synonymAncient Egyptian(Cultural term) generally refers to Egyptian
Egyptian, is a kind ofAncient EgyptLanguage of, belonging toAsian African languages, withSemitic(For example:HebrewandArabic）And has been classified into language family in the pastNorth AfricaVarious languages, such as the Bayi language of the ancient Shih family andBerber group All languages and other languages are closely related to each other.SecularityTo the fifth century, andCopticUntil the 17th century.The written records of ancient Egyptian can be traced back to the 32nd century BC.The national language of Egypt isegyptian arabic , gradually replaced after the Muslim conquest of EgyptCoppertone The language of Egyptian daily life.Today, Coptic is still used as the worship language of Coptic Orthodox Church, and there are still a few Coptic people todaySpeakThis language.
Found in ErbersanaesthesiaThe extant records of ancient Egyptian language can be traced back to the 26th century BC.The ancient Egyptian language belongs to the Asian African language family, and has a close relationship with the containing language family (mainly North African languages) and the Semitic language family (such as Hebrew and Arabic).Ancient Egyptian in ancient timesEgyptian EmpireIt was always in use until about 200 years after the fall of ancient Egypt, that is, about the 2nd century A.D., when it died, ending its life of 2800 years. It is the longest known text in existenceLanguagesone of.
After the rise of Islam,Islamic CultureThe influence on Egypt is deepening day by day. Ancient Egyptian and its variantsCopticIt is also gradually forgotten.In addition, Western missionaries in the 18th century, under the wrong understanding of the Bible, believed thatCoppertone andAncient Egyptian CultureIt was the evil cultural activities that burned them upCultural inheritanceInterrupted.At present, our understanding of the ancient Egyptian culture comes from the diligent research of later scholars.
language development
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No language can last for thousands of years without change.These changes can be caused by external forces, or they can be caused by simplifying the language or other reasons.Egyptian is no exception.Scholars divide Egyptian into five categories:
Old Egyptian (2600-2000 BC)
Middle Egyptian (2000-1300 BC)
Late Egyptian (1300-700 BC)
Secularity(Demotic, 7th century BC to 5th year AD)
originalEgyptianIt dates back to the first 3000 years.
The ancient Egyptian language has been used for about 500 years since 2600 BC.The Middle Ancient Egyptian language lasted for more than 500 years from 2100 BC, and the new Egyptian language began to appear.The secular style began to appear in 650 BC and continued to be used until 5 AD.Coptic is actually the Bohraic dialect of Egyptian, which has been used in the Christian Church in Egypt, so it has been preserved all the time.Until AD 2,CopticIt is still popular in the society, but then it becomes a kind of onlyreligious ritesUseddead language。
The written form of Coptic isGreekAdd some symbols to supplement some consonants that are not found in Greek.
Late Egyptian(Late Egyptian): from the 13th century BC toThe first seven centuries, from the end of the Eighteenth DynastyTutankhamenreachThird intermediate period。
Coptic(Coptic): from the 4th century to the 17th century, from the Roman Egyptian period to the early modern times.
The earliest Egyptian written recordsindicatorIt is estimated that it was made in the 32nd century BC.These ancient characters are generally included in the scope of "ancient Egyptian" or "ancient Egyptian characters".In 1999, the Archaeological Journal reported that the earliest Egyptian characters could be dated as far back as the 34th century BC, "... challenged the public's belief thatMesopotamiaThe first people to develop more complex symbols and pictographs used to represent specific places, objects or quantitiesPhonetic transcriptionSymbol. "
The ancient Egyptian language has been used for about 500 years since the 26th century BC.Since the 21st century BC, the Middle Ancient Egyptian language has lasted for more than 500 years, and the new Egyptian language began to appear.However, the emergence of the new Egyptian language did not make the Middle Egyptian language die out: the Middle Egyptian language has still been spread in the form of words until several centuries after the A.D., just as in the Middle AgesLatinUse of, or likeclassical Arabic Same.SecularityIt began to appear in 650 BC and continued to be used in conversation until the 5th century.CopticIt appeared in the 4th century AD, and has been struggling for survival in a living language until the 16th century, when European scholarsThe RenaissanceDuring this period, I went to Egypt to learn from native speakers.In the past, it was thought that Coptic had died out, but in fact, it has been used in the Egyptian Christian Church, so it has been preserved.It may have been popular in the remote areas of Egypt until centuries later.The Bohraic dialect of Coptic is still in EgyptChristian ChurchUsed in.
Ancient Egyptian, Middle Egyptian and New Egyptianhieroglyphs andHieratic Writing.SecularityIt is a kind of writing born out of the monk style: although its appearance is modernarabicSimilar in shape, it is also written from right to left, but the two are not related.CopticWritten formIt adopts a method calledCoptic alphabet The letter ofGreek alphabetModify and add some symbols to supplementAncient GreekSome consonants not found in.Many of these additional symbols are derived fromSecular scriptBorrowed from.
In the 7th century, after the Arab invasion,ArabicIt became the political and administrative language of Egypt and gradually replaced Coptic in society.At the same time, the Catholic Church intended to replace the localOrthodox Church, persecuting and killing Orthodox believers.Coptic onlyCoptic Orthodox Church It has been reduced to a religious term.
Structure of Egyptian
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Egyptian is basically a typical languageAsian African languagesLanguage.Like other Asian and African languages, EgyptianBasic vocabularyAre composed of a group of three consonantsRadicalComposed of.Although sometimes there are some radicals with only two consonants, for example:<r ʕ>/ri: ʕ uw/"sun" ([ʕ] stands for turbid throatFricative)；Others, such as/nfr/"beautiful" have three consonants;There may be five at most, for example:/s ḫ d ḫ d/"up and down" (verb).The word formation form is to add vowels and consonants to the rootHebrewAnd other Asian and African languages today.However, just like many Asian and African languages, Egyptian does not write vowels, so today we have no way to know what vowels are inserted in the middle of these roots and where they are placed.Therefore, "ʕḫ" can represent "life", "alive" or even "life".
PhonologyThe ancient Egyptian languageLabial sound、dental, jaw, throatuvular consonant、Pharyngeal soundandglottal stopThe distribution of is very similar to Arabic.It also has the opposite of voiceless and throat sounds, just like other Asian and African languages.However, it is still unclear how these throat sounds are actually pronounced.When transcribing Egyptian, the letters<a>,<i>and<u>are used to represent consonants;For example: famous EgyptPharaohTutankhamunThe transliteration of his name in Egyptian istwt-ʕnḫ-ỉmn。Language experts are adoptingvowelTo mark these consonants, in fact, it is just for convenience. Unfortunately, some people mistakenly think that the "artificial" pronunciation is the correct pronunciation.Its actual pronunciation is likely to be * tVwa 720720; t - ʕʕʕʕ a: nix - ʔˈˈ720720n, and V is a vowel that has not yet been determined.
Basics of Ancient Egyptianword orderyesPredicate subject object structure(VSO), if we write "people open the door", the ancient Egyptians would say: "Open the door"（wn s ˁꜣ)。It uses the so-called status construct to combine two or more nounspossessive case, similar toSemiticandBerber。The early Egyptian language did notDefinite articleorIndefinite article；So I used“pꜣ”、“tꜣ”And“nꜣ”The word "etc." has the same function as the indefinite article.Like other Asian and African languages, ancient Egyptian has only two grammatical genders: female and male, which are similar to Arabic and Tuareg;There are also threeGrammatical numberAffix, including: singulareven numbersAnd mode, although even numbers may have disappeared in the new Egyptian language.
Egyptian
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essential information
When it comes to the writing of Egyptian, most people will thinkHieroglyphics。A hieroglyph is a pattern of an entity. However, hieroglyph has three functions: first, it represents its graphic content;II. Representing a related concept;Refer to and represent their pronunciation.For example, a "sun" figure ⊙ can represent the "sun" itself or“sunlight”Or "hot" (because the sun is aIlluminant, and also provides heat), or can represent its pronunciation "r ꜣ".However, in the later period of Egyptian (middle and late), the third function remained for the most part, and in the later secular style and Coptic language, hieroglyphs were almost completely abolished.
according tohistorianIt is speculated that the first attempt at writing by primitive people was the first and simplest way.Of course, primitive people cannot write about objects or matters and cannot be representatives.Make hieroglyphics the second way.Human developmentIt doesn't mean anything to use hieroglyphs to express.
Egyptians with diverse writing,Ancient EgyptMixed useHieroglyphicsAs text.Egyptian characters used by the late Egypt, much likeEnglish letterSpelling, letters often cannot be changed, and there is no fixed pronunciation.last,Coppertone Use a modified Greek alphabet.NubiaWords similar to English letters are used. Some letters may come from the words used by Coptic people.
Hieroglyphics
About Ideographs
According to the conclusion of scholars, one needs to know about 600 different hieroglyphs to read any given Egyptian text.Although this sounds like a large number, a small part of hieroglyphs are phonological in ancient Egyptian, so the difficulty is reduced.And if you can remember these words,contextUsually aPictographic charactersMeans.
Pictographs are usually carved on wood or stone.The largest surviving hieroglyphs are religious books.These hieroglyphs, called "running grass", are believed to be widely used in daily letters, and Egyptians often write on reed paper.
It is still unknown who is the creator of hieroglyphics. It seems that Egyptians just suddenly saw the way out and inventedAncient EgyptianWord.Scholars support two theories: first, a group of geniuses simply invented the ancient Egyptian writing system and implemented it after receiving support.The second theory is that there is no hieroglyphicsDevelopment stage。
Five stages of Egyptian language during the use of hieroglyphs
HistoryIt shows that the writing of hieroglyphs has undergone significant changes in ancient Egypt.In the Middle Egyptian era, the development of hieroglyphics stabilized until it disappeared in the first century AD.Pictographs are used for all forms of written communication.However, hieroglyphics are important writing characters of religious scriptures.
The syntax of hieroglyphs
As mentioned above, most of theAncient Egyptian hieroglyphsIt does not represent the graphic content in the book.Most of them are phonographs, or“Determiner”（determinatives）。Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs can be written in the following ways:
Horizontal writing: left to right
Horizontal writing: right to left
Vertical writing: (image facing left) left to right
Vertical writing: (image facing right) right to left
How did ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs be translated and interpreted?
One namedJean-Fran ois Champollion The young French scholar ofRosetta Stone TabletIt demonstrates how the name Ptolemy (V) was written in hieroglyphics: the name in the circle is equivalent tocapitalThe symbols inside are phonetic and correspond to Greek, and it is determined that hieroglyphics are alsoPhonetic symbols。In addition, he also used hisCopticHe speculated that most of the pictographs representing everyday things can be read in Coptic.
Current resources
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Those who are very interested in ancient Egyptian can still continue to learn.For example, inLondonOfOxfordAncient Egyptian is still taught in other places.Since many materials are not only written in EnglishFrenchorGermanSo, if you know any of the above languages, it will be very useful.
In the movie series StargatelinguistDelegated to develop aArtificial languageTo simulate the accent of the ancient Egyptians who lived alone on another planet for thousands of years.
Because Egyptian culture is influenced byWestern CivilizationSome words from Egypt are still in English.More specifically, these areAncient EgyptThe related vocabulary is often based onGreek The form of is reserved in English.
