insight9999

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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 at 04:56

I understand that Egypt, allover its history, changed its language only once, i.e., from Egyptian to Arabic.
The hieroglyphic, hieratic, demotic and Coptic are just different scripts of the same Egyptian language.
Of course there had been always changes and evolutions along its long history, but the language as a whole remained the same.

An example for different scripts of one language is the Turkish language, which was written in Arabic letters for hundred years, and then they wrote it in Latin letters at the time of Kamal Ataturk in the 20th century.
They didn't invent a new language or change it, they've just written their spoken Turkish language in Latin letters, instead of the Arabic letters.

Persia is another example. They write their Persian language in Arabic letters.

Coptic is the latest script of the Egyptian language, and it is, as such, a common mistake to call 'Coptic' a language. It is in fact the Egyptian language, written in Coptic letters.

So what remained of the Egyptian language?

• Names of some cities and villages which are not arabized, e.g., Minufمنوف , Sers سرس, Sentrees سنتريس,
اطسا Itsa, Teta تتا, Aga اجا , Kamshoosh كمشوش, Tanta طنطا, Sengerg سنجرج, Ashmoon اشمون, Gerga جرجا ,
Minia منيا, etc.

• Some nouns, verbs, phrases, etc. are still in use, e.g.,
o اوطه (Ota=Tomato),
o عنتيل (Antiel=Strong/big)
o برسيم (Brseem=Clover)
o بح (Bah=finished)
o بلاص (Ballas=Pitcher)
o (ايتاي (كما في ايتاي البارود (etay=valley)
o اردب (Ardab = the measure unit in use for grains)
o لبش (Labsh=Sugarcane)
o وحوح (Wahwah = to cry with pain)
o هيلا هوب (hela hop = the expression in use while lifting heavy articles)
o (خيت (كما في شبراخيت (kheet = north)
o (منت (كما في شبرامنت (mant = west)
o امبو (Empo = Water or to drink, one of them)

• The Coptic Orthodox Church still use it in the chants, prayers and other liturgical purposes.

• The colloquial language, though Arabic, but follows the same vowel harmony of the Egyptian language.

• What else?

How and why around the 14th century Egyptians changed their language, unlike Turkish and Persians? I'm not aware of solid source of information in this regard and scientific references are, for me, hard to conclude an opinion from specialy when even an attempt may require such amount of time which I’m already in lack of. All what I came across are just salon alike discussions (actually 'salon des refuses'!) where political and/or religious views are imposed over the historical fact in an interpretational form which I tend to distance from.