The Evolution of the

Egyptian Language


Demotic

hieroglyphics

1st millennium BCE to (decline beginning in) 1st c. CE

Everyday secular documents were written in another style, the demotic script (from Greek dēmotikos, “for the people” or “in common use”) By the 5th century BCE, demotic script—which the Egyptians called sekh shat, meaning “writing for documents”—had come into use everywhere in Egypt for business and literary purposes, although hieratic remained in use for religious texts. Demotic acquired a reputation of being extremely difficult to learn, which discouraged students from tackling it.

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  • demotic

    Cursive

    Demotic was a derivation of Hieratic, and was a cursive written horizontally from right to left. It was faster to write than Hieratic, and was widely used during the Ptolemaic and early Roman period. It was mainly written on papyrus and ostraka, as well as some funerary stelae and administrative texts.

  • Amasis II

    Amasis II

    From 570 – 526 BCE, under Amasis II, Demotic became the offcial administrative and legal text. However, hieroglyphs and hieratic were still used for religious purposes, with Demotic being used for administrative purposes. He was a true Egyptian ruler, coming from the military rather than royal lineage.