Egyptian

Language Information:

The language of ancient Egyptian civilization, or just Egyptian language was an Afro-Asiatic languages. The language, its dialects and most of derived languages have extincted for centuries, though modern Coptic, which is the language believed to be closely linked with Egyptian, remains to be a liturgical language in Coptic Orthodox Churches.

Egyptian, for its evolving stages, has several varieties chronically.

Earlier Egyptian

• Archaic Egyptian (pre Old Kingdom)
• Old Egyptian (Old Kingdom)
• Middle Egyptian (Middle Kingdom to 18th Dynasty)
• Middle-Late Egyptian (Uprising from the later part of Middle Kingdom)
• Medio-Late Egyptian (New Kingdom, peak at 19th Dynasty)

Later Egyptian

• Neo-Middle Egyptian (20th Dynasty to Roman Period, paralleling with Late Egyptian)
• Late Egyptian (19th Dynasty to Late Period)
• Demotic Egyptian (Late Period to Roman Period)
• Coptic (Late Roman Period to Islamic Period, now)

Writing system

The official writing system of Egyptian language is Hieroglyph. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters. It is the one of the most famous elements of ancient Egyptian civilization.

Demotic script is another writing system used for Demotic Egyptian. It was derived from hieratic script, which was paralleling with the Hieroglyphic system, but limited to certain religion workers. Early Demotic script could be dated back to 25th Dynasty or 7th to 4th Century BCE.

 Portion of the copy of Rosetta Stone By Morphart - stock.adobe.com

IU Courses

The department of Middle East Languages and Cultures(MELC) offers Egyptians Courses, including Hieroglyphic Egyptian, Middle Egyptian and Demotic Egyptian.

The courses are 

E100–150 Elementary Hieroglyphic Egyptian (E)
E200 Intermediate Middle Egyptian (E)
E201 Ancient Egyptian History and Civilization (E)
E204 Myths, Legends and Poetry of Ancient Egypt (E)
E250 Late Egyptian: Grammar and Texts (E)
E300 Demotic Egyptian I: Grammar and Script (E)
E301 Religions of Ancient Egyptian (E)
E350 Demotic Egyptian II: Persian and Ptolemaic Texts (E)

*Not all above courses are available in all semesters.