Ancient Egyptian
E84877
Ancient Egyptian is the extinct language of ancient Egypt, known from hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic scripts and regarded as one of the earliest recorded written languages in human history.
Aliases (5)
- Old Egyptian ×3
- Ancient Egyptian language ×2
- Archaic Egyptian ×1
- Egyptian ×1
- Middle Egyptian ×1
Statements (65)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Afroasiatic language
→
extinct language → language → |
| country |
Egypt
→
|
| decipheredWith |
Rosetta Stone
→
|
| deciphermentContributor |
Jean-François Champollion
→
|
| earliestAttestation |
Naqada III period
→
late 4th millennium BCE → |
| era |
c. 4th millennium BCE – early 1st millennium CE
→
|
| followedBy |
Coptic language
→
|
| hasAncestor |
Proto-Afroasiatic language
→
|
| hasFeature |
grammatical gender
→
root-and-pattern morphology → verb–subject–object word order (VSO) → |
| hasWritingStage |
Coptic
→
Demotic Egyptian → Late Egyptian → Middle Egyptian → Old Egyptian → |
| influenced |
Coptic language
→
Egyptian Arabic vocabulary → |
| ISO639-3 |
egy
→
|
| languageFamily |
Afroasiatic
→
Egyptian → |
| notableText |
Book of the Dead
→
Coffin Texts → Instruction of Ptahhotep → Pyramid Texts → Rosetta Stone inscription → Story of Sinuhe → |
| regardedAs |
one of the earliest recorded written languages
→
|
| region |
Lower Egypt
→
Nile Valley → Upper Egypt → |
| scriptType |
consonantal abjad
→
logoconsonantal → |
| spokenIn |
Ancient Egypt
→
|
| standardLiteraryStage |
Middle Egyptian
→
|
| status |
no native speakers
→
|
| subclassOf |
Afroasiatic languages
→
Egyptian language → |
| usedAs |
classical language of ancient Egypt
→
liturgical language in later periods → |
| usedBy |
ancient Egyptian priesthood
→
ancient Egyptian scribes → |
| usedFor |
administrative documents
→
funerary texts → literary texts → monumental inscriptions → religious texts → royal inscriptions → |
| usedIn |
legal documents
→
royal decrees → temple inscriptions → tomb inscriptions → |
| writingDirection |
left-to-right
→
right-to-left → top-to-bottom → |
| writingMaterial |
ostraca
→
papyrus → stone → wooden tablets → |
| writingSystem |
Egyptian hieroglyphs
→
demotic script → hieratic script → |
Referenced by (14)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Egyptian language family
("Old Egyptian")
→
Egyptian language family ("Archaic Egyptian") → |
hasPart |
|
Ineb-hedj
→
Swenett → |
languageOfName |
|
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
("Middle Egyptian")
→
New Kingdom of Egypt ("Ancient Egyptian language") → |
languageUsed |
|
Afroasiatic languages
→
|
hasAncientMember |
|
First Intermediate Period of Egypt
("Ancient Egyptian language")
→
|
hasLanguage |
|
Rosetta Stone
→
|
language |
|
Nile Valley
→
|
languageHistoricallySpoken |
|
Menkaure
→
|
languageOfCourt |
|
Sneferu
("Old Egyptian")
→
|
languageOfInscriptions |
|
Egyptian hieroglyphs
("Old Egyptian")
→
|
languageWritten |
|
Amarna letters
("Egyptian")
→
|
secondaryLanguageElements |