Hieroglyphics
Extinct languageMost Popular Hieroglyphics Language Product Types
All Hieroglyphics language product types
Language Information
Egyptian hieroglyphics were the formal writing system of ancient Egypt, used along the Nile Valley from the Mediterranean into what is now northern Sudan (ancient Nubia). They are no longer in use and are known today from monuments, tombs, papyri, and museum collections around the world.
The earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions date to about 3200 B.C., and the last known one was carved in A.D. 394 on the island of Philae. The system combined signs representing sounds with signs representing whole words or ideas. It was used to write the Egyptian language, which forms its own branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Knowledge of hieroglyphics was lost for centuries until Jean-François Champollion deciphered them in 1822 with the help of the Rosetta Stone.
Egyptian survives in its latest form, Coptic, which is still the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
The earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions date to about 3200 B.C., and the last known one was carved in A.D. 394 on the island of Philae. The system combined signs representing sounds with signs representing whole words or ideas. It was used to write the Egyptian language, which forms its own branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Knowledge of hieroglyphics was lost for centuries until Jean-François Champollion deciphered them in 1822 with the help of the Rosetta Stone.
Egyptian survives in its latest form, Coptic, which is still the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
- Language Family
- Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic)
- Subgroup
- Egyptian