Middle Egyptian
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Middle Egyptian is the classical language of Ancient Egypt. It is most famous for its writing system : the hieroglyphs. Thanks to Champollion, the colorful and intricate drawings are not mute any more, and offer us a glimpse into the world of pharaohs.
¤ How on earth did egyptologists manage to decipher the hieroglyphs ?
A haunting question, indeed. For centuries, hieroglyphs baffled everybody, especially as they were thought to be some mystical symbols. But two elements helped : the discovery of the link between Egyptian and Coptic, which is a well known language, and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. Champollion, using the work of other egyptologists, his knowledge of Coptic and the Rosetta Stone, discovered how the hieroglyphic system and the language it represented worked.
¤ How do hieropglyphs work ?
Hieroglyphs look like the drawings of objects, animals, or people. They can then be used as ideograms : a circle to mean the sun, a bee to mean a bee and so on. When a hieropglyph is used as an ideogram, it is accompagnied by a stroke.
But most of the time, hieroglyphs are used as phonograms, that is : they stand for sounds. A quail-chick stands for "w", an eye for "jr", a beetle for "khpr". In that way, they work like a rebus.
Some are used as determinatives : they are not pronounced but help us understand the word. For example, a star before a word indicates that the word is the name of a star. A pair of walking legs indicates that the word beside it has to do with motion, and so on.
¤ How did Middle Egytian sound like ?
"m.k tw m mnjw" means "you are a herdsman". This sentence is transcribed from hieroglyphs. Yet it seems impossible to pronounce it, because it contains only consonants. In fact, like Arabic and Hebrew, hieroglyphs never stood for vowels : they only represented consonants. This is why we can't know for sure how Middle Egyptian was actually pronounced.
¤ How to learn Middle Egyptian ?
Books :
I'm trying a book by James P. Allen : "Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of the Hieroglyphs". It contains lessons, excercises (with answers) and short essays on Ancient Egypt civilisation.
The web :
=> On this page for example.
=> hyeroglyphs.net
Middle Egyptian is the classical language of Ancient Egypt. It is most famous for its writing system : the hieroglyphs. Thanks to Champollion, the colorful and intricate drawings are not mute any more, and offer us a glimpse into the world of pharaohs.
¤ How on earth did egyptologists manage to decipher the hieroglyphs ?
A haunting question, indeed. For centuries, hieroglyphs baffled everybody, especially as they were thought to be some mystical symbols. But two elements helped : the discovery of the link between Egyptian and Coptic, which is a well known language, and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. Champollion, using the work of other egyptologists, his knowledge of Coptic and the Rosetta Stone, discovered how the hieroglyphic system and the language it represented worked.
¤ How do hieropglyphs work ?
Hieroglyphs look like the drawings of objects, animals, or people. They can then be used as ideograms : a circle to mean the sun, a bee to mean a bee and so on. When a hieropglyph is used as an ideogram, it is accompagnied by a stroke.
But most of the time, hieroglyphs are used as phonograms, that is : they stand for sounds. A quail-chick stands for "w", an eye for "jr", a beetle for "khpr". In that way, they work like a rebus.
Some are used as determinatives : they are not pronounced but help us understand the word. For example, a star before a word indicates that the word is the name of a star. A pair of walking legs indicates that the word beside it has to do with motion, and so on.
¤ How did Middle Egytian sound like ?
"m.k tw m mnjw" means "you are a herdsman". This sentence is transcribed from hieroglyphs. Yet it seems impossible to pronounce it, because it contains only consonants. In fact, like Arabic and Hebrew, hieroglyphs never stood for vowels : they only represented consonants. This is why we can't know for sure how Middle Egyptian was actually pronounced.
¤ How to learn Middle Egyptian ?
Books :
I'm trying a book by James P. Allen : "Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of the Hieroglyphs". It contains lessons, excercises (with answers) and short essays on Ancient Egypt civilisation.
The web :
=> On this page for example.
=> hyeroglyphs.net
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