Middle Egyptian language
| Middle Egyptian | |
|---|---|
| Region | Ancient Egypt |
| Era | ca. 2000 to 1350 BC, when it was replaced by Late Egyptian |
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Afroasiatic
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Early form
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| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
Middle Egyptian is the typical form of Egyptian written from 2000-1300 BC (after Old Egyptian and before Late Egyptian), during the Middle Kingdom and the subsequent Second Intermediate Period. In writing, it makes use of around 900 hieroglyphs. Middle Egyptian is not descended directly from Old Egyptian, which was based on a different dialect.
Eventually evolving into Late Egyptian language around the 14th century BC, the Middle Egyptian language remained in use as a literary standard language until the fourth century AD. As such, it is the classical variant of Egyptian that historically attracted most attention from Egyptology. Whilst most Middle Egyptian is seen written on monuments by Hieroglyphs, it is also written using a cursive variant, and the related hieratic. As it is usually the first and most used form of the Egyptian language, it is frequently (incorrectly) referred to simply as "Hieroglyphics". Middle Egyptian is arguably the best-documented stage of the Egyptian language; there are many resources available for it.
Archaeological findings appear to indicate that Mesopotamian civilizations had an effect on the Egyptian language over time, this is shown to us by the ivory tags discovered at Abydos, which also documented the quantity and geographic origin of such records. Today, thanks to archeologist findings and translators, 70 percent of hieroglyphs have been translated, with still much more to decode.
Middle Egyptian writing was composed entirely of pictures, just as it was in the old and new. There were some influences on the change from the Mesopotamian culture, as well as the Sumerians. It was not until the Egyptians converted to Christianity that they began to stop using their own writing, instead adopting the Greek alphabet which eventually evolved into the Coptic language (which today is still used as a liturgical language using the Coptic alphabet, which is a form of the Greek alphabet with additional letters borrowed from Demotic).
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