The language egyptienne
The Egyptian language of the time of the Pharaohs does not exist any more today. We emitted for a long time the hypothesis that the former Egyptian was the "language-mother" which would have given birth to the current Hamitic and Semitic languages. But it is not the case, because some of his "languages-girls" were contemporary him. We know that the former Egyptian having evolved in neo-Egyptian, the language of Upper Egypt, remained used up to the neighborhood of 600 BC.
The evolution of the language began with the former Egyptian the most former shape of which would go back up about 3000 BC. It is the language which we find in the texts of pyramids and registrations of the IIIth in the VIth dynasty of the Former Empire. The first certificates of the average Egyptian (or classic Egyptian) appeared by 2100 BC; this language, which survived for approximately 500 years, lives the "language of hieroglyphs" in history of antique Egypt, during the period of the Average Empire. Under the XVIIth dynasty, the average Egyptian was adopted as official language (literary texts, royal registrations, administrative documents, etc.); We find him on the registrations of sarcophaguses today. As for the new Egyptian (or neo-Egyptian), he replaced in Upper Egypt the average Egyptian in the spoken language (after the year 1600 BC) and remained used up to the neighborhood of the year 600 (BC).
During Low Time(Period) (VII-VIth centuries), two varieties of Egyptian and two writings derived of the new Egyptian were simultaneously used: on one hand, demotic "archaic" in the North, on the other hand, hieratic "abnormal" in the South. This naming of demotic (from Greek dêmos significant "popular") indicates a language remained used until VIIth century AD. In the writing, the term of demotic makes reference to the "popular language" used on the everyday life, whereas the official registrations in hieroglyphs tend to indicate the archaic styles of the Former Empire and the Average Empire.
As for the Copt (from Greek Aiguptos meaning "Egyptian"), it is the last link in the evolution of the former Egyptian. Been attested from the IVth century BC, the Copt was used by the farmers of Upper Egypt until in the XVIIth century and remain the liturgical language of the orthodox Coptic Church today (approximately 6,5 million followers). The Coptic writing is the transcription of the Egyptian language in Greek letters completed by seven demotic characters to return the sounds which did not exist in Greek.
Also let us mention that in 333 BC Alexander the Great occupied Egypt which he freed from the Persian supervision; the country of the Pharaohs was integrated into the Hellenistic world until the arrival of Romain. Egypt became a Roman province for seven centuries, but the Roman culture penetrated hardly into the Egyptian society, already hellenized under Ptolémées. After the division of Roman Empire in 395, Egypt became Byzantine. During the next two centuries, the Coptic community of Egypt was a victim of the persecutions of the Byzantine power, which also aimed at the Jews
