The ancient Egyptian language belongs to the branch of the Afro-Asian languages, an extensive family with about 300 languages whose territory is mainly in Africa and the Middle East. The Egyptian, in fact, is a whole family that includes a large number of languages that were spoken in Egypt and that now, unfortunately, are already dead (the only one that is still used is the Coptic in certain ceremonies of the Coptic Orthodox Church .
Do not confuse the ancient Egyptian language with that spoken today in Egypt, Egyptian Arabic. Whereas, for example, ancient Egyptian is considered one of the oldest languages in the world (dating from 3200 BC), Egyptian modern does not even share the same family, since it is a variant of the Arabic that replaced the Coptic after the conquest.
Ancient Egyptian language | 10 Curiosities about this mysterious language
1. The ancient Egyptian language family
The ancient Egyptian language, as we have said, is one of the oldest languages that are known, and as such has had different evolutions: the Egyptian archaic (spoken before 2600 BC), ancient (from 2600 to 2000 BC), medium (from 2000 to 1300 BC), late (from 1300 to 700 BC) , the demotic (from 700 BC to the V century BC) and, finally, the Coptic (from the second century AD to the XVII century). These languages, in addition, were so different from each other that the speakers of each other would not understand each other.
2. The archaic Egyptian and the first hieroglyphs
The archaic Egyptian is the less developed and early form of the ancient Egyptian language. It was formed by hieroglyphs and represented an evolution of the protolanguage (which is what is known as a half-formed language, in which the information transmitted is very limited) in which grammar hardly existed.
3. The first sentence with meaning of the Egyptian
The first and meaningful first sentence (which, in fact, is what marks the change from the archaic to the ancient Egyptian) it is the one found in the grave of Seth-Peribsen, one of the first pharaohs who ruled Egypt (in fact, he is such an early pharaoh, of the second dynasty, that it is not known who governed just before and after him). The inscription reads: "He united the two lands for his son."
4. The Middle Egyptian, a more developed variety
The following evolution of the ancient Egyptian language, the Middle Egyptian language, is one of the best documented and of those that has attracted the most interest from professionals. , besides that probably is the one that you know better (the interest arose in the XIX century, when they began to decipher the hieroglyphics). This variety even had a version of the italics!
5. The translations of the late Egyptian
The late Egyptian was the next variety of the ancient Egyptian language that fascinated the modern human being , especially thanks to the translation of works such as The History of Wenamun, written in hieratic (or what is the same: in an archaic alphabet, not in hieroglyphics), which told the story of a priest's travels through the Mediterranean that, it is believed, belongs to the genre of historical fiction.
6. Hieroglyphs: many elements in one
The hieroglyphics, which were used together with hieratic and coptic writing, combined masterfully and totally unexpected logographic elements (that is, ideograms such as Chinese characters), syllabaries (that is, with symbols that had to be pronounced with syllables, such as Japanese katakana or hiragana) and alphabetics. There were up to 1,000 different hieroglyphics.
7. The hieroglyphics in italics
Many very important Egyptian texts (like The book of the dead ) are written in a very special variety of the ancient Egyptian language, the hieroglyphics in italics. This type of hieroglyphs, simpler than those that were sculpted or painted on the walls of the tombs, were especially designed to be written by hand, with a brush and in materials such as papyrus or wood.
8. Did the hieroglyphs survive over time?
The survival of the hieroglyphics and, in general, of the ancient Egyptian language was most hazardous after the conquest of Alexander the Great. Some say that this type of writing was still used to distinguish the true Egyptians, that is, those who had not been "contaminated" by the conquerors. However, much later, the use of hieroglyphics in the monument was final after the closing of all non-Christian temples, in 391, by the Romans.
9. Together, but not scrambled
In fact, the Greeks and Romans, who lived with the Egyptians, had a very curious way of looking at hieroglyphics : for them, this type of writing entered into mysticism and almost magic. Even so, there were those who looked at the hieroglyphs in a somewhat different way, for example, Horapollo wrote a Greek translation of a hieroglyphic text entitled Hieroglyphica.
10. A Mediterranean influence
However, despite the fact that the ancient Egyptian language can be considered extinct (mainly because of the persecution suffered in the sixteenth century) the Egyptian influenced notably in other languages of the Mediterranean like for example the Greek (they come from the Egyptian words like ebony) or the Hebrew used in the Bible.
The ancient Egyptian language is impressive and interesting, is not it? We hope you enjoyed this article and that you have learned something more about this fascinating language. Tell us, did you know all these curiosities about the ancient Egyptian? Do you think we have left something interesting to say? Remember that you can tell us what you want in the comments!