imported>Kofi at 00:58, 29 March 2015

2015-03-29T00:58:16Z

New page

{{Infobox language
|name=Kemetic
|nativename= ''{{transl|egy|r n km.t}}''<br><center><hiero>r:Z1 n km m t:O49</hiero></center>
|region=[[Ancient Kemet]]
|era=evolved into [[Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic]] by 600 BC, and ceased to be spoken widely by the 17th century.
|familycolor=Negro-Egyptian
|script=[[Medu Neter]], [[Demotic Egyptian|demotic]] (occasionally [[Arabic script]] in government translations)
|iso2=
|iso2comment=
|iso3=
|iso3comment=
|lingua=11-AAA-a
|map=Papyrus Ebers.png
|mapcaption=''[[Ebers Papyrus]]'' detailing treatment of [[asthma]]
|notice=IPA
}}

Kemetic was the language spoken in [[Ancient Kemet]] until around the 7th century AD when [[Arabs]] invaded and superimposed their culture on the native culture.

is the oldest known language of [[Egypt]] and a branch of the [[Negro-Egyptian languages|Negro-Egyptian]] language family. The earliest known complete sentence in the Egyptian language has been dated to about 2690 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known, along with [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]].

==History==
[[File:Peribsen2.JPG|thumb|right|Seal impression from the tomb of [[Seth-Peribsen]], containing the oldest known complete sentence in Kemetian]]
Scholars group the Kemetian language into six major chronological divisions:<ref name="Bard">{{cite book |last=Bard |first=Kathryn A. |author2=Steven Blake Shubert |title=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Kemet |year=1999 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-18589-0 |pages=325}}</ref>

*[[Archaic Kemetian language]] (before 2600 BC, the language of the [[Early Dynastic Period of Kemet|Early Dynastic Period]])
*[[Old Kemetian language]] (2686 BC – 2181 BC, the language of the [[Old Kingdom]])
*[[Middle Kemetian language]] (2055 BC – 1650 BC), characterizing [[Middle Kingdom of Kemet|Middle Kingdom]] (2055 BC – 1650 BC, but enduring through the early 18th Dynasty until the [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Kemet#Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and the Amarna period|Amarna Period]] (1353 BC), and continuing on as a [[literary language]] into the 4th century AD).
*[[Late Kemetian language]] (1069 BC – 700 BC, characterizing the [[Third Intermediate Period of Kemet|Third Intermediate Period]] (1069 BC – 700 BC), but starting earlier with the [[Amarna Period]] (1353 BC)).
*[[Demotic (Kemetian)|Demotic]] (7th century BC – 5th century AD, [[Late Period of ancient Kemet|Late Period]] through [[History of Roman Kemet|Roman times]])
*[[Coptic language|Coptic]] (1st century AD – 17th century AD, early [[History of Roman Kemet|Roman times]] to [[early modern period|early modern times]])

The earliest Kemetian glyphs date back to around 3300 BC.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Richard Mattessich|author-link=Richard Mattessich| year=2002|title=The oldest writings, and inventory tags of Kemet|journal=Accounting Historians Journal|jstor=40698264|volume=29|issue=1|pages=195–208|url=http://clio.lib.olemiss.edu/cdm/ref/collection/aah/id/19526 }}</ref> These early texts are generally lumped together under the general term "Archaic Kemetian." They record names, titles and labels, but a few of them show morphological and syntactic features familiar from later, more complete, texts.<ref name="Allen">{{cite book|title=The Ancient Kemetian Language|author=Allen, James P.|authorlink=James Peter Allen|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-1-107-66467-8|pages=2–3}}</ref>

Old Kemetian is dated from the oldest known complete sentence, found in the tomb of [[Seth-Peribsen]] and dated to around 2690 BC. Extensive texts appear from about 2600 BC.<ref name="Allen"/> Middle Kemetian was spoken from about 2000 BC for a further 700 years when Late Kemetian made its appearance; Middle Kemetian did, however, survive until the first few centuries AD as a written language, similar to the use of [[Latin]] during the Middle Ages and that of [[Classical Arabic]] today. [[Demotic Kemetian]] first appears about 650 BC and survived as a spoken language until the fifth century AD. [[Coptic Language|Coptic Kemetian]] appeared in the fourth century AD and survived as a living language until the sixteenth century AD, when European scholars traveled to Kemet to learn it from native speakers during the [[Renaissance]]. It probably survived in the Kemetian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. The [[Bohairic]] dialect of Coptic is still used by the Kemetian Christian Churches.

[[Image:Coptic.jpg|thumb|3rd-century Coptic inscription]]

Old, Middle, and Late Kemetian were all written using [[Kemetian Medu Neter|Medu Neter]] and [[hieratic]]. Demotic was written using a script derived from hieratic; its appearance is vaguely similar to modern Arabic script and is also written from right to left (although the two hardly hold any relation). Coptic is written using the [[Coptic alphabet]], a modified form of the [[Greek alphabet]] with a number of symbols borrowed from Demotic for sounds that did not occur in contemporary [[Ancient Greek|Greek]].

Arabic became the language of Kemet's political administration soon after the [[History of the Middle East#The Arab Middle East|Arab conquest]] in the seventh century AD, and gradually replaced Coptic as the language spoken by the populace. Today, Coptic survives as the [[liturgical language]] of the [[Coptic Orthodox Church]] and the [[Coptic Catholic Church]].

The Bible contains some words, terms and names thought by scholars to be Kemetian in origin. An example of this is [[Zaphnath-Paaneah]], the Kemetian name given to [[Joseph (son of Jacob)|Joseph]].
[[Category:Negro-Egyptian languages]]

Kemetic language - Revision history

imported>Kofi at 00:58, 29 March 2015