These theories do not take into account that language shift is probably a much more recurrent phenomenon than any romantic association between people and culture leads us to assume.Further on in the same paper, Tosco does note that there are oral traditions among the Aweer ethnic community that they had at one point had cattle and, as a result of losing them (and presumably their social status), had become foragers.

A similar view can be found in Stiles (1988:41-42),[11] and the general consensus is that while the actual origin of the Aweer and their language is not known definitively, it is likely that they at one point were not foragers.

A competing hypothesis, and perhaps equally plausible one in the same vein as Heine's first scenario, is put forth by Tosco (1994:159) that links the emergence of Aweer to the expansion of Garre-speakers from the northeast: According to Garre traditions, the movement began "from an area located at or near the present-day settlement of Luuq, down the right side of the Jubba river.

All that remains of their Dahaloan speech is a single community near the coast ..., even the lexicon has been influenced by Garre" (Ali 1985:161ff)[12].

Khoisan[13] language and adopted a Cushitic language, i.e. Dahalo.He then notes that in a forthcoming work to be published, Tosco (1992),[14] that there are loans of East Omo-Tana (or in his words, "Somali") origin within Dahalo that could have only been loaned by either Aweer or Garre, such as the verb šir- (IPA: [ʃir-]) 'to be there, to exist' which demonstrates the sound change *k > [ʃ] /_i and the verb unneed- (IPA: [ʔunneːd]) 'to swallow', which demonstrates another sound shift found in both Garre and Aweer, *ʕ > [ʔ] along with the semantic shift of 'to eat' > 'to swallow'; which itself is found in Aweer.