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edX

The Journey of Writing and Scripts in Egypt

Bibliotheca Alexandrina via edX

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Overview

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In this history course, you will learn about the diversity and multilingualism that existed in Egypt, and how it had a bearing on the history of the country and its people.

Through the introduction of new languages, Egyptians learned to interact with scripts, cultures and peoples.

The plurality of languages and writing that Egypt witnessed along its history, gave rise to one of the most cosmopolitan melting pots in the ancient world. And although the peak of Egyptian multilingualism was in the Ptolemaic period [323-30 BCE], the country witnessed, in the pre-Ptolemaic period, the appearance of different foreign languages in official and public spheres.

Syllabus

Unit One: Introduction

  • Lesson One: General Overview
  • Lesson Two:  Early Inscriptions and Writings in Ancient Egypt
  • Lesson Three: What is Hieroglyphic?
  • Lesson Four: The Development of Ancient Egyptian Language     

Unit Two: Forms and Different Types of Writing in Ancient Egypt

  • Lesson One: Hieratic
  • Lesson Two: Demotic
  • Lesson Three: Coptic
  • Lesson Four: Cuneiform
  • Lesson Five: Protosinaitic

Unit Three: Scripts of Foreign Communities in Egypt

  • Lesson One: The Greek Language
  • Lesson Two: The Carian Language
  • Lesson Three: Aramaic Inscriptions in Egypt
  • Lesson Four: Hebrew Inscriptions in Egypt
  • Lesson Five: Amharic and Armenian Inscriptions in Egypt 
  • Lesson Six: Syriac Inscriptions
  • Lesson Seven: Tifinagh and Meroitic Inscriptions

Unit Four: Writing and Scripts in Modern Egypt            

  • Lesson One: The Origin of Arabic Script
  • Lesson Two: Arabic Inscriptions
  • Lesson Three: The Turkish Language in Egypt
  • Lesson Four: Persian, Italian and French

Taught by

Ahmed Mansour and Azza Ezzat

Reviews

3.8 rating, based on 4 Class Central reviews

Start your review of The Journey of Writing and Scripts in Egypt

  • This's our third course inside Class Central's remote study group. It's also my first experience of learning anything about the writing and scripts in Egypt.

    The long-term evolution of writing and scripts in Egypt is amazing to me. Ancient Egyptian language was written in different scripts, not just Hieroglyphs. Apart from the ancient Egyptian language, there are many other languages in the long history of Egypt, like Greek and Carian.

    The course is professional and a little bit difficult for me. I'm confused about the academic glossary about Egypt's history and language. But it sparks my curiosity about Egypt and Hieroglyphs.

  • This was an interesting course which could have been presented better. Rather than teaching us translations of various scripts and languages used throughout Egypt’s long history, we are given an overview of the development of language and quick glim…
  • First of all this is an Archived course (but free to enrol) when I did this course that means I did not get a Certificate.
    edX course page shows, Introductory level course but I found it difficult might be because I'm not from History background.
    I don't remember things what I learned in this course but it was a good journey to know how the timeline of the Language in Egypt.
    Course is systematically designed that means it started from "Forms and Different Types of Writing in Ancient Egypt" to "Writing and Scripts in Modern Egypt" distributed over four weeks.
    Every week has assignments and Quiz but submission was not allowed but I was able to see the answers too.

  • Insightful, and deep in history.. I must say..

    But this course is recommendable to any ancient history enthusiast out there.. Good luck taking the course

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