The language of Ancient Egypt has been the object of careful investigation since its decipherment in the nineteenth century, but this is the first accessible account which uses the insights of modern linguistics. Antonio Loprieno traces Ancient Egyptian's historical development from Old Egyptian to Coptic, and, combining diachronic and synchronic viewpoints wherever possible, he looks at the hieroglyphic system and its cursive varieties (Hieratic and Demotic), the phonology of Classical Egyptian and Coptic, the phonology and syntax of the literary languages, and semantic and pragmatic constraints on syntax. He also looks at the genetic connections of Egyptian within the Afroasiatic family, especially with Semitic languages such as Akkadian, Arabic, and Hebrew. This book will be essential reading for linguists and Egyptologists alike.

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Artisans in the ancient Egyptian community of Deir el-Medina produced a large volume of written materials, which represents a valuable source of information about life and society at the time. We spoke to Professor Antonio Loprieno, Elena Hertel and Stephan Unter about their work in analysing these texts and developing new research methods which cross disciplinary boundaries.