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Egyptian language

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
extinct language of ancient Egypt, a member of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages ). The development of ancient Egyptian is usually divided into four periods: (1) Old Egyptian, spoken and written in Egypt during the IV to VI dynasties of the Old Kingdom (3d millennium B.C. ); (2) Middle Egyptian, a form of the language noted for its great literature and current from the XI dynasty (beginning 2134 B.C. ) to the reign of Ikhnaton (c.1372–1354 B.C. ) in the XVIII dynasty; (3) Late Egyptian, which was used from the time of Ikhnaton through the XX dynasty of the 12th cent. B.C. ; and (4) demotic, dating from the late 8th cent. B.C. to the 5th cent. A.D. The ancient Egyptian language first used a hieroglyphic form of writing that underwent several stages of development in the course of the centuries. From hieroglyphics evolved an Egyptian cursive handwriting known as hieratic; and from hieratic, a simplified script called demotic, in which was recorded the form of…
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Full text Article Egyptian language

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
extinct language of ancient Egypt, a member of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages ). The development of ancient Egyptian is usually divided into four periods: (1) Old Egyptian, spoken and written in Egypt during the IV to VI dynasties of the Old Kingdom (3d millennium…
| 318 words
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Full text Article Egyptian language

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Extinct Afro-Asiatic language of the Nile River valley. Its very long history comprises five periods: Old Egyptian ( c. 3000– c. 2200 bce ), best exemplified by a corpus of religious inscriptions known as the Pyramid Texts and a group of autobiographical tomb inscriptions; Middle Egyptian ( c. 2200– …
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Full text Article Egyptian language

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
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Full text Article Champollion, Jean-François

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born Dec. 23, 1790, Figeac, France—died March 4, 1832, Paris) French scholar. He played a major role in the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Champollion was a linguistic prodigy who had immersed himself in Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Coptic as well as Greek and Latin by age 19. After study of…
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Full text Article hieroglyphs

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature
Used for representing the ancient Egyptian language—Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian—from as early as ca. 3100 BCE , hieroglyphic writing employed pictorial symbols to convey several categories of linguistic information. Some of the symbols represented sounds. Called phonograms , such symbols stood…
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Full text Article language and writing

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
Hieroglyphs, the writing of ancient Egyptians,...
The writing systems of ancient Egypt were clearly visible to the world after the fall of the divine pharaohs and their dynastic reigns. But while the modern world presumed that the hieroglyphs contained a treasure trove of knowledge, no one understood the symbols or even recognized any element that…
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Wood panels of false door of Mastaba of Hesyre, bearing some of oldest forms of hieroglyphics in Egyptian language, from Saqqara, Egyptian civilization, Old Kingdom, Dynasty III
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Full text Article hieroglyph

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Character in any of several systems of writing that is pictorial in nature, though not necessarily in the way it is read. The term was originally used for the oldest system of writing Ancient Egyptian ( see Egyptian language ). Egyptian hieroglyphs could be read iconically (the representation of a…
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Full text Article haloumi

From The Oxford Companion to Food
a hard, salty, sheep's milk cheese, variable in character, which is well known in Cyprus and used as a cooking cheese in many Middle Eastern countries. It melts well, and is sometimes grilled on skewers with pieces of vegetable. The name (which occurs in many variant forms and transliterations) is…
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Also known as: hieroglyphs The system of writing known as hieroglyphics was used to write the ancient Egyptian language from before 3000 BCE until the late fourth century CE . Each symbol in this system is known as a hieroglyph. The term hieroglyphic (meaning “sacred writing”) was coined by the…
| 582 words
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