Egyptian language

Egyptian
r n km.t
r
Z1		 n km m t
O49

Spoken in: Ancient Egypt
Language extinction: evolved into Demotic by 600 BC, into Coptic by AD 200, and was extinct (not spoken as a day-to-day language) by the 17th century. It survives as the liturgical language of the Christian Coptic Church.
Language family: Afro-Asiatic
 Egyptian 
Writing system: hieroglyphs, cursive hieroglyphs, hieratic, demotic and Coptic (later, occasionally Arabic script in government translations)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: None
ISO 639-2: egy
ISO 639-3: either:
egy – Egyptian language
cop – Coptic language 
Ebers Papyrus detailing treatment of asthma.

 

Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language most closely related to the Chadic,[1] Berber, Semitic, Somali and Beja languages.[2] It survived until the 5th century AD in the form of Demotic and until the late 17th century AD in the form of Coptic. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3200 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. The national language of modern day Egypt is Egyptian Arabic, which gradually replaced Coptic Egyptian as the language of daily life in the centuries after the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Coptic is still used as a liturgical language by the Coptic Church, and reportedly has a handful of native speakers today.[3][4]

Contents

Periodization

Scholars group the Egyptian language into 6 major chronological divisions:

Egyptian writing in the form of label and signs has been dated to 3200 BC. These early texts are generally lumped together under the term "Archaic Egyptian."

In 1999, Archaeology Magazine reported that the earliest Egyptian Glyphs date back to 3400 BC which "...challenge the commonly held belief that early logographs, pictographic symbols representing a specific place, object, or quantity, first evolved into more complex phonetic symbols in Mesopotamia."

Old Egyptian was spoken for some 500 years from 2600 BC onwards. Middle Egyptian was spoken from about 2000 BC for a further 700 years when Late Egyptian made its appearance; Middle Egyptian did, however, survive until the first few centuries AD as a written language, similar to the use of Latin during the Middle Ages and that of Classical Arabic today. Demotic Egyptian first appears about 650 BC and survived as a spoken language until fifth century AD. Coptic Egyptian appeared in the fourth century AD and survived as a living language until the sixteenth century AD, when European scholars traveled to Egypt to learn

Structure of the language

Egyptian is a fairly typical Afro-Asiatic language. At the heart of Egyptian vocabulary is a root of three consonants. Sometimes there were only two, for example <rʕ> /riʕa/ "sun" (where the [ʕ] represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative), but larger roots are also common some being as large as five /sḫdḫd/ "be upside-down". Vowels and other consonants were then inserted into the consonantal skeleton in order to derive different meanings, in the same way as Arabic, Hebrew, and other Afro-Asiatic languages do today. However, because vowels (and sometimes glides) weren't written in any Egyptian script aside from Coptic, it can be difficult to reconstruct the actual forms of words; hence orthographic <stp> "to choose", for example, could represent the stative (as the stative endings can be left unexpressed) or imperfective verb forms or even a verbal noun (i. e., "a choosing").

Phonologically, Egyptian contrasted labial, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and glottal consonants, in a distribution rather similar to that of Arabic. It also contrasted voiceless and emphatic consonants, as with other Afro-Asiatic languages, although exactly how the emphatic consonants were realized is not precisely known. In transcription, <a>, <i>, and <u> all represent consonants; for example, the name Tutankhamen (1341 BC – 1323 BC) was written in Egyptian twt-ʕnḫ-ỉmn. Experts have assigned generic sounds to these values as a matter of convenience, but this artificial pronunciation should not be mistaken for how Egyptian was actually pronounced at any point in time. For example, twt-ʕnḫ-ỉmn is commonly pronounced something like /tutanˈkamən/ in modern English, but in his time was likely realized as something like *tVwaːt-ʕa:nix-ʔaˈmaːn, where V is a vowel of undetermined quality.

Classical Egyptian's basic word order is Verb Subject Object; the equivalent to "the man opens the door", would be a sentence corresponding to "opens the man the door" (wn s ˁ3). It uses the so-called status constructus to combine two or more nouns to express the genitive, similar to Semitic and Berber languages. The early stages of Egyptian possessed no articles, no words for "the" or "a"; later forms used the words p3, t3 and n3 for this purpose. Like other Afro-Asiatic languages, Egyptian uses two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, similarly to Arabic and Tamasheq. It also uses three grammatical numbers, contrasting singular, dual, and plural forms, although there is a tendency for the loss of the dual as a productive form in later Egyptian.

Egyptian writing

Main article: Writing in Ancient Egypt
sẖ3 n mdw nṯr
in hieroglyphs
Y4 n R8 S43 Z1
Z1
Z1

Most surviving texts in the Egyptian language are primarily written on stone in the hieroglyphic script. However, in antiquity, the majority of texts were written on perishable papyrus in hieratic and (later) demotic, which are now lost. There was also a form of cursive hieroglyphic script used for religious documents on papyrus, such as the Book of the Dead in the Ramesside Period; this script was simpler to write tha'sẖ3 n mdw nṯr or "writing of the words of god." Hieroglyphs are employed in two ways in Egyptian texts: as ideograms that represent the idea depicted by the pictures; and more commonly as phonograms denoting their phonetic value.

Phonology

Further information: Transliteration of ancient Egyptian

While the consonantal phonology of the Egyptian language may be reconstructed, its exact phonetics are unknown, and there are varying opinions on how to classify the individual phonemes. A peculiarity shared with the Semitic languages is the existence of an "emphatic series." It was assumed in the past that the binary opposition in stops that can be reconstructed for Egyptian was one of voicing, but is now thought to be one between voiceless and emphatic stops[5].

Since vowels were not written natively, reconstructions of the Egyptian vowel system are much more uncertain, relying mainly on the evidence from Coptic and foreign transcriptions of Egyptian personal and place names.

Because Egyptian is also recorded over a full two millennia, the Archaic and Late stages being separated by the amount of time that separates Old Latin from modern Italian, it must be assumed that significant phonetic changes would have occurred over that time.

The vocalization of Egyptian is partially known, largely on the basis of reconstruction from Coptic, in which the vowels are written. Recordings of Egyptian words in other languages provide an additional source of evidence. Scribal errors provide evidence of changes in pronunciation over time. The actual pronunciations reconstructed by such means are used only by a few specialists in the language. For all other purposes the Egyptological pronunciation is used, which is, of course, artificial and often bears little resemblance to what is known of how Egyptian was spoken.

Plosives

Earlier Egyptian

  bilabials alveolars palatals velars uvulars
  transliteration approximate phonetic value transliteration approximate phonetic value transliteration approximate phonetic value transliteration approximate phonetic value transliteration approximate phonetic value
voiceless p [p] t [t] ṯ [c] k [k] q (ḳ) [q]
voiced b [b]
emphatic d [t'] ḏ [c'] g [k']

Egyptian g may represent two phonemes (g1 and g²) [6], both continuing Afro-Asiatic /g/.

Palatal /c/ ṯ (emphatic /c'/ ḏ) continue Afro-Asiatic /q/ and /k/ (merged with t and d in Demotic)

Earlier Coptic

  bilabials alveolars palatals velars
  orthographic approximate phonetic value orthographic approximate phonetic value orthographic approximate phonetic value orthographic approximate phonetic value
voiceless ⲡ [p] ⲧ [t] ϭ [c] ⲕ [k]
voiced ⲇ [d] ⲅ [g]
emphatic ⲇ [t'] ϫ [c'] ⲅ [k']
Fricatives
labials alveolars velars pharyngeals glottals
f
f
s
s (ś)
S
š
X
ẖ
H
ḥ
h
h
z
z
x
ḫ (x)
a
ˁ
A
Egyptian 3 symbol.png (3, ȝ)

s and z were collapsed in the Middle Kingdom.

ˁ may have been /d/ in the Old Kingdom, evolving into a pharyngeal in the Middle Kingdom. It is called "Egyptian Ayin" after the Semitic pharyngeal fricative.

The nature of ḫ vs. ẖ is controversial, possibly a voiced vs. voiceless opposition.

3, often identified as "Egyptian Aleph" (a glottal stop), or alternatively a remnant of an r or l phoneme.

i

ı͗, probably an Aleph sound [ʔ].

i i

y (ı͗ı͗) [j]

w

w, either of [w] and [u]

Nasals
m

m

n

n

Liquids
r

r

l, in writing expressed as n, r, j, nr or 3[7] or often as the lion-shaped biliteral rw.

Traditional alef (3) may also have been a alveolar approximant /ɹ/.

Egyptological pronunciation

As a convention, Egyptologists make use of an "Egyptological pronunciation" in which the consonants are given fixed values and vowels are inserted in accordance with essentially arbitrary rules. Two distinct different consonants, Egyptian alef and the Egyptian ayin, are both often pronounced as [a]. The yodh pronounced as [i], and similarly, w as [u]. Between the other consonants, [e] is then inserted. Thus, for example, the Egyptian king whose name is most accurately transliterated as Rˁ-ms-sw is transcribed as "Ramesses", meaning "Ra has Fashioned (lit., "Borne") Him".

Change into Coptic

(Middle) Egyptian consonant Coptic (Sahidic) consonant
3 y, i
ṯ t
ḏ t, d
k k, g
ḫ, ẖ, š š, ḫ, h, ẖ

Grammar

Like most other Afro-Asiatic languages, Old and Middle Egyptian have a Verb–Subject–Object word order. This does not hold true for Late Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic.

Nouns

Egyptian nouns can be either masculine or feminine (indicated as with other Afro-Asiatic languages by adding a -t), and singular, plural (-w / -wt), or dual (-wy / -ty).

Articles (both definite and indefinite) did not develop until Late Egyptian, but are used widely thereafter.

Pronouns

Egyptian has three different types of personal pronouns: suffix, enclitic (called "dependent" by Egyptologists) and independent pronouns. It also has a number of verbal endings added to the infinitive to form the stative, which are regarded by some linguists[8] as a "fourth" set of personal pronouns. They bear close resemblance to their Semitic and Berber counterparts. The three main sets of personal pronouns are as follows:

Suffix Dependent Independent
1st s. -ı͗ wı͗ ı͗nk
2nd s.m. -k tw ntk
2nd s.f. -t tn ntt
3rd s.m. -f sw ntf
3rd s.f. -s sy nts
1st p. -n n ı͗nn
2nd p. -tn tn nttn
3rd p. -sn sn ntsn

It also has demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these and those), in masculine, feminine, and common plural:

Mas. Fem. Plu.
pn tn nn "this, that, these, those"
pf tf nF "that, those"
pw tw nw "this, that, these, those" (archaic)
p3 t3 n3 "this, that, these, those" (colloquial [earlier] and Late Egyptian)

Finally there are interrogative pronouns (what, who, etc.)

mı͗ "who? what?" (dependent)
ptr "who? what?" (independent)
iḫ "what?" (dependent)
ı͗šst "what?" (independent)
zı͗ "which?" (independent and dependent)

Verbs

The verbal morphology of Egyptian can be divided into finite and non-finite forms. Finite verbs convey person, tense/aspect, mood, and voice. Each is indicated by a set of affixal morphemes attached to the verb — the basic conjugation is sḏm.f 'he hears'. The non-finite forms occur without a subject and they are the infinitive, the participles and the negative infinitive, which Gardiner calls "negatival complement". There are two main tenses/aspects in Egyptian: past and temporally unmarked imperfective and aorist forms. The latter are determined from their syntactic context.

Adjectives

Adjectives agree in gender and number with their nouns, for example: s nfr "(the) good man" and st nfrt "(the) good woman".

Attributive adjectives used in phrases fall after the noun they are modifying, such as in "(the) great god" (nṯr ˁ3). However, when used independently as a predicate in an adjectival phrase, such "(the) god (is) great" (ˁ3 nṯr) [lit., "great (is the) god"), the adjective precedes the noun.

Prepositions

Egyptian prepositions come before the noun.

m "in, as, with, from"
n "to, for"
r "to, at"
ı͗n "by"
ḥnˁ "with"
mỉ "like"
ḥr "on, upon"
ḥ3 "behind, around"
ẖr "under"
tp "atop"
ḏr "since"

Adverbs

Adverbs are words such as "here" or "where?". In Egyptian, they come at the end of a sentence, e.g., zỉ.n nṯr ỉm "the god went there", "there" (ỉm) is the adverb.

Some common Egyptian Adverbs:

ˁ3 "here"
ı͗m "there"
ṯnỉ "where"
zy-nw "when" (lit. "what moment")
mı͗-ı͗ḫ "how" (lit. "like-what")
r-mı͗ "why" (lit. "for what")
ḫnt "before"

Modern-day resources

Interest in the ancient Egyptian language continues. For example, it is still taught in several universities. Many resources are in French or German, in addition to English so it can be useful to know one of these languages though not a requirement.

For the film Stargate, Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith was commissioned to develop a constructed language to simulate the tongue of ancient Egyptians living alone on another planet for millennia. He also created the Egyptian dialogue for The Mummy (1999 film). In the French comedy Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre, a similar attempt was apparently made (source in French). Egyptian taunts and responses are also heard while playing the Egyptian campaign of Age of Mythology

While Egyptian culture is one of the influences of Western civilization, few words of Egyptian origin are found in English. Even those associated with ancient Egypt were usually transmitted in Greek forms. Some examples of Egyptian words that have survived into English include ebony (Egyptian ḥbny, via Greek and then Latin), ivory (Egyptian abw / abu, literally 'ivory; elephant'), phoenix (Egyptian bnw, literally 'heron'; transmitted through Greek), Pharaoh (Egyptian pr-ˁʒ, literally "great house"; transmitted through Hebrew), as well as the proper names Phineas (Egyptian, pʒ-nḥsy, used as a generic term for Nubian foreigners) and Susan (Egyptian, sšn, literally "lotus flower"; probably transmitted first from Egyptian into Hebrew Shoshanah).

Notes

  1. ↑ Appleyard, David L. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 64, No. 1 (2001), pp. 151-152
  2. ↑ Loprieno 1996.
  3. ↑ The language may have survived in isolated pockets in Upper Egypt into the 19th century according to James Edward Quibell, When did Coptic become extinct? in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 39 (1901), p. 87).
  4. ↑ Daily Star Egypt. 23 January 2007
  5. ↑ see Egyptian Phonology by Carsten Peust for a review of the history of thinking on the subject. Note that his reconstructions of words are non-standard.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Schenkel: Glottalisierte Verschlußlaute, glottaler Verschlußlaut und ein pharyngaler Reibelaut im Koptischen, Rückschlüsse aus den ägyptisch-koptischen Lehnwörtern und Ortsnamen im Ägyptisch-Arabischen. In: Lingua Aegyptia 10, 2002. S. 1-57 ISSN 0942-5659. S. 31 ff.
  7. ↑ another interpretation is suggested by Christopher Ehret: Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary. University of California Publications in Linguistics 126, California, Berkeley 1996. ISBN 0520097998
  8. ↑ Loprieno 1995, p. 65

Literature

Overviews

Grammars

Dictionaries

Online dictionaries

Important Note: the old grammars & dictionaries of E. A. Wallis Budge have long been considered obsolete by Egyptologists, even though these books are still available for purchase.

More book information is available at Glyphs and Grammars

See also

External links

Ancient Egypt topics
All the Giza pyramids

Architecture · Art · Burial customs · Chronology · Cuisine · Dynasties · Geography · History · Mathematics · Medicine · Religion · Pharaohs · People · Language · Sites · Technology · Writing

Egyptology · Egyptologists · Egyptian Museum · Ancient Egypt portal