How much Ancient Egyptian survived into modern Coptic & Egyptian Arabic?
Upvote:0
The Arabic name for Egypt closely resembles the Arabic word for ‘East’ making them cognates. This is interesting because Egypt lies to the west of the Arab world and so you would expect Egypt to be called after the West as the cardinal direction in which the Arabs would locate Egypt. The word Africa is most probably based on a Semitic word for West. Egypt as a word is said to come from Hwt-Ka-Ptah (a temple in Heliopolis). Heliopolis lies to the East of the Egyptian delta and the ‘temple of the Ka of Ptah relates to the sun, which rises in the East and so it is probably a cultural reference which resulted in the Arabic word for Egypt being based on the word for East. Although the Ancient Egyptian words are not used, the Ancient Egyptian sun cult ideas seemingly survived in the choice of name for Egypt which is remarkable since the Abrahamic moon oriented cultures were not compatible with the sun cult ideology until Christianity united the two by merging the texts that now respectively form the Old and New Testaments.
Upvote:12
Being an Egyptian myself, I have some information about this subject. But my information is also supported by an Egyptian Egyptologist called "Ossama Al-Sa'dawy" who has a PHD in the Ancient Egyptian language.
My sources are his research papers and his dictionary, and he states (And again, me being an Egyptian I can confirm) that a lot of words that modern Egyptians use come from the Ancient Egyptian language.
We actually use these words on a daily basis and most of us Egyptians do not even know that these words come from Ancient Egypt, but what everyone knows for sure is that these words are not Arabic in anyway.
In Modern Egyptian language, if the word's origin is not Arabic, then it can be English, French, Italian, Latin, Turkish, Spanish and of course Ancient Egyptian.
I cannot say how much exactly of the language now comes from Ancient Egyptian, but from my own experience and being born and living in Egypt for 28 years (And using Dr. Ossama's research), I can say that there are no more than 50 words that today's Egyptians (actively) use that come from Ancient Egyptian directly. Including names of areas, cities, towns and villages.
Some examples:
-We use the word "Nannus" as a cute way to refer to a baby, Ancient Egyptians used that word to say "The beautiful one"
-We use the word "tata" to encourage a child to take his first step, Ancient Egyptians used the word "titi" that means "Pace" or "tread"
-We use the word "Embu" to refer to drinking water, and Ancient Egyptians used the word "embe-mo" which means "from the water"
-We use the word "Bahh" to say "finish" or "end", and Ancient Egyptians used the word "phh" which means the same "to come to an end"
-We use the word "haba-haba" which means "easily easily" or "bit by bit" and Ancient Egyptians used "hbhb" which means "tread" or "trample"
Unfortunately most of his work is in Arabic, but you may find some interesting information in his messages and his dictionary.
You will find some great information about this very subject written by him here as well.
A great book written by the American University in Cairo in a story format that uses a lot of Ancient Egyptian words that are still in use today in Egypt:
"From Pharaoh’s Lips:Ancient Egyption Language in The Arabic of Today - Ahmad Abdl-Hamid Youssef"
More post
- 📝 Was it militarily possible to "island hop" the Philippines if not for MacArthur?
- 📝 What area of Los Angeles does this historical map depict?
- 📝 Why was it tradition to offer 'half-baked cake' to departing students?
- 📝 Where and how did the allies scrounge enough food for the Soviets AND the British?
- 📝 How did people react to Cavendish bananas when they first replaced the Gros Michel strain?
- 📝 Why are the Russian Federation's Strategic Rocket Forces and the 12th Chief Directorate separate?
- 📝 Why did it take so long for humans to utilise fossil fuels?
- 📝 How and when did the word "nuclear" replace the word "atomic"?
- 📝 How much knowledge of the past was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries?
- 📝 Does history use hypothesis testing using statistical methods?
- 📝 When was the first full length book sent over telegraph?
- 📝 Why did the Japanese expect the United States navy would attack the Home Islands?
- 📝 Why weren't German V-2 weapons used against the Russians?
- 📝 What police department served the Kenwood neighborhood in Chicago in 1907?
- 📝 Looking for source for Jefferson Davis with Bat Wings
- 📝 Are any civil wars -- other than the American Civil War -- commonly reenacted?
- 📝 Is there a consensus on when history began?
- 📝 What happened to Muslim spouses who converted to Christianity during the 1923 Graeco-Turkish population exchange?
- 📝 Why did English become Lingua Franca of the modern world?
- 📝 Was Kamehameha I unique in elevating so many foreigners?
- 📝 Was Hiroshima targeted because its mountains would "rebound the explosion back into the city for more damage"?
- 📝 In 1914 why didn't Germany simply mobilize its army without declaring war?
- 📝 Which countries banned Ferdinand the bull?
- 📝 How was the Washington Naval Treaty enforced?
- 📝 What caused the decline of Buddhism in Japan?
- 📝 How much did it cost to buy a ticket on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul in 1914?
- 📝 Was it possible to "aim for the epaulette boys" during the Middle Ages?
- 📝 How was Enguerrand VII de Coucy able to keep his allegiance to both king of England and France during the Hundred Years War?
- 📝 What's the difference between Country Born and Mulatto people in the 18th century New England?
- 📝 How was Ivaylo's Bulgarian peasant army able to repel the Mongols?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How much Ancient Egyptian survived into modern Coptic & Egyptian Arabic?
- 📝 When did the term "Nationality" first come into use? How did ancient civilizations refer to themselves? By ethnicity?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 How could Jews integrate into Western modern society back when Saturday was a normal working day?
- 📝 How much did a ship cost in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 Comparison of Ancient Greecian and Egyptian schools and methods of studying to modern day
- 📝 Before modern banking, how did government-issued coins get into everyone's hands?
- 📝 How did the Egyptian engineers of the Third and Fourth Dynasty construct the Pyramids and Sphinx without modern science and mathematics?
- 📝 In modern terms (for example the 2017 US dollar), how much purchasing power is 50,000 (French) Francs in 1829?
- 📝 How did thieves get into Egyptian pyramids?
- 📝 How much of what we know about ancient philosophers comes from oral literature?
- 📝 How much of a effect did linguistic relativism play in ancient Europe?
- 📝 How was the Ancient Egyptian name 'God is Gracious' written?
- 📝 How were ancient Indian mathematical texts found to modern scholarship?
- 📝 How could the Roman sestertii/sesterces be converted into modern terms (say 2017 US$)?
- 📝 What's the Ancient Egyptian phrase/word for “Royal Road of Life”? And how would it have been spelt?
- 📝 How did people distinguish slaves from free people in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
- 📝 How did they cook on ancient ships?
- 📝 How do ancient Chinese "mirrors" such as these in the National Museum function?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 How much evidence is there regarding the naval punishment of keelhauling?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 Are modern Greeks related to the ancient Greeks?
- 📝 How did the ancient Greeks synchronize time?
- 📝 How much would 300 pounds (money value) weigh in Medieval England?
- 📝 How prevalent were recreational drugs in the ancient world?
- 📝 How much were telegraphists in the 1950s paid?
- 📝 How would slaves have addressed their masters in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 How were books published in Ancient Greece?