle Eastern and South Asian loan words, developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples in southeastern Africa . In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as Bushmen (also "San", closely related to, but distinct from "Hottentots") have long been present . The San evince unique physical traits, and are the indigenous people of southern Africa . Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of Central Africa . </P>

Who influenced kingdoms below the sub saharan area of africa