Fandom High School

"Good afternoon, Mr Sheppard," Daniel says. "Are you going to be the only one turning up to class again today? I've got your grade for your midterm; it's [[appropriate grade for the work you turned in]]"


"Okay. Theoretical linguistics is often divided into a number of separate areas, to be studied more or less independently. The following divisions are currently widely acknowledged:

Phonetics, the study of the different sounds that are employed across all human languages
Phonology(or phonemics), the study of patterns of a language's basic sounds
Morphology, the study of the internal structure of words
Syntax, the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
Semantics, the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences
Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in communicative acts
Historical linguistics, the study of languages whose historical relations are recognizable through similarities in vocabulary, word formation, and syntax
Linguistic typology, the study of the grammatical features that are employed across all human languages
Stylistics, the study of style in languages
Discourse analysis, the study of sentences organised into texts

The independent significance of each of these areas is not universally acknowledged, however, and nearly all linguists would agree that the divisions overlap considerably. Nevertheless, each area has core concepts that foster significant scholarly inquiry and research.

"Last week's homework on my desk, please. For tonight, I want a hundred words on phonetics and phonology for Thursday's class."

Daniel is once again in the classroom for these class times.

The sign up sheets are on the desk.

He looks distracted by something. It's anyone's guess what it is.

"Okay then. Sorry for trying to give you an extra class on Friday. If you actually did do the work - great. Keep it, I'll promise you that it'll come in useful. If not, it doesn't matter, I'll get you there eventually.

Today, we're looking at different types of writing in Ancient Egypt. Throughout their more than 3,000 year long history, the Ancient Egyptians used three kinds of writings to write religious and secular texts: hieroglyphic, hieratic and, from the 25th Dynasty on, demotic.

Hieroglyphs

Hieroglyphic writing is the basis of the two other writings. It owes its name to the fact that when the Greeks arrived in Egypt, this writing was mainly used for ‘sacred (Greek hieros) inscriptions (Greek glypho)’ on temple walls or on public monuments.

Hieroglyphic writing uses clearly distinguishable pictures to express both sounds and ideas and was used from the end of the Prehistory until 396 AD, when the last hieroglyphic text was written on the walls of the temple of Isis on the island of Philae. It was used in monumental inscriptions on walls of temples and tombs, but also on furniture, sarcophagi and coffins, and even on papyrus. It could either be inscribed or drawn and often the signs would be painted in many colours. The quality of the writing would vary from highly detailed signs to mere outlines.

Drawn on papyrus or on linen, the signs would often be simplified but they would still be recognisable as individual signs. A special, cursive form of hieroglyphic writing was used for the Book of the Dead. This style was also used for the texts in the tombs of the 18th Dynasty kings Thutmosis III and Amenhotep II, giving the impression that a large papyrus scroll was unrolled against the walls.

Hieratic

Hieratic writing is as old as hieroglyphic, but it is more cursive and the result of a quick hand drawing signs on a sheet of papyrus with a reed brush. While writing, the scribe would often omit several details that made one sign different from another. Several smaller signs, written in one quick flow, would melt together, but despite this, the hieratic text can still be transcribed into hieroglyphics.

Hieratic was mainly used for religious and secular writings on papyrus or on linen and during the Greek-Roman era occasionally in an inscription of a temple wall.

It was called ‘hieratic’ by the Greeks because when they arrived in Egypt, this writing was almost exclusively used by the Egyptian priests (Greek hieratikos, ‘priestly’). Prior to demotic, it was also used in administrative and private texts and in stories.

Demotic

Demotic writing started being used during the 25th/26th Dynasty. In part, it is a further evolution from hieratic: like hieratic, demotic was a handwriting, but the strokes of the reed brush or the reed pen are even quicker and more illegible. Hieratic signs representing a group of hieroglyphs could be broken up, not as to represent the individual hieroglyphic signs again, but to facilitate the writing. With these entirely new signs, unknown in hieroglyphic or hieratic were shaped. The link between handwriting and hieroglyphic text slowly faded with demotic. Where hieratic texts often are transcribed into hieroglyphic before translation, demotic texts usually are not.

Demotic was mostly used in administrative and private texts, but also in stories and quite exceptionally in inscriptions. The last demotic inscription was also found in the temple of Isis on the island of Philae.

Its name comes from the Greek word demotikos meaning ‘popular’.


It is important to note that neither writing would entirely replace another, but it would merely restrict the other writings to specific domains and be restricted itself to other domains. Thus demotic would become the writing of the administration from the 26th Dynasty on, but it did not entirely replace hieratic as a handwriting, which was still being used in religious texts.

Hieratic, on its part, did not replace hieroglyphic either. From its beginnings, hieratic was hieroglyphic, but more cursive and written by a speedier hand. As the two writings evolved, practicality caused hieratic to be used when a text need not be written in the slow but detailed hieroglyphic signs and was used in administrative texts, texts that were not to be inscribed on monuments or on funerary objects, or texts that mattered for their contents only.


Okay. Homework... I want about a hundred words for an example of each one. Bonus points for pictures."

Daniel is slightly distracted, as he gives his lecture on Ancient Egyptian's relationship to other languages

"There's no homework tonight," he says at the end, with a smile.