The Stele of Kuʀi - Ancient Egyptian Spoken

* "embalmment-ium" ~ Shorthand for "Place of embalmment"

This is my casual, non-professionally informed, attempted reconstruction of an Old Kingdom memorial stele of an Ancient Egyptian policeman *Kuʀi from the 11th dynasty, (c. 2000 BCE)

Here I don't use Egyptological pronunciation, which typically inserts "e" between consonants as placeholders, or infers other vowels according to arbitrary conventions. These likely don't correspond to how the ancient pronunciation might've actually been like.

Since hieroglyphic Egyptian was a logoconsonantal script, the majority of vowels are not recorded, so the vowel values of the pre-Coptic stages of Egyptian are anyone's guess.

Note how Egyptological pronunciation reads the soul as "ka." The Ancient Egyptian Vocalization Project, however, reconstructs it as "kuʀ," with an uvular trill. This is important, since instead of "Kay," I try to reconstruct the policeman's name as "Kuʀi."

For the Egyptological transliteration I variously interpret the following (with IPA symbols):
ȝ - */a, l, ʁ, ʀ/
ỉ - */a, i, ʲa, ʲi, aʲ iʲ/
= - */a/
z - */ts s sˤ/
ṯ - */c/
ḏ - */ɟ/

The AEVP relies on Coptic, Akkadian, and other outside attestations to infer older Egyptian vowel qualities.

Moreover, I looked at Sergei Starostin's Afro-Asiatic database did a bit of cross-comparison between Semitic and Chadic forms to make guesses for related forms in Egyptian. Starostin's work is often treated with heavy skepticism, but I still found it useful for cross-comparing Afro-Asiatic languages. (e.g. PAA *kum "black" thus I'd guess "Kumat" for the name of Egypt in Egyptian, (not "Kemet" with arbitrary Egyptological e's inserted)).

While it is not professional practice to assume that PAA vowels would necessarily be 100% preserved in a daughter language like Egyptian, I didn't hold myself to any strict diachronic standards since this is a casual video.

Old Egyptian likely had a 3-vowel system of /i a u/, as in Classical Arabic. However, Egyptian also likely had /l/, yet it overlaps with /n/ and /r/ in the writing system. Due to this confusion, I pronounce them mostly as just /n/ and /r/ in my interpretation when there perhaps should be more /l/ in there. e.g. The preposition "to (the) venerable" might've had /l/, /li jamaχu/, yet I pronounce it /ni jamaχu/ due to this uncertainty.

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Transliterated text:

ḥtp-dỉ-nsw ỉnpw tpỉ-ḏw=f ỉmỉ-wt nb-tȝ-ḏsr
prt-ḫrw tȝ ḥnqt ḫȝ (m) kȝ ȝpd
n ỉmȝḫw ỉmỉ-rȝ nww-ḫȝswt ỉmỉ-rȝ smywt-ỉmntt Bšt sȝ kȝy mȝˁ-ḫrw
ḏd(=f) ỉnk nḏs n ḥw-nỉ-ḥr ḥȝt mšˁ hrw qsnt ḥssw
nb=f wpṯf pḥ.n=ỉ wḥȝt-ỉmntt ḏˁr.n=ỉ wȝwṯ
=s nbt ỉn.n=ỉ wtḫw gm.n=ỉ ỉm=s mšˁ wḏȝ
nn nhw=f swḏt.n=ỉ ỉỉ m ḥtp rdỉ.n wỉ
nb=ỉ m sȝ=sn m rwḏ(w)=f n ˁq-ỉb=f n mnḫ n
ỉrr=ỉ wpt n nb=ỉ ḥsw ỉmȝḫy ḳȝy mȝˁ-ḫrw

Note the absence of the majority of the vowel data.
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I've never taken any Egyptian language classes, so my understanding is fragmentary, limited, and not in accord with established conventions.

I do however notice typical Afro-Asiatic features in Egyptian:

- The "construct state," placing two nouns side by side, where the following noun possesses the former.
- Causative s
- Feminine suffix -t
- Consonantal root systems. While the Semitic languages usually have just triconsonantal roots, Egyptian had those in addition to biconsonantal and monoconsonantal roots as well, (and even as many as five consonants, but more rarely). PAA likely had similar variation, but the Semitic languages instead developed an emphasis on triconsonantal roots. Thus, Egyptian is perhaps more archaic in that respect.

[anotherdaystochangethis]

I think this is perhaps the only video that has attempted to make ancient Egyptian sound like an actual language without anything extra.

[Aresydatch]

This is probably the best sounding reconstruction I’ve heard since it’s not filled with reverb glitter and a deepened voice talking

[robwalsh]

A voice from humanity's past. Hearing Egyptian or Mesopotamian languages makes you realize how much time has gone by!

[humwishdom]

Yes thank you! cut the chase and got straight to the point, I don't want to watch videos on the "theories" of how ancient Egyptian was spoken I want to actually hear it!

[desimujahid]

I've never seen another language with these many final '-f' endings.

[N_Pakhomios]

As an Egyptian who speaks Coptic alongside Arabic, it’s astonishing how the Egyptian language has evolved over the centuries.

In my Coptic language, it barely has those throat sounds anymore, even though they aren’t so hard to me since I speak Arabic too!

[DrasscoOfRascia]

Don't know if you still use this channel, but I still feel obliged to thank you for these videos, they are an international treasure!

[hamzapetridis]

This sounds so similar to what language my grandmother speak (Kabyle, Amazigh)

I can’t recognize words but it sound similar, like if a toddler was saying gibberish.

[jwinwutqo]

Thank you this! I just was on one a video where they said a few words here and there but you spoke in Egyptian the whole video.

[phinixTHEvagabond]

the sound of this language speaks to my blood in a way i couldn’t begin to describe so mystic puts me in a sort of hypnosis.

[Coldyraps]

As an gulf arabic speaker, i recognised a suprising amount of cognates with arabic.

[ironiccookies]

Big props to the time traveler for capturing this around 1200 BC

[fernwehn]

Great video as always, keep up the good work!

[ellendarrow]

Great video as always! Can't wait to see what you tackle next.

[wofiefenix]

Until now, his last video. I miss you, Quellant... Please, come back!!!

[ulfberht]

Someone in another video said the language sounds like a hybrid of Chinese and Arabic, and they are right. It sounds like those two languages mashed together!

[pachomiussinanicus]

plz do more ancient egyptian spoken video

[SuperMrMuster]

It's an amusing coincidence, that this Kuʀi was a policeman, and in Finnish "kuri" means "discipline"

[jasperek]

Do you have any references for pronunciation? I can write/read, but reconstructing the spoken word is a whole other beast to study! Thanks for your work!

[obremon]

i just wanted you to know i support your channel