Across its 5000 year history, the ancient Egyptian language used four different scripts: hieroglyphs, hieratic, Demotic and Coptic. The ancient Egyptian writing system was first developed around 3400-3200 BCE. The earliest attested writing was found in Tomb U-j at Abydos, on a series of labels inscribed with the hieroglyphic script.
Hieroglyphic (from the Greek ἱερογλυφικάγράμματα “sacred engraved writing”) writing consisted of pictographic signs. Such signs initially expressed a word through direct representation. For example, a hieroglyphic depiction of a bull would represent the word “bull”. As the writing system developed, hieroglyphic signs were associated with phonetic values, and represented the sound of a word as well as its meaning.
The written form of more abstract words, which did not represent a physical object or being, developed following the rebus principle, in which the sound associated with the word represented by a pictographic sign was used to form a new word. For example, the sign 𓁷depicts a human face, and thus was used to represent the word for “face”. The sound of this word involved the consonants ḥ and r, giving the word ḥr. This hieroglyph could subsequently be used to write other words which contained the sound ḥr, but which were not associated with the meaning “face”, such as 𓁷𓏤 ḥr “upon” or 𓁷𓂋𓇌𓏏𓐡𓂡𓏥 ḥryt “terror” among many others. Thus as it developed, the hieroglyphic script was able to express more words. The amount of words that could be expressed was also increased by the addition of new signs to the writing system. By the 3rd millennium BCE, there were around 1000 hieroglyphic signs in use, although this reduced to around 750 in the 2nd millennium BCE.
Many scripts which originated from pictographic signs, such as Chinese, developed over time to more abstract symbols, reducing the iconicity of the script. In such languages the early pictographic signs were no longer used alongside the newer signs. In contrast, in the Egyptian hieroglyphic script, pictographic signs continued to be used until the last known hieroglyphic text from 394 CE, despite less iconographic scripts being used throughout this time as well.
The pictographic nature of the hieroglyphic script ensured that it would have been relatively time consuming to write, thus making it less than ideal for genres such as administrative texts. From the 3rd millennium BCE, a more abstract script was used alongside hieroglyphs. This is known as hieratic (from the Greek ἱερατικά γράμματα “priestly writing”), and developed as a more cursive form of hieroglyphs that was consequently faster to write and could easily be used for less formal texts. Many hieratic signs show some resemblance to the hieroglyphs they developed from. Hieratic was used for many of the Egyptian texts written on papyrus, including administrative and literary texts, while hieroglyphs were largely used for stone inscriptions, although they can be found on papyrus as well. The hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts were used alongside each other for over 2000 years.
From the 7th century BCE, we find evidence for a further script known as Demotic (from the Greek δημοτικάγράμματα “popular writing”). Initially this script was used for administrative and legal texts, while hieroglyphs and hieratic were used for religious and literary purposes, but the use of
demotic to write religious and literary texts later increased. Demotic was even more cursive than hieratic, and its signs typically show very little resemblance to the equivalent hieroglyphs.
Following the invasion of Egypt by Alexander in 332 BCE, Greek was increasingly adopted by the rulers of Egypt, and gradually became the main administrative language throughout the country. By the 2nd century CE, the use of native Egyptian scripts to produce written documents had significantly decreased, although the Egyptian spoken language remained in use. At this time, Greek was the main script used to produce written material in Egypt. Within the early 1st millennium CE, a new native Egyptian script known as Coptic emerged. This script originated within Egyptian priestly communities. Coptic was designed to write the native Egyptian language using the Greek script, along with a few Demotic signs which corresponded to sounds not represented in the Greek alphabet. The Coptic writing system became standardised during the 3rd and 4th centuries CE. Many of the texts written in Coptic were translations of early Christian religious texts from Greek, although there are a number of original Coptic compositions. The use of Coptic to create new texts began to diminish following the invasion of Egypt by the Rashidun caliphate between 639 and 646 CE, after which the Arabic language became increasingly used in Egypt. However, the Coptic script survives today through its use as the liturgical language of the Coptic church in Egypt.
Text: Rachel McLaughlin. MENAM Archaeology. Copyright 2022.
Image Credits: British Museum, and Traditionaleastasia.
Further Reading:
Allen, J. 2013, The Ancient Egyptian Language: An Historical Introduction. Cambridge.
Collier, M, & Manley, B. 1998, How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs. London.
Loprieno, A. 1995, Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge.
Images:
“Chinese Scripts,” traditionaleastasia, http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/traditionaleastasia/items/show/38 Accessed 17/03/2022 BM EA614 - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA614 Accessed 28/03/2022
Papyrus Anastasi 3 - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10246-4 Accessed 17/02/2022
London Magical Papyrus - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10070-2 Accessed 17/02/2022
P. BM EA71005 - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA71005-6 Accessed 28/03/2022
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