Aspects of Demotic Orthography (Paperback)

Paperback. While mankind's fascination with the scripts of ancient Egypt has been aconstant across the centuries, their study as part of modern Egyptologyis only as old as the decipherment of the hieroglyphs by Champollion,now nearly two centuries ago. Although we feel confident that, at leastin theory, we thoroughly understand these scripts, practicaldifficulties in reading the cursive variants of hieratic and demoticremain. These are often such that they constantly bring to mind thesometimes abstruse associations by which the ancient scribes arrived atthe various orthographies they invented for writing the complex lingualstructures. Demotic is a particularly interesting case in point, as itbelongs to the multi-layered textual world of the Graeco-Roman period,where hieroglyphs, hieratic and demotic are usually found incomplementary use, but also occasionally in competition with each other.In their variety, the studies presented in these Acts bear witness tothe rich texture of the script by investigating several parameters bywhich it may be measured, including the reading of individual signs andgrammatical categories such as verbal morphology. Indices of words andsigns discussed, as well as a full bibliography of studies in monographsand articles relating to the topic, complete the volume. In their variety, the studies presented in these Acts bear witness to the rich texture of the script by investigating several parameters by which it may be measured, including the reading of individual signs and grammatical categories such as verbal morphology. Indices of words and signs discussed, as well as a full bibliography of s Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…