Demotic (fromAncient Greek:δημοτικόςdēmotikós, 'popular') is theancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms ofhieratic used in theNile Delta. The term was first used by the Greek historianHerodotus to distinguish it fromhieratic andhieroglyphic scripts. By convention, the word "Demotic" is capitalized in order to distinguish it fromdemotic Greek.
The Demotic script was referred to by the Egyptians assš/sẖnšꜥ.t 'document writing', which the second-century scholarClement of Alexandria calledἐπιστολογραφική 'letter-writing', while early Western scholars, notablyThomas Young, formerly referred to it as "Enchorial Egyptian". The script was used for more than a thousand years, and during that time a number of developmental stages occurred. It is written and read from right to left, while earlier hieroglyphs could be written from top to bottom, left to right, or right to left. Parts of the DemoticGreek Magical Papyri were written with acypher script.[1]
Early Demotic (often referred to by theGerman termFrühdemotisch) developed inLower Egypt during the later part of theTwenty-fifth Dynasty, particularly found onsteles from theSerapeum of Saqqara. It is generally dated between 650 and 400 BC, as most texts written in Early Demotic are dated to theTwenty-sixth Dynasty and the subsequent rule as asatrapy of theAchaemenid Empire, which was known as theTwenty-seventh Dynasty. After the reunification of Egypt underPsamtik I, Demotic replaced AbnormalHieratic inUpper Egypt, particularly during the reign ofAmasis II, when it became the official administrative and legal script. During this period, Demotic was used only for administrative, legal, and commercial texts, while hieroglyphs and hieratic were reserved for religious texts and literature.
Middle Demotic (c. 400–30 BC) is the stage of writing used during thePtolemaic Kingdom. From the 4th century BC onward, Demotic held a higher status, as may be seen from its increasing use for literary and religious texts. By the end of the 3rd century BC,Koine Greek was more important, as it was the administrative language of the country; Demotic contracts lost most of their legal force unless there was a note in Greek of being registered with the authorities.
Like its hieroglyphic predecessor script, Demotic possessed a set of "uniliteral" or "alphabetical" signs that could be used to represent individualphonemes. These are the most common signs in Demotic, making up between one third and one half of all signs in any given text; foreign words are also almost exclusively written with these signs.[4] Later (Roman Period) texts used these signs even more frequently.[5]
The table below gives a list of such uniliteral signs along with their conventional transcription, their hieroglyphic origin, theCoptic letters derived from them, and notes on usage.[4][5][6]
Usually used when stacked above or below another sign.
r
The normal form ofr when it is retained as a consonant and not lost tosound change.
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Used interchangeably to indicate a vowel corresponding to Coptic ⲉ, sometimes resulting from a loss of a consonant such as in the prepositionr; also used for protheticı͗.
TheRosetta Stone was discovered in 1799. It is inscribed with a proclamation, written in three scripts:Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and theGreek alphabet. There are 32 lines of Demotic, which is the middle of the three scripts on the stone. The Demotic was deciphered before the hieroglyphs, starting with the efforts ofAntoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy. Scholars were eventually able to translate the hieroglyphs by comparing them with the Greek words, which could be readily translated, and fortifying that process by applying knowledge of Coptic (the Coptic language being descended from earlier forms of Egyptian represented in hieroglyphic writing).Egyptologists,linguists andpapyrologists who specialize in the study of the Demotic stage of Egyptian script are known asDemotists.
^Haywood, John (2000).Historical atlas of the classical world, 500 BC–AD 600. Barnes & Noble Books. p. 28.ISBN978-0-7607-1973-2.However, Greek did not take over as completely as Latin did in the west and there remained large communities of Demotic...and Aramaic speakers
^Cruz-Uribe, Eugene (2018). "The Last Demotic Inscription". In Donker van Heel, Koenraad; Hoogendijk, Francisca A. J.; Marin, Cary J. (eds.).Hieratic, Demotic, and Greek Studies and Text Editions: Of Making Many Books There Is No End. Festschrift in Honour of Sven P. Vleeming. Leiden. pp. 6–8.ISBN978-9-0043-4571-3.
^abClarysse, Willy (1994)Demotic for Papyrologists: A First Acquaintance, pages 96–98.
^abJohnson, Janet H. (1986).Thus Wrote ꜥOnchsheshonqy: An Introductory Grammar of Demotic. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, No. 45. Chicago: The Oriental Institute. pp. 2–4.
^Quack (2017)."How the Coptic Script Came About".Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic: Contact-Induced Change in an Ancient African Language. Widmaier Verlag. p. 75.It has normally been claimed that it derives from the form of the infinitiveti in Demotic, but the actual forms do not fit well; and furthermore it is a point of some concern that this sign never turns up in any 'Old Coptic' text (where we always have ⲧⲓ for this sound sequence). For this reason the proposal by Kasser that it is actually a ligature oft andi seems to me quite convincing.
Depauw, Mark (1997).A Companion to Demotic Studies. Papyrologica Bruxellensia, No. 28. Bruxelles: Fondation égyptologique reine Élisabeth.
Johnson, Janet H. (1986).Thus Wrote ꜥOnchsheshonqy: An Introductory Grammar of Demotic. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, No. 45. Chicago: The Oriental Institute.
Hoffmann, Friedhelm;Quack, Joachim Friedrich (2018).Anthologie der demotischen Literatur. Einführungen und Quellentexte zur Ägyptologie. Vol. 4 (2 ed.). Berlin: Lit.
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