Egypt is of the countries in Africa and the Middle East. The ancient name for Egypt is Kemet meaning ‘black land’. It had obtained its name owing to the fertile black soil found on the plains of the Nile river which flows through Egypt.

Egypt is also known for its historical monuments like the Giza pyramid complex and even the Egyptian civilization holds a lot of importance. Egypt is a country which has political and cultural significance for the Middle East. Egypt derived its English name from various sources like the French word Egypte, from Latin Aegyptus and ancient Greek Aigyptos.

The ancient Egyptians were of the view that writing was invented by god Thoth and referred to their hieroglyphic script as ‘God’s Sword’. The word ‘hieroglyph’ has been derived from the Greek words ‘hieros‘ meaning ‘scared’ and ‘glyph’ which meant ‘inscriptions’.

The oldest examples of writing can be traced back to the 3400 BC and the latest is dated 96 Ad. The Egyptian hieroglyphic script was primarily used for drawing inscriptions on the walls of the temples and tombs. In case of some inscriptions, the glyphs were very elaborate while in others they were simple outlines. Hieratic script was used for everyday writing.

Afro-Asiatic language

Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language which was Egyptian Spoken in Egypt until the 10th century AD. The language is associated to Berber and Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew. After this period, it continued to be in use as the liturgical language of the Egyptians, Christians, Copts. The Old Egyptian language was spoken for around 500 years from 2600 BC onwards.

It was the language Egyptian Spoken in the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. Middle Egyptian was spoken for around 700 years from 2000 BC. It was often dubbed as Classical Egyptian and was known from various textual evidence. It, however, survived till some centuries AD despite the usage of the Late Egyptian language.

Latin was Egyptian Spoken in the middle ages. Demotic was a Egyptian Spoken language until the 5th century AD. Demotic language is a mixture of Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic that was prevalent in the Delta and the stage of Egyptian language between Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic period. Coptic was the last language that was adopted by the ancient Egyptians.

The ancient Egyptian vocabulary basically consisted of three consonants. However, at times, there were only two consonants. Vowels and other consonants were later on added to the vocabulary. These were added to obtain different meanings. The reconstruction of vowels was difficult as they were not written in any Egyptian script.

The Egyptians used two grammatical genders namely, masculine and feminine. In the initial stages of the Egyptian language, there were no articles to describe certain words. The early Egyptians used Status Constructus to join two or more nouns to express genitive. It was similar to that used in Semitic and Berber languages.