Ancient Egyptian Language By Max and Nick

The Language Scholars group the Egyptian language into six main chronological divisions:[4] Archaic Egyptian (before 2600 BC, the language of the Early Dynastic Period) Old Egyptian (2686 BC – 2181 BC, the language of the Old Kingdom) Middle Egyptian (2055 BC – 1650 BC): characterizing Middle Kingdom (2055 BC – 1650 BC), but lasting through the early 18th Dynasty until the Amarna Period(1353 BC), and continuing on as a literary language into the 4th century AD). Late Egyptian (1069 BC – 700 BC): characterizing the Third Intermediate Period (1069 BC – 700 BC), but starting earlier with the Amarna Period (1353 BC). Demotic (7th century BC – 5th century AD, Late Period through Roman times) Coptic (1st century AD – 17th century AD, early Roman times to early modern times)

Egyptian writing in the form of labels and symbols has been dated to 3200 BC. These early texts are usually lumped together under the general term "Archaic Egyptian." Old Egyptian was spoken for some 500 years from 2600 BC beyond. Middle Egyptian was spoken from about 2000 BC for a further 700 years when Late Egyptian made its appearance; Middle Egyptian did, however, survive until the first few centuries AD as a written language, similar to the use of Latin during the Middle Ages and that of Classical Arabic today. Demotic Egyptian first appears about 650 BC and survived as a spoken language until the fifth century AD.

Coptic Egyptian appeared in the fourth century AD and survived as a living language until the sixteenth century AD, when European scholars traveled to Egypt to learn it from native speakers during the Renaissance. It probably survived in the Egyptian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian were all written using hieroglyphs and hieratic. Demotic was written using a writing resulting from hieratic; its appearance is vaguely similar to modern Arabic writing and is also written from right to left (although the two are not related).

The End