Although Egyptian was certainly one of the languages spoken in the lower Nile Valley in prehistoric times, the first writing of the language did not appear until about 3200 BC. The earliest known hieroglyphs appear at the same time that a large state was consolidated and controlled by the first Egyptian kings. From the beginning the writing system had a royal context, and this is probably the setting in which writing was invented in Egypt. It used to be proposed that writing was first invented in Mesopotamia and then the idea of writing diffused to Egypt. The structure, scripts, media, and uses of the two writing systems, however, are very different, and it seems more likely that writing was invented independently in both Egypt and Mesopotamia.
In use for over 3,000 years during pharaonic and Greco-Roman times, spoken Egyptian changed through time (Figure 2.1). These changes are reflected to some extent in the written language (Figures 2.2 and 2.3). Early Egyptian is the earliest, formative stage of writing and dates to Dynasty 0 and the first three dynasties. The earliest hieroglyphs are found on artifacts from tombs: royal labels that were probably attached to grave goods, royal seals, and labels of high state officials. Hieroglyphs are also found on early royal ceremonial art,
Figure 2.1 Stages of the Egyptian language. Source: Antonio Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge university Press, 1995, p. 8. Reprinted by permission of Cambridge university Press.
Figure 2.2 Fragmentary papyrus in hieratic about the Battle of Qadesh, fought by Rameses II in the 19th Dynasty (E. 4892). Source: The Art Archive/Musee du Louvre Paris/Dagli Orti.
The most famous of which is the Narmer Palette (Figure 5.6). The use of these signs was not standardized. Writing at this time was used to record words as items of information rather than consecutive speech, with verbal sentences, syntax, etc., and the earliest writing remains incompletely understood because there simply is not enough material.
Many more texts are known from the Old Kingdom (4th-6th Dynasties), in a form of the written language known as Old Egyptian. In combination with scenes, hieroglyphic texts appear on the walls of tombs of private individuals, and in the later Old Kingdom, the earliest royal mortuary texts, known as the Pyramid Texts, are found in the inner chambers of pyramids. Full syntax was being written down at this time.
Middle Egyptian (also known as Classical Egyptian) is the written language of the Middle Kingdom (later 11th and 12th-13th Dynasties) and Second Intermediate Period. This is the classical period of ancient Egyptian literature, when literary texts such as the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor and the Story of Sinuhe were composed. Instructional texts in mathematics, medicine, and veterinary practice are known, as well as letters, legal documents, and government records. Religious texts were written in Middle Egyptian, not only in the Middle Kingdom, but also in later periods. Developing as part of the same large corpus as the late Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, mortuary texts for private individuals were painted or incised on the sides of Middle Kingdom coffins, hence the term Coffin Texts. New Kingdom mortuary texts are also mainly in Middle Egyptian, including the so-called Book of the
Figure 2.3 Limestone ostracon, with Coptic inscriptions on both sides, addressed to Psan, probably the disciple of Epiphanius, and naming Pesentius of Coptos/Qift. Source: © Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, university College London uC62848.
Dead (more correctly known as the Going Forth by Day) and the underworld books found on the walls of royal tombs. Approximately 700 different hieroglyphic signs were used to write Middle Egyptian (but no single text would ever be written with so many different signs).
Late Egyptian is the written language of the later New Kingdom (19th-20th Dynasties) and Third Intermediate Period. Although it had been spoken for a long time, Late Egyptian did not appear as a fully written language until later in the 18th Dynasty, during the reign of Akhenaten. The huge body of monumental texts on the walls of New Kingdom temples continued to be written in a form of Middle Egyptian. Numerous surviving government records include the account of a workers’ strike, and many types of texts known earlier, such as literary works, letters, and medical and magical texts, are written in Late Egyptian.
Demotic is the written language (as well as a script) associated with the Late Period, beginning with the 26th Dynasty (664-525 Bc), and it continued to be in use through Greco-Roman times. A large body of Demotic literature is known, especially narrative and instruction texts. The latest known use of Demotic is from a graffito at the temple of Philae, dating to ad 452.
The latest (and last) form of the ancient Egyptian language is Coptic, which began to be written in the 2nd century ad (Figure 2.3). Since hieroglyphs were associated with pagan temples and practices in Egypt, Egyptian-speaking Christians wrote in Coptic, using the Coptic alphabet, which was derived from the Greek alphabet, with the addition of a few letters derived from demotic script. The last hieroglyphs are from the late 4th century ad, after which knowledge of this ancient writing system was lost. Gradually after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century, Arabic began to replace Coptic as the spoken and written language. Coptic continues to be used as the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church.
World History
