Egyptian language

The Ancient Egyptian Language

The Egyptian language was the special way people talked and wrote in Egypt a very long time ago. It is part of a big group of languages called the Afro-Asiatic language family.

People first started writing this language with beautiful pictures called hieroglyphic script over 5,000 years ago. These pictures were called the “writing of the gods’ words” by ancient people. They wrote on stone, wood, and even paper-like material called papyrus.

During a time called the Middle Kingdom, people used a form of this language called Middle Egyptian. This old way of talking stayed important for writing books and special documents for many years.

Later, the spoken language changed into something called Demotic. After Egypt became part of the Roman period, the language changed again into forms known as Coptic dialects, which were written with letters from the Greek alphabet.

Today, a type of this old language called Bohairic Coptic is still used in special church services by the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic churches, even though most people in Egypt now speak Arabic.

Fun Facts About Egyptian Language

• Picture Writing: Hieroglyphs were made from animals and plants found in Africa, showing how smart ancient Egyptians were.
• Changing Over Time: The language changed a lot over thousands of years, from Old Egyptian to Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic.
• Special Words: Some English words like ebony, ivory, and oasis come from ancient Egyptian words!

The Egyptian language is one of the oldest written languages in the world, and it helps us learn about the amazing people and culture of ancient Egypt.