What is the Middle Demotic?
Middle Demotic (c. 400–30 BC) is the stage of writing used during the Ptolemaic Kingdom. From the 4th century BC onwards, Demotic held a higher status, as may be seen from its increasing use for literary and religious texts.
What is the Demotic language?
Language. Demotic is a development of the Late Egyptian language and shares much with the later Coptic phase of the Egyptian language. In the earlier stages of Demotic, such as those texts written in the Early Demotic script, it probably represented the spoken idiom of the time.
What is the Demotic script?
The Demotic script was referred to by the Egyptians as sš/sẖ n šꜥ.t, "document writing," which the second-century scholar Clement of Alexandria called ἐπιστολογραφική, "letter-writing," while early Western scholars, notably Thomas Young, formerly referred to it as " Enchorial Egyptian." The script was used for more than a thousand years, and during that time a number of developmental stages occurred. It is written and read from right to left, while earlier hieroglyphs could be written from top to bottom, left to right, or right to left. Parts of the Demotic Greek Magical Papyri were written with a cypher script.
When was the Demotic script written?
There are, however, a number of literary texts written in Late Demotic (c. 30 BC – 452 AD), especially from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, though the quantity of all Demotic texts decreased rapidly towards the end of the second century. In contrast to the way Latin eliminated languages in the western part of the Empire, Greek did not replace Demotic entirely. After that, Demotic was only used for a few ostraca, subscriptions to Greek texts, mummy labels, and graffiti. The last dated example of the Demotic script is a graffito on the walls of the temple of Isis at Philae, dated to December 12, 452. The text simply reads "Petise son of Petosiris", who Petise was is unknown.
When was the first Demotic written?
It is generally dated between 650 and 400 BC, as most texts written in Early Demotic are dated to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty and the subsequent rule as a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, which was known as the Twenty-seventh Dynasty.
Where did the early demotic civilization originate?
Early Demotic. Early Demotic (often referred to by the German term Frühdemotisch) developed in Lower Egypt during the later part of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, particularly found on steles from the Serapeum at Saqqara.
Who deciphered the Demotic?
The Demotic was deciphered before the hieroglyphs, starting with the efforts of Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy. Scholars were eventually able to translate the hieroglyphs by comparing the Greek words, which could be readily translated, and the hieroglyphs, in addition to their existing knowledge of Coptic.
What is the Greek word for demotic?
This standardized form of Dimotiki is today known formally as Standard Modern Greek. The term demotic Greek (with a lowercased d) is also a term used generally to refer to any variety of the Greek language which has evolved naturally from Ancient Greek and is popularly spoken.
How does Demotic Greek differ from Ancient Greek?
Demotic Greek differs from varieties of Ancient Greek and learned forms inherited from the same in several important ways. Syntactically, it favors parataxis over subordination. It also heavily employs redundancy, such as μικρό κοριτσάκι ( small little-girl) and ξανακοιμήθηκε πάλι ( he-went-back-to-sleep again ). Somewhat in connection with this, Demotic employs the diminutive with great frequency, to the point that many Demotic forms are in effect neuter diminutives of ancient words, especially irregular ones, e.g. νησί from νήσιον ( island) from ancient νῆσος ( island ).
Is Dimotiki a Greek language?
Dimotiki is sometimes used interchangeably with " Standard Modern Greek " ( Νέα Ελληνικά ), but these two terms are not necessarily synonymous. While in Greek the term Δημοτική ( Dimotikí) can describe any naturally evolved colloquial language of the Greeks, today's Standard Modern Greek language can be thought of specifically as a fusion ...