Nouns (or naming words) are the names of things, book, house, bird etc. These are known as tangible nouns – names of physical things.

We also use intangible nouns, intangible nouns are the names of things which aren’t physical, like love, hate, fear or joy.

Genders

Like most languages, nouns in Egyptian have genders. We don’t have a gender structure in English, so the concept can seem a little strange, especially if you’ve never learned a foreign language. Thankfully, in middle Egyptian the system is very simple. Feminine nouns (almost) always end in a t ( 󴨿 )   Masculine nouns do not end in t.

The egyptian word for Son was Sa – it was written in hieroglyphs as

We know the word Sa is masculine, because it does not end in a T.

The egyptian word for Daughter was Sat – it was written in hieroglyphs as

We know the word Sat if feminine, because it does end in a T.

There are a handful of masculine nouns which do end in a t, but they are few and far between.

Plurals

Nouns can be either singular, or plural. Singular nouns refer to one thing, and plurals refer to a number of things – Temple, and Temples.

Forming plurals in middle Egyptian is also quite easy!

The Egyptian word for man was z – it could be written phonetically as    but was usually represented ideographically, using the man hieroglyph. 󳀀

The word for Woman was Zet – it was written phonetically as   but could also be represented by the woman hieroglyph. 󳍔

These are both examples of singular nouns.

The Egyptian word for people was retchu – this is a plural noun.  It was written with the man and woman hieroglyph, followed by three strokes – it’s the strokes which indicate the noun is plural.  󳀀󳍔󴪑

Not all writing in ancient Egypt took place in tombs and on temple walls – in fact most everyday records were recorded instead on rolls of Papyrus. Papyrus was one of the first forms of paper as we know it today, being fear easier to write on and much more portable than stone, it was of major importance in ancient Egypt. Papyrus was viewed as less permanent than stone, but in Egypt’s dry climate, some papyri have survived for thousands of years quite well.

In addition to being very useful the Papyrus plant was considered to have special religious significance – this was because its flower was thought to resemble the rays of the sun, and its stalk (which is roughly triangular when cut and viewed face-on) looks like the shape of a pyramid.

Papyrus plants growing on the banks of the Nile

Like most things produced in Egypt, Papyrus plants grew along the banks of the Nile. It could grow to more than 10 feet tall with a diameter of four inches. To create papyrus sheets, it was harvested and the stalks were cut into sections about 12 inches long.

The tough green outer casing of the stalk was removed with a sharp knife or similar tool to get at the white, pulpy center. The outer casing was not thrown away – being strong and supple it was useful for making things like baskets and sandals.

The cylinders of pulpy inner-stem were then cut into thin strips. Next the strips were placed on a board and overlapped. Then this was beaten with a wood mallet or pressed so the sap comes out and serves as the glue that binds the strips together. The overlapping strips were left in the sun, and when they dried, each sheet would be burnished with a smooth stone to prepare the surface for writing.

Individual sheets could be glued together to make a papyrus roll as long as desired. Some are more than 100 feet long. Papyrus was used for bureaucratic records, literary productions, international commerce, and religious texts such as the Book of the Dead.

Papyrus used to grow wild in Egypt on the banks of the Nile, but modern industrialization has ended that. Today it is farmed to make into sheets so artists can paint ancient scenes to be sold to tourists. You can still buy sheets of papyrus in most large art supply stores (find some links below!) so you can try writing on the real thing should you wish!

Try writing on Papyrus!

As mentioned above, some arts and craft shops carry papyrus. You can also get genuine papyrus delivered from amazon! We recommend the following:

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Below you can find a breakdown of the Hieroglyphic alphabet as defined by Gardiner.

Hieroglyphics were the earliest from of Egyptian writing, however other forms did emerge throughout the period. There are two noteworthy to consider:

Hieratic

An example of Egyptian Hieratic script

Was a script used primarily by the priests, and was, in essence a simplified more cursive version of the original hieroglyphics. Originally hieratic was quite literally a version of the hieroglyphics script which was more rounded in form, thus allowing for quick writing.

During the Old kingdom, hieratic was hardly any different to hieroglyphic writing, except it was (As far as we can tell) always written from left to right.

During the Middle kingdom hieratic became invariably associated with writing on papyrus (Since writing on papyrus was done with a simple reed pen, which allowed the writer to benefit from its cursive nature). During the middle period hieratic evolved into a script in its own right and became easy to distinguish from traditional hieroglyphs. Religious texts, however were usually written in ‘full’ hieroglyphs, even when produced on papyrus. This began to change after Dynasty xxI, when even religious texts began to use hieratic.

Demoitc

Demotic (from the Greek Demos, popular, the people) was a further evolution of hieratic writing, adopted during the late period. Demotic, a very rapid form of

An example of Egyptian Demotic script

writing was used for virtually all writing during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods and has even been found used for stone inscriptions. The widespread introduction of demotic script is generally dated to 700 bce, and was favoured particularly for legal, business, and literary texts.

Demotic was developed in the north of Egypt and was used throughout the country after the conquest of Upper Egypt under Psamtek I. The oldest known example of a demotic papyrus dates to the 21st year of Psamtek I and is from el-Hiba – Like hieratic it was always written from right to left.

Since Demotic writing was a later development, the language used to write demotic is closer to what we could loosely call ‘Late Egyptian’ rather than the Middle Egyptian we work with on this site.

Demotic script is noticeably more cursive than even hieratic, having little or no resemblance to the original hieroglyphic symbols, although the underlying principles of the writing system are the same. In fact, Demotic does not look too dissimilar from contemporary forms of arabic script.

Currently, we believe that between the seventh and fifth centuries demotic was used only for administration and officialdom. The first literary demotic texts are from the fourth century BC, though most literary texts in the script date to the early Roman Period (a time when Greek was the main administrative language).

There were many ancient civilizations who did not develop a system of writing – indeed, there were many civilizations who existed much later then the Egyptians who did not develop writing, so why did Egypt?

The Nile

Central to the history of ancient Egypt is the river Nile. There is no question that the Nile was one of the most important, if not the most important factor in allowing Egyptian civilization to develop. The annual flooding of its banks with rich silts (inundation) which provided the ancient Egyptians with such bountiful harvests made farming relatively simple, and allowed the ancient Egyptians to concentrate their energies in other areas, such as technology, art and culture.

A farm on the river Nile

Egyptologists today are also convinced that Nile was one of the main reasons that Egypt had to develop a system of writing.

Each year, monsoons in Ethiopia bring torrential rains that wash rich topsoil into the Nile. In July, the Nile overflows its banks and deposits this soil on both sides of the river. Crops were then plated and, given almost ideal growing conditions they produced considerable surpluses. It was the surplus grains which led to the system of writing.  The Egyptians used grain itself as a form of money, the amounts produced therefore needed to be tracked in order to facilitate the collection of taxes – That’s where writing came in. The Egyptians needed writing to keep track of the taxes that were due and the taxes that were collected.

The Pharaoh

Egypt was the world first nation state led by a powerful king (the Pharaoh) – this brought many benefits and ensured that the civilization would last for thousands of years. In Egypt, the pharaoh was viewed as a god. He had absolute power and owned all the land. With such centralized power, the pharaoh was capable of

Hatshepsut, the first female Pharaoh

marshaling all the manpower of Egypt for his purposes.

For example, just before the inundation of the Nile, the pharaoh could organize farmers to begin digging irrigation canals so that more crops could be grown. Then, the pharaoh could collect even more taxes, which required writing.

Pharaoh also needed to publicise his victories and communicate key messages to the people – both in order to maintain control and to help to foster a sense of national pride. Happy citizens who felt protected by the state were more productive!  A system of writing meant that messages could be communicated without the need for storytellers or “town crier” type individuals.

Bureaucrats

A carving of Maya, thought to be king Tutankhamens treasurer.

While Egypt certainly benefited from being a homogeneous nation, running a state (just like today) required a small army of bureaucrats to organise, manage and oversee projects and activities. In order to do this effectively, ancient Egypt needed writing.

Since the Egyptians were able to produce much more food than they needed, they were able to support a large number of people who did not directly contribute to the economy. You no longer need to call out the farmers when invaders are coming because you have a trained and equipped army that can easily defeat them, nor do you need to rely on people to organise themselves since you can appoint overseers to coordinate action.

The bureaucracy had surpluses that had to be recorded, taxes to be collected, and armies to keep track of, and all this required writing.

The Army

Having a large standing army was one of the privileges of having a fully formed nation state – soldiers did not directly contribute to the economy, but could be

Model of soldiers from the tomb of Mesehti, the provincial governor in the 11th Dynasty Asyut

supported by the surpluses produced by the Nile flood.

Instead, the army was needed to fend off invasion and coerce neighboring tribes into paying a tribute (tax) to the pharaoh. Organising such a force was complicated however –  because scribes had to keep track of thousands of soldiers in different divisions, ensure the availability of supplies needed for campaigns and record individuals service, once again, they needed writing.