Concept in Definition ABC

Demotic is understood to be that type of writing which arose in the late Ancient Egyptian period. Its name comes from the idea that it was a more popular script (demosMeans town in Greek) than that found in earlier Ancient Egyptian periods in which writing was a privilege only accessible to scribes. Demotic writing is also a form of modern Greek but the term is usually applied to the languagewritten of Ancient Egypt.

Throughout its history, the civilization Egyptian presented three main types of writing that were varying according to the sociopolitical context of the time. While the hieroglyphic writing, the best known of all, was the one that characterized much of the ancient history of Egypt, the hieratic or writing limited to the priests would be the intermediate one and the demotic one would be the final phase, a more abbreviated and simplified form of the two previous.

At the same time, we can divide the history of demotic writing into three periods: the ancient, the middle, and the late. The first period is around 600 BC and is considered to have lasted for about two centuries. The mean period is the one that coincides with the

domination Ptolemaic and it is here that this type of writing begins to gain popularity and diffusion for texts beyond religious (that is, also for literary, accounting, administrative, etc.). Finally, the late period is represented by the Roman domination of Egypt and signifies the moment in which this type of writing begins to decline and become obsolete.

Demotic is one of the three languages ​​written along with Greek and hieroglyph found in the Stone Rosetta, the famous stone discovered and deciphered by Jean Francois Champollion in 1822. The demotic was deciphered before the hieroglyph and the connection between the two allowed modern man to finally understand the symbolism and meaning behind such impressive and unique writing as was the hieroglyphic.

Themes in Demotics