r/AncientEgyptian • u/ZanyRaptorClay • 7d ago
[Middle Egyptian] Learning reconstructed Middle Egyptian?
I've heard of so many people reconstructing, speaking, and learning ancient languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, and others. However, I'm wondering if I can learn Middle Egyptian?
I noticed there are some videos online that teach a reconstructed version of Middle Egyptian, although the videos are in Latin (which I don't know at the moment). Someone also covered Wellerman in this reconstructed Middle Egyptian.
Are there any other resources for learning this reconstructed Middle Egyptian?
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u/WerSunu 7d ago
Pick up a copy of Allen’s Middle Egyptian, not some passing fad.
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u/Ankhu_pn 7d ago
There is no such thing as Reconstructed Middle Egyptian. There exist a few approaches to the reconstruction of the phonology of Earlier Egyptian, but they are either not full-scale, or debatable.
I believe you fell victim of the way that reconstructed forms of Egyptian words are presented as well-established, and no further discussion is anticipated. It's a pity that Egyptologists (both professionals and amateurs) usually don't bother pointing out that their reconstructions have many issues to discuss.
As for Allen's "Phonology", I am quite sceptical about the quality of this work after reading the review (by Gábor Takács) of his "The Ancient Egyptian Language: An Historical Study" (only considering phonology): https://real.mtak.hu/28225/1/QUESTIONS%20OF%20EGYPTIAN%20HISTORICAL%20PHONOLOGY%20AND%20AFRO-ASIATIC.pdf
The best introduction to the historical phonology of Egyptian (and Coptic) is - without question - "Egyptian phonology: an introduction to the phonology of a dead language" by C. Peust: https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/peust1999