Some attempts to write the living language in the alplial.•t. supplemented by some de motic signs. had been made in pagan times. and we a papyrus. containing a horoscope.
which scents to have been written about A.D. NO. It was, however, the desire to make the sacred Christian writings accessible even to the un learned that led to the origin of Coptic writing and literature. 'The date of the Coptic version of the Bible is disputed. but it does not seem to ue older than the third century. perhaps later. Coptic was written with 24 Greek and 7 demotic letters. (1n its history and its extinction as a living language at tile end of the Middle Ages, see Co•rs.
Interest in the lost knowledge of hieroglyphics was awakened in Europe in the sixteenth century. About 1650 the learned Jesuit Athanasins Kir cher endeavored to interpret them by a fanciful method of his own. finding long and philosophic systems in groups which contained only the names of kings. etc. The few monuments with hieroglyphics which were then known were explained by means of Hebrew, Chaldee. Chinese, etc., rarely by means of ('optic. which was known only in Europe before the eighteenth century. The Greek traditions on hieroglyphics in llorapollo. Tsetses, etc., were not incorrect, as has now been recognized. but insufficient. The basis for decipherment was furnished by the French expedition to Egypt under Napoleon. Through it a nuneh larger number of the Egyp tian monuments became known, above all the famous inscription of Rosetta. which proved the key to the decipherment. This stone, found by a French artillery officer in building a fort near Rosetta in 1799. and brought to London after the capitulation of the French army (see llosErrA STONE) , contains a decree of the Egyptian priests in honor of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, writ ten in Greek. and preceded by a translation into hieroglyphics and demotic. Unfortunately. the hieroglyphic text was much mutilated. and for sonic time defied the efforts of the decipherers. The demotic part was better preserved and De Saey, Aekerbald ( IS021, especially Thomas Young, ( 1S15. ete.1 . correctly established the sense of many groups and sentences. Hr. Young came very near finding the correct value of some hieroglyphic letters (18191, but the merit of the decipherment belongs entirely to Champollion (q.v.). even if he did not work quite inde pendently of Young. as he always claimed. Ile took as starting-point the two names Ptolemy and Cleopatra. furnished by the Rosetta Stone and an obelisk at !'bike. These two names yielded thirteen signs. the phonetic value of which Chain 'Jolliet] determined correctly or approximately. Ile next identified the name Alexander. which fur nished three more signs. and thus went on step by step. through the names of the Ptolemaic kings and Roman emperors found on the monuments, and if he hail not died prematurely (18:12) he would doubtless have succeeded in reading more than single sentences and in pq.feeting his sys tem. which even in his posthumous works does not do full justice to his genius. His discoveries were continued. by RoseRini. Salvolini. later by Birch. Lepsins. and He For a long time the errors of Sevtia•th and exercised a eonfusimr and hindering influenee. The French and Tuscan expeditions under Champollion and RoseMill. and especially the Prussian expedi tion under Lepsius (q.v.). furnished rieh ma terial from the monuments. Grammars of the language of hieroglyphics were pub lished by De (Ch•estomathie i'gyptienne, Paris, 1867-75) ; Birch (in Bunsen, Egypt's Place in the World's History. trans. vol., London, ISS7) ; Brugscla. Ilieroglyphische Grant znutik (Leipzig, 1S72), also in French (1S67).
Later grammars by Lepage Renoul. Eb•mentary Grammar of the Egyptian Language (London, 1S75) : Budge, First St, ps in Egyptian (Lon don, 1895) ; Loot, Manuel de to longue t'gyp tienne (Paris. 1889). Erman's Grammatik, also in English (London, 1894), is very brief, but best represents the present knowl edge. (In his grammar of Neo-Egyptian, see above; his spra•he des Papyrus Westear (G:A tingen, 1889) treats of an early vernacular phase of the language. A copious dictionary is in prepa ration under the auspices of the Berlin Academy, as Brugsch's llieroglyphisch-demotisches buch 17 vols.. Leipzig. 1867 SO). although the best Egyptian dictionary at present in existence, is rapidly becoming antiquated. The dictionaries of Birch (in Bunsen V.). Pierret, 1 oeubulaire hit'roglyphigue (Paris. 1S75) : Levi. Vocabob rio gtroytifico (-opt° Ebrazco (Turin. ), are less reliable than that of Brugsch. Several journals are devoted to Egyptology, viz.: Zeilsehrift fur fievyptische and Alttrtuntskunde. (Ber lin); Recueil rle traraux rtqatifs is la philo logfr et a 1'arela'ol6gie et assyricnnes (Paris) ; Sphinx (Upsala) ; and the literature of the subject is growing immensely. The sue eess attended the study of hieroglyphics attracted the attention of students to this branch of Egyptology, and demotic was for a long time neglected. In 1S55 Brugseh published his Gram natire dt:motique. which. though now antiquated, formed the basis for all subsequent investigations. Again neglected for a considerable time. the study of demotic was revived by who devoted special attention to the legal documents. written in demotic script (Chrestomathir th'uto ague, Paris. ISSO), but his works are to be used with great caution. in more recent times, the most meritorious publications on the subject of demotic are those of F. LI Griffith and W. Spiegelberg. The hieratic documents were first made intelligible by the works of Chabas and Goodwin. The paleography of hieroglyphics has recently been treated by in several vol umes of the Arelncological Survey of Egypt. (See Eovrrotocr.) It may he remarked that the question as to whether the decipherment of Egyp tologists rests on a better basis than the vagaries of Kireher was frequently asked as long as the fragmentary P.osetta Stone was the only bilingual (or rather trilingual) text. After the discovery of the larger and perfectly intact trilingual text, called the decree of Canopus. containing: a decree of the priests in honor of Ptolemy III.. Euergetes, in the year tt.e. 23'3 I found by T.. Beiniselt. I s•1;. near Tanis: his companion Lepsius also claimed the discovery). such doubts became impossible_ Since that time various bilinguals have been found. and other sources which; control the de cipherment are now available. The exact pro nuneiation of the vowels. which were never per fectly expressed in Egyptian writing. and (-hanged frequently in course of time. is much disputed. and will possibly never he settled with absolute eertainty in all points. The texts, however. are now. generally speaking. at least as well under stood as any Phomieinn inscription or as the Hebrew text of the Bible. The time when they will be understood as well as Greek or Latin Nrtiters may not he far distant. That the Pho•ician alphahet, the mother of our modern writing. ileri%ed from the Egyptian hieratic signs cla tilled by De I lit Molt stir rortyl /erg io • de raipha in I phi /etch n, 1:47 II. and this hypothesis has become very popular; it is. houeNcr, highly improbable and is b sing gromid among perfect was the hieroglyphie writ • ing 1.1 the Aziees lexi•lins. which axed also in I .\inerica. ..specially by the.