...
| Egyptian hieroglyphs | |
|---|---|
| Script type | Logography usable as an abjad |
| Time period | c. 3200 BC – AD 400 |
| Direction | right-to-left script |
| Languages | Egyptian language |
Is hieroglyphics considered a language?
It continued to be used until about the tenth century AD. Perhaps this makes it the oldest language in the world, as it is existing for more than 4,000 years. Perhaps the most prominent lines of the ancient Egyptian language are "hieroglyphs", meaning "sacred inscription" in the language of the ancient Greeks.06-Apr-2021
Is ancient Egyptian a language?
The ancient Egyptian language is attested in Egypt for over four thousand years, from the appearance of Hieroglyphic writing around 3200 BCE, until it was gradually replaced by Arabic after the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 CE.
What language did Cleopatra speak?
Egyptian languageAncient GreekCleopatra/LanguagesHer native language was Koine Greek, and she was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language. In 58 BC, Cleopatra presumably accompanied her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, during his exile to Rome after a revolt in Egypt (a Roman client state) allowed his rival daughter Berenice IV to claim his throne.
What kind of language is hieroglyphics?
Egyptian hieroglyphsEgyptian hieroglyphs (/ˈhaɪrəˌɡlɪfs/, /ˈhaɪroʊˌɡlɪfs/) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language....Egyptian hieroglyphsScript typeLogography usable as an abjadTime periodc. 3200 BC – AD 400Directionright-to-left scriptLanguagesEgyptian language10 more rows
Overview
History and evolution
Hieroglyphs may have emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from c. 4000 BC have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing.
Proto-hieroglyphic symbol systems developed in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called "Scorpion I" (Naqada …
Etymology
The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικός (hieroglyphikos), a compound of ἱερός (hierós 'sacred') and γλύφω (glýphō '(Ι) carve, engrave'; see glyph).
The glyphs themselves, since the Ptolemaic period, were called τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ [γράμματα] (tà hieroglyphikà [grámmata]) "the sacred engraved letters", the Greek counterpart to the Egyptian expression of mdw.w-nṯr "god's words". Greek ἱερόγλυφος meant "a carver of hieroglyphs".
Decipherment
Knowledge of the hieroglyphs had been lost completely in the medieval period. Early attempts at decipherment are due to Dhul-Nun al-Misri and Ibn Wahshiyya (9th and 10th century, respectively).
All medieval and early modern attempts were hampered by the fundamental assumption that hieroglyphs recorded ideas and not the sounds of the langua…
Spelling
Standard orthography—"correct" spelling—in Egyptian is much looser than in modern languages. In fact, one or several variants exist for almost every word. One finds:
• Redundancies;
• Omission of graphemes, which are ignored whether or not they are intentional;
• Substitutions of one grapheme for another, such that it is impossible to distinguish a "mistake" from an "alternate spelling";
Encoding and font support
Egyptian hieroglyphs were added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2 which introduced the Egyptian Hieroglyphs block (U+13000–U+1342F) with 1,071 defined characters.
As of July 2013 , four fonts, Aegyptus, NewGardiner, Noto Sans Egyptian Hieroglyphs and JSeshFont support this range. Another font, Segoe UI Historic, comes bundled with Windows 10 …
See also
• List of Egyptian hieroglyphs
• Egyptian language
• Middle Bronze Age alphabets
• Manuel de Codage
• Champollion Museum
Further reading
• Adkins, Lesley; Adkins, Roy (2000). The Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-019439-0.
• Allen, James P. (1999). Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77483-3.
Origin of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
- Like most ancient scripts, the origin of Egyptian hieroglyphs is poorly understood. There are, however, several hypotheses that have been put forth. One of the most convincing views claims that they derive from rock pictures produced by prehistoric hunting communities living in the desert west of the Nile, who were apparently familiar with the concept of communicating by me…
Material Form & Use of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
- The labels found in the Abydos U-j tomb were carved on small rectangles made of wood or ivory with a hole in their corner so they could be attached to different goods. Other inscribed surfaces such as ceramic, metaland stone (both flakes and stelae) are also known from early royal tombs. Papyrus, the chief portable writing medium in Egypt, appears during the First dynasty (c. 3000-2…
Development of Ancient Hieroglyphs
- As Egyptian writingevolved during its long history, different versions of the Egyptian hieroglyphic script were developed. In addition to the traditional hieroglyphs, there were also two cursive equivalents: hieratic and demotic. Hieroglyphic This was the oldest version of the script, characterized by its elegant pictorial appearance. These signs are typically founnd in monumen…
Legends on The Origin of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
- According to Egyptian tradition, the god Thothcreated writing to make the Egyptians wiser and to strengthen their memory. The god Re, however, disagreed: he said that delivering the hieroglyphs to humanity would cause them to contemplate their memory and history through written documents rather than relying on their actual memories passed down through generations. Writi…
Deciphering Hieroglyphs
- For many years hieroglyphs were not understood at all. In 1798 CE Napoleon Bonaparte went to Egypt with many researchers and they copied several Egyptian texts and images. One year later, the Rosetta Stone was found, a decree of Ptolemy V, with the same text written in Greek, demotic and hieroglyphic writing. Finally, Jean-François Champollion unravelled the mystery. He identifie…
Decline of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
- During the Ptolemaic (332-30 BCE) and the Roman Period (30 BCE-395 CE) in Egypt, Greek and Roman culture became increasingly influential. Towards the 2nd century CE, Christianitystarted to displace some of the traditional Egyptian cults. Christianized Egyptians developed the Coptic alphabet (an offshoot of the Greek uncial alphabet), the final stage in the development of the Eg…