What Ancient Egyptian Sounded Like - and how we know

How did Egyptians pronounce the language behind the hieroglyphs?

~ Briefly ~

From Hatshepsut to Nefertiti to a Coptic Abuna, meet the many forms of the long-lived Egyptian language. Watch as they help us listen back to the original sounds of the hieroglyphs. Then, identify a family full of Egyptian's ancestors and relatives, refine those pronunciations and arrive at an outline of Egyptian pronunciation.

~ Credits ~

Art, narration and animation by Josh from NativLang. Two of the musical scores, too.

My doc full of sources for claims and credits for music, sfx, fonts and images:

Music:

Big Mojo by Kevin MacLeod

Return of the Mummy by Kevin MacLeod

Silver Flame by Kevin MacLeod

Dhaka by Kevin MacLeod

Thinking Music by Kevin MacLeod

The Path of the Goblin King v2 by Kevin MacLeod

Virtutes Instrumenti by Kevin MacLeod

Temple of Endless Sands, Ale and Anecdotes by Darren Curtis

[skybingus]

It’s fascinating how long humans have been in existence and how little we have recorded and understood about ourselves

[orishejuukuedojor]

Linguistics is an amazing science. Doesn't get enough respect.

[lynalydia]

Me: Scrolling around
YouTube : Hey wanna know what Acient Egypt sounded like?
Me: why not

[GoushtinklaVanGoh]

As an American of Mexican descent, I had the privilege of working in Egypt for almost 6 years, 2004-2009. I picked up the Egyptian-Arabic dialogue fairly easily. I love this dialect. It is different than Saudi or UAE dialect and I was called out for it when I was in those places. They knew ride away that I was speaking in the Egyptian dialect. Some would call me the Egyptian even though I am Mexican American. I miss Egypt, the people, the culture, and the food. Egypt was magical to me and my family.

[samuels]

An ancient egyptian is watching this and shaking his head at the mispronounciation

[EECO]

When I clicked on this video, I was kind of expecting someone to talk in ancient Egyptian....

[STPickrell]

4000 years from now: Archaeologists are still struggling with reconstructing English from the mysterious logographs called "emoji."

[liza]

As someone who speaks urdu and farsi, this entire video was so fascinating, and I was consistently pausing and looking up words and historical information on my own culture and language. So many of the ancient Egyptian words are similar to urdu, farsi, and arabic. I couldn't help but smile at how conjoined everything is.

[billybyrns]

Just imagine in 13, 000 years, scholars struggling to figure out how we got the verb "yeet" from "to throw" in English. Hell on earth!

[averageuman]

In the far future: "Though archeologists have for the most part deciphered the ancient english language, they are still struggling to find exactly how the word 'GIF' was pronounced"

[ramseysealy]

I just loved this so much. As an Ancient-Egyptophile from since I was a little boy (and I'm 72 now), this was fascinating and wondrous work. I now know how the ancient Egyptians pronounced the name of their country. For many years growing up, I had thought of studying archeology to become a worker in the ancient realms of Egypt. I even have a cartouche of Ramases the Third tattooed on my right shoulder. One of my regrets is that I have never had the funds to travel to Egypt. To be able to gaze at the pyramids at Giza is one of my bucket list items. I hope I can make it before that old bucket gets kicked!
Again, thanks for this video.

[Zomitini]

Very interesting content! By the way I'm a Copt from Alexandria, Egypt and we are still using Coptic language in all our prayers in the Coptic Orthodox Churches in Egypt and abroad!

[Anubis-dolg]

As an Egyptian, I am very proud of the civilization of my great ancestors, and I thank everyone who is interested in the history of my ancestors

[stephenashworth]

It really amazes me that it is possible to decipher these ancient languages. Especially when you consider the fluid nature of language. Wonderful stuff.

[theinternpianist]

-Walk like an Egyptian-

*Talk like an Egyptian*

[emaguire]

Man, people like you out there making videos like this gives me some faith in humanity. It’s easy to ‘miss the delta for the reeds’ in these complicated language histories, but this was perfect.

[jorislemoine]

You manage to convey in 10 minutes what most 6-hour documentary series can't quite get across. Fantastic job!

[apocryphn]

Man, it’s so cool to see how much ancient Egypt has changed so many people’s lives. I got that big gold book about Egyptology with the big gemstones on it and I was hooked (like the brain during mummification)

[alecbrown]

There is a tiny group of people in egypt, who still use ancient coptic (every day egyptian) in religious prayers and curses. There was a team that recorded and taped it as a historical and linguistic project before the largely elderly villagers died, back in the late 1980's to mid 1990's.

[lisachatham]

I am so very interested in Egyptology, I wanted to be an archaeologist, but my parents said that I would never make any money doing it. So I did what they thought I should and became a nurse. I really didn't want to be one, not because I don't like helping others or helping them heal but because it just took a toll on me and my empathy.