How Ancient Egyptian Words and Meanings Developed Over Time:

Ancient Egyptian words and meanings were represented in hieroglyphs. This was a symbolic language represented in the form of pictures. Written records of hieroglyphs have been found. The scriptures have been dated back to 3200 BC.

Egyptian language development is part of Afro-Asiatic language development. The language was used till the 5th century AD. But it began receding in use. Ancient Egyptian words and meanings are still present in many Egyptian relics, artifacts, tombs and temple ruins. Ancient Egyptian language is one of the oldest recorded human languages in the history of the world.

Development of The Language

Before 2600 BC, hieroglyphics were used extensively. This was during the Early Dynastic periods. The Naqada II pottery vessels have inscriptions of hieroglyphic symbols indicating words.

Language During The Period of Old Kingdom

A lot of improvement happened during the period of the Old Kingdom between 2600 BC and 2000 BC. During this time there was progress in the development of ancient Egyptian words and meanings. Pyramid texts revealed lines and lines of hieroglyphics.

Elite Egyptians inscribed their tomb walls with numerous sayings. Temples had this too. Such various ways of inscribing words on different surfaces developed the language. Tombs had short autobiographies of the deceased. Temples had philosophical sayings.

Ideograms were tripled, as were phonograms to pluralize words. This was also an important development in the language of ancient Egyptians.

The Demotic Period

The development of Demotic Egyptian language was profound during 7th century BC and 5th century AD. This language was used for around thousand years. It was a strong language that developed over these years.

By late Demotic period, the Demotic Egyptian language was in an advanced stage of development. Once the Macedonian empire set up their base in conquered Egypt, the use of Demotic Egyptian language receded.

However, between 30 BC and 450 AD, a number of literary artifacts were written. These included journals, memos, autobiographies, observations, creative expressions and so on. When the Romans invaded Egypt, people started speaking less of the Demotic Egyptian language.

Some Ancient Egyptian Words and Their Meanings

To understand ancient Egyptian words and their meanings, it is important to understand the graphical notations. Different symbols represented different aspects of the environment. The following are a limited compilation of them.

Akhet

This was a symbolic representation of the horizon. This symbol was used to indicate sunrise and sunset.

Amenta

Amenta was used to signifying morbidity. It then became a symbol to represent burial sites.

Canopic Jars

The internal parts of the body were removed during the mummification process. They were placed in canopic jars. The canopic jars later went on to represent the four sons of Horus in hieroglyphics.

There are plenty of such ancient Egypt words and meanings represented in symbol form that has yet to be discovered fully.