Hamitic (from the
biblical Ham) is a historical term in
ethnology and
linguistics for a division of the
Caucasian race and the group of related languages these populations spoke. "Hamitic" was applied to non-
Semitic languages in the
Afroasiatic family, which was thus formerly labelled "Hamito-Semitic". The Hamitic languages were classified as including the
Berber,
Cushitic and
Egyptian branches. However, since these branches have not been shown to form an exclusive (
monophyletic) phylogenetic unit of their own, separate from other Afroasiatic languages, linguists no longer use the term in this sense. Each of these branches is instead now regarded as an independent sub-group of the larger Afroasiatic family.