Nowadays, Egypt is essentially seen as an Arabic-speaking country. However, before Arabic, before Greek, even before Aramaic, Egypt had its own ancient language with a 4,000-year written history.
In this video, let’s explore the journey of the Egyptian language, from hieroglyphs to Coptic, and how it was gradually replaced by Arabic. From the Pharaohs to the Fatimids, discover how Egypt reshaped its linguistic and cultural identity over hundreds of years!
Research, script, animation: @nofridaynightplans
Music
“The Legend of Narmer” by WombatNoises
“Energizing” by Kevin MacLeod
Contents
00:00 History of the Egyptian language
05:46 The Hellenistic Period
13:12 What does “arabisation” mean?
18:04 How Egyptians became Arabs
Sources
Stauder, Andréas. History of the Egyptian language, In: Shawn, Ian ; Bloxam, Elizabeth (Hrsgg.): The Oxford handbook of Egyptology. Oxford 2020, pp. 930-956
Ayad, Mariam F., The Death of Coptic? A Reprisal.
Björnesjö, Sophia. L’arabisation de l’Égypte : le témoignage papyrologique. In Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, No. 43 (1987), pp. 93–106.
Garcin, Jean-Claude. L’arabisation de l’Égypte. In Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, No. 43 (1987), pp. 130–137.
Papaconstantinou, Arietta. “‘They Shall Speak the Arabic Language and Take Pride in it’: Reconsidering the Fate of Coptic after the Arab Conquest.” Le Muséon, Vol. 120, No. 3–4 (2007), pp. 273–299. ISSN 1783-158X.
Wasserstein, David J. Why Did Arabic Succeed Where Greek Failed? Language Change in the Near East after Muhammad.
Zouache, Abbès. Ruptures, transitions, continuités dans l’histoire de l’Égypte médiévale. In Médiévales, No. 64, Temporalités de l’Égypte (Printemps 2013), pp. 5–18.
Papaconstantinou, A. (Ed.). (n.d.). The Multilingual Experience in Egypt, from the Ptolemies to the Abbasids. Université Paris 1, France, and University of Oxford.
Rubenson, S. (1996). The transition from Coptic to Arabic. Égypte/Monde arabe, (27–28).
Richter, T. S. (2010). Greek, Coptic and the ‘language of the Hijra’: The rise and decline of the Coptic language in late antique and medieval Egypt. Cambridge University Press. Published online March 1, 2010.
