Culture and Historical Linguistic in Ancient Egypt

By: Ali Zohery

[I.] Introduction:

The decipherment of the hieroglyphic script by Jean-Francois Champollion on 14

September 1822 opened the way to a more intense study of Ancient Egyptian texts. Egyptologists discovered the ancient Egyptian writings but the development of this writing still receiving much attention from researchers.

Egyptologists believe that the ancient Egyptians went through different periods in their long ancient history. This research is about tracing the expansion of use of language as reflected in the writing systems during the Ancient Egyptian periods. Following are the four Ancient Egyptian writing systems. The use of each was reflected through the Ancient Egyptian Culture at the time:

1. The oldest Hieroglyphic was discovered goes back to the end of 4000 BC. Hieroglyphic means sacred scripts inscribed on the walls of the temples or religious verses written on the papyrus. Hieroglyphic could be read from top to bottom, Sometimes from right to left, or from left to right. When the writing from right to left the signs face right. It reflected the strong relationship between kings and gods. The following types of writings were developed from the Hieroglyphic, which was the original one.

2. Hieratic was developed before 2000 BC. It was the type of writing that the priests used in their religious books. The Hieratic Signs are abbreviated forms from the Hieroglyphic. Usually, the directions of the signs face right. This writing reflected the powerful position of the priests in some eras of the Ancient Egyptian Civilization.

3. Demotic: This type was developed from Hieratic around 700 BC. The Public used it in their daily life communications. It was for non-religious usage.

4. Coptic: When Christianity started to replace the Ancient Egyptian religion, a new form of writing was developed; Greek letters mixed with some signs from

Demotic. Coptic literature is full of Greek words.

Discovering the ancient Egyptian writings enabled the Egyptologists to give a systematic and detailed picture of the ancient Egyptian culture.

[II.] Statement of problem:

 Culture and language played a significant role in manifesting the Ancient Egyptian Civilization. Writing signs were from the main elements of the art. What were the impacts of the culture on the developments of the ancient Egyptian writings through the ancient periods?

[III.] Methodology:

The researcher used content analysis as the main method to collect data. Comparing materials from each stage reflected the impacts of the culture of each period on the language use. These materials will be analyzed.

The researcher's undergraduate degree was in Egyptology. He got use of his educational background; this contributed in conducting this research.

[IV.] Results:

In his book “The Ancient Near East” Saleh argues that at the end of 4000 BC, the Ancient Egyptian Started to use hieroglyphics in their writing. Four basic principles characterized the Hieroglyphic writing. First, a hieroglyph could be used in an almost pictorial way. The sign of a man with his hand to his mouth might stand for the word “eat.” Similarly, the word “ sun” would be represented by a large circle with a smaller circle in its center. Second, a hieroglyph might represent or imply another word suggested by the picture.  The sign for “sun” could as easily serve as the sign for “day” or as the name of the sun god Re.  The sign for “eat” could also represent the conceptual word “silent” by suggesting the covering of the mouth.  Third, the signs also served as representatives of words that shared consonants in the same order, thus the Egyptian words for “man” and “be bright” both spelled with the same consonants, hg, could be rendered by the same highways hieroglyph. Fourth, the hieroglyphs stood for individual or combinations of consonants.

Following is an example of Hieroglyphic writing. It was a historical dedication of a sarcophagus from Queen Hatshepsut to her father Thutmose I:

(1)       nh Hr wsrt-k3w nbty w3dt rnpwt Hr nbw ntrt h w

(2)       nswt bit M3 t-k3-r  s3 R  H3t-spswt hnmt(t)-  Imn  nh. Ti dt

(3)       ir.n= m mnw=s n it=s mr=s ntr nfr nb t3wy

(4)       nswt bit  3-hpr-k3-r  s3 R  Dhwty-ms m3 -hrw

(1)   May the Hours, Weseret- kau, the two ladies, Wadjet-renput, Hours of gold, divine of appearances live,

(2)   King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maat-ka-re, son of Re, Hatshepsut who joins with Amen. May she live forever.

(3)   She made (it; i.e. the sarcophagus) as her monument to her beloved father, the perfect god, lord of the Two Lands,

(4)   King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Aa-Kheper-ka-re, son of Re, Thutmose (1), justified.

The above underlined words in (1) & (2) were royal titles for the Queen Hatshepsut as a living Queen, and in (3) & (4) were titles for the Queen’s father Thutmose I after his death.

 The structure of the Hieratic script corresponds with that of hieroglyphic writing.  Changes occurred in the characters of Hieratic simply because they could be written rapidly with brush or rush and ink on papyrus.  In general, the picture form is not, or not easily, recognizable.  Because their models were well known and in current use throughout Egyptian history, the Hieratic symbols never strayed too far from them.  Nevertheless, the system differs from the hieroglyphic script in some important respects:

1.  Hieratic was written in one direction only, from right to left.  In earlier times the lines had run vertically and later, about 2000 BC, horizontally.  Subsequently the papyrus scrolls were written in columns of changing widths .

2.      There were ligatures in Hieratic so that two, but no more than two, signs could be written in one stroke.

3.      Because of its decreased legibility, the spelling of the Hieratic script was more rigid than that of hieroglyphic writing.  Variations from uniformity at a given time were minor; but, during the course of the various periods, the spelling developed and changed.  As a result, Hieratic texts do not correspond exactly to contemporary hieroglyphic texts, either in the placing of signs or in the spelling of words.

4.      Hieratic used diacritical additions to distinguish between two signs that had grown similar to one another because of cursive writing.  For example, the cow’s leg received a supplementary distinguishing cross, because in Hieratic it had come to resemble the sign for the leg of a man.  Certain Hieratic signs were taken into the hieroglyphic script.

All common place documents—e.g., letters, catalogs, and official writs—were written in Hieratic script, as were literary and religious texts.  In the life of the Egyptians, Hieratic script played a larger role than hieroglyphic writing and was taught earlier in the schools.  In offices, Hieratic was replaced by Demotic in the seventh century BC, but it remained in fashion until much later for religious texts of all sorts.  The latest Hieratic texts stem from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century AD.

In his chapter “Earning A Living” in the book of “ Cradle of Civilization-Egypt” Jac. J. Janssen described the life of the artisans through their Hieratic writings in Deir El- Medina. It was a village settled in the desert, on the West Bank of Thebes. The inhabitants were artisans who were highly literate groups. Egyptologists found thousands of texts. Some were written on papyrus, but most on ostraca potsherds and flakes of limestone.  These texts together present us with a fairly complete picture of all aspects of daily life, including a wealth of information about the way in which the necropolis workmen earned their living. Yet, we have to keep in mind that it was an exceptional community, the only one of its kind preserved to us in the entire history of ancient Egypt.

The settlement is called Deir el—Medina. The modern Arabic name of the desert valley in which it is situated—the ancient workmen called it simply “the village”. The inhabitants were in the service of the state, or, in the Egyptian terminology, of Pharaoh.  They were neither slaves nor serfs, but free laborers paid by the government.  If their wages were in arrears, as happened frequently during the Twentieth Dynasty [1186—1069 BC], they went on strike, leaving the necropolis and sitting down near one of the temples on the Theban west bank.  Whether they were indeed hungry, as they angrily protested, is not certain.  In general, they were well paid. They had abundant free time at their disposal— at least regular long weekends—in which they were able to earn a substantial extra income by making and painting coffins and other funerary equipment for the upper classes in Thebes.   Since no money existed, they were paid in kind: grain for bread and beer, the staple foods of the Egyptians; vegetables and fruit, fish, oil, salt, and so on, and also manufactured items, mainly garments and sandals.

The Hieratic text at the first half of next page was written in ink on an ostracon [limestone flake] from Deir el—Medina.  It records the “ money” [“silver”] value of various commodities [a bed, two wooden chests, oil and barley] owed to the workman Penne by the policeman Pasedet.  [This piece of ostracon is kept in Griffith Institute, Ashmolean museum, Oxford.

Below the Hieratic text is the same text transcribed into Hieroglyphic by Cerny and Gardner.  Some Hieratic signs are similar to their Hieroglyphic counterparts while others differ quite substantially.

 Demotic script was the Egyptian writing of cursive form that was used in handwritten texts from the early seventh century BC until the fifth century AD.  Demotic script derived from the earlier pictographic Hieroglyphic inspections and the cursive Hieratic script, and it began to replace Hieratic writing during the reign of Pasmtik I (664—610 BC).  By the fifth century BC, Demotic script had come into use every where in Egypt for business and literary purposes, although Hieratic remained in use for religious texts.  The Demotic script began to be displaced by Greek during the Ptolemaic period (304—30 BC), but Hieratic graffiti left by the priests of Isis at Philae date from as late as AD 452.

Following is just an example of a usage of one term in Demotic. In his article “the Greek Alexander Romance and Demotic Egyptian literature”, Richard Jasnow investigated the usage of the term “phr” through the Ancient Egyptian history.  This word already existed in the Pyramid Texts.  The primary definition is “to go around, turn around,” and it retained this basic meaning into the Roman period. Jasnow gave three examples to show of specialized sense in Demotic for this term “phr”:

1.      In the story of Setne Khamwase, a Demotic tale preserved on papyri contemporary with the Alexander Romance, Prince NaneferKaptah has stolen the secret book of Thoth, which is obviously a source of great magical power.  The sister of the thief uses the book and declares:

s=y w hp n hp n sh n-im=f phr=y t p.tp t t tw.t n tw.w n ym.w gm= n nt n ipt.w n t p.t n rym.w n p mtry irm n i w.t d n-im=w tr=w

 I recited one spell from it: I charmed [phr ] the sky, the earth, the netherworld, the mountains, the waters.  I discovered what all the birds of the sky and the fish of the deep and the beasts were saying.

2.      In the myth of the sun’s eye, a Demotic text incidentally translated into Greek, there is a section about two fabulous creatures: the seeing—bird and the hearing—bird.  The latter declares:

Tw-s hr phr=y t p.t d mtw= sdm r n y nt hn=hr sdm=y r t y nt-iw P-R p h y p [db] n ntr.w wpy.t= hr p t n-mny hn t ihy.t

 Lo, I can enchant (phr) the sky, so that I can hear what is in it.  I can hear what is in it.  I can hear what the sun—god, the shining one, the [avenger among] the Gods, ordains daily in heaven concerning the earth.

3.      Finally, in a magical text then this a spell for enchanting a vessel:

Phr.t n phr p hne n gtg mtw n ntr. W iy r-hn mtw=w d / n=k w h n mt m.t

Prescription for enchanting (phr) the vessel quickly so that the gods come within and they tell to you a truthful answer.

In his comment about the development of (phr)  meaning from the old kingdom to the Roman period, Jasnow points out that when phr has the literal meaning “to encircle, surround,” scribes generally wrote the walking—legs determinative; when phr had the more abstract meaning “enchant,” scribes generally wrote the man—with --hand—to—mouth determinative.  In common with the synthetic Semitic languages there are in Egyptian causative forms of verbs, usually formed with s—prefixes.  Thus, there would also be a formation sphr,  “to cause to go around, to turn around”. In Demotic such causative force is sometimes found even without the s-prefix; phr alone could have meant “ to go around” or “to cause to go around.”

Leo Depuydt addressed the exceptions that the term                 “ love” had in the ancient Egyptian Coptic language. The origin of this term              in late Egyptian 1100 BC was known by wh3 and meant, “to seek” or “to require.” wh3 in the late Egyptian 1000 BC had the meaning of “to wish.” During the time of using Demotic 500 BC, wh3 meant to “look for.”

The Coptic verb             had a unique behavior with regard to the attachment of the direct object and survived from late Egyptian through Coptic.

[V.] Discussion:

The above examples mentioned in the Results section indicate the difference in time and usage of each type of the Ancient Egyptian Writing. Looking at the first example of the dedication of the sarcophagus from Queen Hatshepsut to her father king Thutmose, we will find the personal names of the Queen and the king are written within frames known by khartoushes. There are several titles that the kings and queens get when crowned on the throne of Egypt.  These titles were to show their ultimate control of upper and Lower Egypt, also to strongly declare the support of all Gods of Egypt. I would argue that because of the nature of the topic; a royal issue, the hieroglyphic signs were in classical perfect condition. Extremely seldom, Egyptologists can find errors in the writings related to the gods, kings and queens. Not any scriber could be the royal scriber.

Looking at the second example of Deir El-Medina Hieratic text, we will find it was written on an ostracon (limestone flake.) The issue was recording a debt that a policeman owed to a workman. That was to guarantee the rights of the workman if the policeman did not pay back the debit according to the agreement.

At the third example, Jasnow elaborated on the development and usage of the term “phr” during different times in the Ancient Egyptian history especially during the Roman Period.

At the last example from the Coptic language, we will find the exceptional position of the term wh3 in Coptic           . The meaning of this verb in Coptic is “to love.” The term “Love” played a great role in the Coptic religion. It was repeated many times in Coptic texts. Even at the modern time, the coptics in Egypt repeat this term repeatedly. It is an open statement for the priests to say “God Is Love.” This could show how exceptional this term was to the Coptics in Ancient Egypt.

I must admit that the topic of “Culture and Historical Linguistic in Ancient Egypt” could be addressed in more details. I’m very interested in pursuing research on this issue. Relatively, the time was short to gather and bring needed references from other location. After I do some more research on this topic, it will be a chapter of my future book

“ Egypt of the Egyptians.”

[VI] Bibliography:

1.      Sir Alan Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs, Arabic translation, 1973

2.       Abd El Aziz Saleh, The Ancient Near East, Volume I, Egypt and Iraq, 2^nd edition, 1976, Arabic edition.

3.      Peter Der Manuelian and Christian E. Loeben, New Light on the Recarved Sarcophagus of Hatshepsut and Thutmose I in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Journal  of Egyptian Archaeology, Volume 79, 1993, London

4.      Leo Depuydt, For the sake of             , ‘love’: an exception to theStern-Jernstedt Rule and its history, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Volume 79,1993, London.

5.      Jac. J. Janssen, Earning A Living, Cradles of Civilization, Egypt, Ancient Culture , Modern land, Oklahoma, 1993

6.      “Hieroglyph” Britannica Online.

       http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/270/42.html  [Accessed 18 November 1998]

7.      “Writing: Systems of writing: Hieroglyphic Writing: Hieratic script.:

Relation of Hieratic to Hieroglyphic script” Britannica Online.

http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=macro/5006/68/38.html  [Accessed 18 November 1998]

8.      “Demotic Script” Britannica Online

      http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?Doc=micro/165/13.html  [Accessed 22 November 1998]

9.      “Coptic Language” Britannica Online

  http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/143/93.html  [Accessed 22 November 1998]