Archaeology and ScriptsLate Egyptian

Late Egyptian

Late Egyptian, the everyday language of the New Kingdom, uses articles (pꜣ, tꜣ, nꜣ) and new verb forms.

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Languages change. The Middle Egyptian of the Middle Kingdom was the classical language. By the reign of Tutankhamun and the later New Kingdom, everyday speech had moved on, and scribes began to write the way people talked. Egyptologists call this stage Late Egyptian (about 1350–700 BC).

Key idea

Late Egyptian has articles: pꜣ "the" before masculine nouns, tꜣ before feminine nouns and nꜣ (followed by n) before plurals, and wꜥ "a". It builds new verb forms with helper verbs, much as English says "I did go" or "I am going". Middle Egyptian stayed in use beside it for formal inscriptions.

Why it works

In Middle Egyptian, pꜣ, tꜣ and nꜣ were demonstratives, "this" and "these". Words like that often weaken into articles as a language changes, as Latin ille "that" became Italian il "the". Late Egyptian shows the same path. Spelling also changed: weak consonants such as ꜣ, w and the feminine t were often left out, because they were no longer pronounced.
Articles in Late Egyptian.
Middle EgyptianLate Egyptian
"the house"pr (no article)pꜣ pr
"the town"njwttꜣ njwt
"the men"rmṯnꜣ n rmṯ
"a man"rmṯwꜥ rmṯ
"his house"pr=fpꜣy=f pr (an article with the suffix)
pꜣ, "the": the pintail duck in flight (pꜣ) with the vulture (ꜣ) as a complement.
Late Egyptian between Middle Egyptian and Demotic. The bars overlap: Middle Egyptian lived on in formal writing.

Worked example: Choosing the article

Give the Late Egyptian for "the sky". The word for "sky", pt, is feminine.
  1. Feminine singular nouns take tꜣ.
  2. So "the sky" is tꜣ pt.

Answer: tꜣ pt

Worked example: Two languages in one reign

Ramesses II's temple walls are mostly in Middle Egyptian, while letters from his reign are in Late Egyptian. Why?
  1. Middle Egyptian had become the formal, traditional language, like Latin in medieval Europe.
  2. Monuments meant for eternity used the classical language; everyday letters used the language people spoke.
  3. So the choice depended on the kind of text, not only the date.

Answer: Formal monuments kept the classical language; everyday writing used Late Egyptian.

Late Egyptian is mostly written in hieratic, on papyrus and ostraca, so it is read through hieroglyphic transcription. Its spelling can look strange to a reader of Middle Egyptian: scribes mixed old spellings with new sounds, and added or dropped signs freely. Out of Late Egyptian grew the next stage of the language, Demotic, from about 700 BC.

Common mistake

Thinking Middle Egyptian vanished in the New Kingdom. It stayed in use for formal texts beside Late Egyptian, and was still carved in temples under the Ptolemies and Romans.

Practice

Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 2 XP.

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Sources and further reading

@teddyrookbook GitHub