Demotic (Egyptian)

Demotic Egyptian
Direction	Bidirectional text
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Egyd (070), ​Egyptian demotic

Middle (Ptolemaic) Demotic script on a replica of the Rosetta stone.

Demotic (from δημοτικά "popular") refers to both the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Delta, as well as the stage of the Egyptian language following Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic. By convention, the word "Demotic" is capitalized in order to distinguish it from demotic Greek.

Script

The Demotic script was referred to by the Egyptians as sš n šˁ.t "document writing", which the Roman-period scholar Clement of Alexandria called ἐπιστολογραφική "letter writing," while early Western scholars formerly referred to it as Enchorial Egyptian. The script used for more than a thousand years, and during that time a number of developmental stages occurred.

Early Demotic

Early Demotic (often referred to by the German term Frühdemotisch) developed in Lower Egypt during the later part of the 25th Dynasty, particularly on stelae from the Serapeum at Saqqara. It is generally dated between 650 and 400 BC as most texts written in Early Demotic are dated to the 26th Dynasty and the following Persian period (the 27th Dynasty). After the reunification of Egypt under Psametik I, Demotic replaced Abnormal Hieratic in Upper Egypt, particularly during the reign of Amasis 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 other texts.

Middle (Ptolemaic) Demotic

Middle Demotic (circa 400–30 BC) is the stage of writing used during the Ptolemaic Period. From the fourth century BC onwards, Demotic held a higher status, as may be seen from its increasing use for literary and religious texts. By the end of the third century BC, 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.

Late (Roman) Demotic

From the beginning of Roman rule of Egypt, Demotic was progressively less used in public life. There are, however, a number of literary texts written in Late Demotic (circa 30 BC–452 AD), especially from the first and second centuries AD, though the quantity of all Demotic texts decreased rapidly towards the end of the second century. After that, Demotic was only used for a few ostraca, subscriptions to Greek texts, mummy labels, and graffiti. The last dated example of the Demotic script is dated to 11 December 452 AD, and consists of a graffiti on the walls of the temple of Isis on Philae.

Language

The Demotic language is a chronologically late variety of Late Egyptian and shares much in common with the later Coptic language. In the earlier phases of Demotic, such as those texts written in the Early Demotic script, it probably represented the spoken idiom of the time. But, as it was increasingly used for only literary and religious purposes, the written language diverged more and more from the spoken form, giving Late Demotic texts an artificial character, similar to the use of classical Middle Egyptian during the Ptolemaic Period.

Decipherment

Demotic is the second script inscribed on the Rosetta Stone. It was deciphered before the hieroglyphic script, starting with the efforts of Silvestre de Sacy.

See also

• Egyptian hieroglyph
• Egyptian language
• Egyptian languages
• Transliteration of ancient Egyptian

External links

• Chicago Demotic Dictionary