egyptian language, mythology, religion, arts and culture

five forms of egyptian symbols

- object

• mirror is an essential object when applying make-up for daily beauty, it was only used by rich families in ancient egypt

• the handle of mirror holds a metal disc at its top - shape of hieroglyph meaning servant, so it can be said to represent the servant who served the disc. The egyptians used to associate oval-shaped and bright disc of the mirror with the sun a symbol of resurrection. It also had another meaning of sexuality and regeneration.
• the hieroglyph ankh which means life may be a pictorial representation of a mirror with a T-shaped handle 

• headset has a long narrow base, cylindrical support and curved neck rest which imitates the hieroglyph akhet in form and symbolism.  The sign depicts the two peaks of the eastern mountain with solar disc appearing between them.  It represents the horizon where the sun rises. 

- hieroglyph

• earliest form of egyptian script and is pictorial or iconic in nature.  Some were rendered in three dimensions to serve as amulets or charms.  
• amulets

• wedjat-eye

• refers to eye of the god horus, the god of the sky.  His right eye and left eye represented the sun and the moon respectively.  In the legend of god horus, his left eye was plucked out during a battle. Luckily, it was healed by thoth.  So, the wedjat symbolised the restoration of his injured eye. 

• djed pillar means enduring and stable.  It is associated with the god of the dead, and is said to represent the backbone of osiris. It was painted on the floors of many coffins, where the backbone of the deceased was laid --> the deceased would identify himself with osiris

• rosetta stone
• https://www.quora.com/Why-were-ancient-Egyptian-hieroglyphics-completely-lost-as-a-language-for-millenia-even-though-the-Rosetta-Stone-proves-that-it-was-still-a-common-language-during-the-time-of-ancient-Rome-and-Greece
• https://www.quora.com/How-did-archeologists-know-the-ancient-Egyptian-hieroglyphics-on-the-Rosetta-Stone-said-the-same-thing-as-the-Greek-carvings-if-they-couldnt-read-hieroglyphics-prior-to-decoding-the-Rosetta-Stone
• It is a stele of granodiorite issued by Ptolemy V at Memphis in 196 BCE. The text on it is written in Hieroglyphic Egyptian, Demotic script, and koine Greek, so it became the key to deciphering the Hieroglyphic. Jean Francois Champollion Jean-François Champollion - Wikipedia accomplished the first deciphering in 1822 https://www.quora.com/How-did-the-Rosetta-Stone-change-our-beliefs-about-the-ancient-Egyptians

- animal

• scarab beetle pushed the dung ball with their legs and this action gave the egyptian the idea of how the sun moved across the sky.  They believed (wrongly) that baby beetles came from the dung balls and so the scarab was considered a symbol of new life.
• cat was a popular domestic pet in ancient egypt.  There is a cat-head figure in an image of goddess bastet.  Since the female cat was particularly reproductive, bastet was recognised as the goddess of fertility (as evidence, no less than four kittens sit at her feet).  

- plant

• the lotus blossom on the surface of water with petals opening in the morning and closing at night.  The egyptians associated such characteristics with the phenomenon of sunrise and sunset. In one of the egyptian myths about creation, the newborn sun rose out of a lotus floating on the waters of nun.  Nun was the god who could personify the original formless ocean of chaos from which the primeaval mound of creation arose.  Therefore, the lotus carried connotations of new life and was the symbol of rebirth.
• in many amulets, stems of papyrus were found in association with the eye of horus.  e.g. The multiple wedjat eye - the two stems are placed horizontally and joined head to head between the upper and lower pairs of eyes.  Papyrus is a tall reed which used to grow extensively along the banks of the nile.  It was especially plentiful in the delta region of egypt.  It was the heraldic plant of northern lower egypt and was dedicated to the goddess wadjyt.  Because of its greenness, it means 'to flourish' and represents resurrection and regeneration.

- colour

• red represents the desert regions of egypt; red land symbolising anger, destruction and death.  Sometimes, the egyptian scribes would use red ink to write the hieroglyph for 'evil' and for unlucky days of the year; it may also represent blood, which symbolised vitality, the substance of life itself.  According to the descriptions in the book of the dead, the girdle of isis amulet should be made of red jasper because the red symbolised the colour of the goddess's blood.  Once applied to the neck of the mummy, it would protect the deceased.
• gold

• the mummy mask of gilded cartonnage depicts the head and chest of the deceased --> the spirit of the deceased could recognise its body beneath bandages.  In the eyes of the ancient egyptians, gold had its economic importance but was also regarded as divine.  It was the colour of the sun with its life bringing properties.  It imitated the flesh of the sun god, with whom the dead wished to unite.

Hieroglyphic (formed from greek words sacred and carving)

- pictographic like sumerian script but the pictures were more elaborate and artistic

- more cursive versions - the hieratic and demotic scripts - were developed for faster writing

- developed signs for sounds and single objects
- https://www.quora.com/On-Ancient-Egyptian-monuments-what-is-the-most-common-inscriptions

https://www.quora.com/What-languages-did-Egyptians-speak-before-the-Arab-conquest At the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt (took place 639 – 646 AD), there were two main languages spoken in Egypt. The language that was probably spoken by the majority of the population outside the Nile River Delta was Coptic, a late form of the Egyptian language that continues to be used by the Coptic Orthodox Church as a liturgical language.The language that was spoken by educated elites throughout Egypt and by most people in the Nile River Delta was Greek. Greek had become widely spoken as a result of the fact that Egypt was ruled by the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty from 323 BC to 31 BC. The Ptolemies introduced and promoted the Greek language and Greek culture. After Egypt was annexed by the Roman Empire following the suicide of Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, Greek remained a very prominent and culturally important language. Latin, on the other hand, never really became widely spoken in Egypt.

Isis (/ˈaɪsɪs/; Ancient Greek: Ἶσις [îː.sis]; Egyptian: 3s.t or js.t; Coptic: ⲏⲥⲉ Ēse) is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire and the greater Greco-Roman world. Isis is still widely worshiped by many pagans today in diverse religious contexts; including a number of distinct pagan religions, the modern Goddess movement, and interfaith organizations such as the Fellowship of Isis. Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, but she also listened to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers. Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship (although in some traditions Horus's mother was Hathor). Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children. The name Isis means "Throne". Her headdress is a throne. As the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaoh's power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I (380–362 BCE), on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt. In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky, and she was born on the fourth intercalary day. She married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set. Using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period. For example, it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiris's death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals. The worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era.^[4] The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, lived on in a Christianized context as the popular image of Mary suckling her infant son Jesus from the fifth century onward.
- osiris is her brother
- actively worshipped by people of nubia until 6th century ce
- the egyptian pyramid texts frequently mentioned goddess isis. In 2nd c bce, the neo-platonist writer plutarch summarised the contents of many of these stories in his essay entitled On Isis and Osiris - provides mythic explanation for spread of mysteries of isis far and wide throughout the world

• spread to the west in hellenistic times

-navigium isidis (vessel of isis) festival was part of the opening of spring navigation celebrations

- inventio of osiris (the finding of osiris) was 3-day festival commemorating the death, dismemberment and resurrection of osiris
- any relation?

• 新都戲院（Isis Theatre）（摩頓台）1966年12月24日開幕，現為基督教教會

托特  Thoth (/ˈθoʊθ/ or /ˈtoʊt/; from Greek Θώθ thṓth, from Egyptian ḏḥwty, perhaps pronounced */tʃʼiħautiː/ or */ɟiħautiː/, depending on thephonological interpretation of Egyptian's emphatic consonants) was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma'at. Thoth's chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era (in reference to him through the Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering, and was partially destroyed in 1826. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities. He also had numerous shrines within the cities ofAbydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat.^[8] In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.

Horus was the ancient Egyptian sky god who was usually depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner or peregrine falcon. His right eye was associated with the sun god, Ra. The eye symbol represents the marking around the eye of the falcon, including the "teardrop" marking sometimes found below the eye. The mirror image, or left eye, sometimes represented the moon and the god Djehuti (Thoth).

- The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The eye is personified in the goddess Wadjet (also written as Wedjat, or Udjat", Uadjet, Wedjoyet, Edjo or Uto^[5]). The Eye of Horus is similar to the Eye of Ra, which belongs to a different god, Ra, but represents many of the same concepts.The name Wadjet is derived from "wadj" meaning "green", hence "the green one", and was known to the Greeks and Romans as "uraeus" from the Egyptian "iaret" meaning "risen one" from the image of a cobra rising up in protection.^[6] Wadjet was one of the earliest of Egyptian deities who later became associated with other goddesses such as Bast, Sekhmet, Mut, and Hathor. She was the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt and the major Delta shrine the "per-nu" was under her protection.^[6] Hathor is also depicted with this eye. Funerary amulets were often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wadjet or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of seven "gold, faience, carnelian and lapis lazuli" bracelets found on the mummy of Shoshenq II.^[3] The Wedjat "was intended to protect the pharaoh [here] in the afterlife"^[3] and to ward off evil. Ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to ensure safe sea travel.

- symbolise the concept of divine-kingship within egypt

- during the reign of the ptolemies, a festival was celebrated in honor of the god horus

religion

- the pharoah was considered by his people to be one of the gods.  He served the dual role in egyptian society as both the political and religious head of state. 

- the social world of ancient egypt was characterized by conformity to numerous social conventions and standards of behaviour. 

- in the very earliest period of ancient egyptian history, there is little evidence of a common core of beliefs shared by the vast majority of egyptian people.  During the middle and new kingdom, the situation changed. 

- Akhenaten (/ˌækəˈnɑːtən/;^[1] also spelled Echnaton,^[7] Akhenaton,^[8] Ikhnaton,^[9] and Khuenaten;^[10][11] meaning "Effective for Aten"), known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, and meaning "Amun Is Satisfied"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monolatristic, henotheistic, or even quasi-monotheistic. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.

• according to one theory, the worship of aten evolved out of the worship of sun god re.  The new cult focused on the worship of the physical orb of the sun, the image associated with the cult was the figure of the sun disc with its rays, like hands outstretched to the inhabitants of earths offering life to its worshippers.
• the religion was shortlived and failed to catch on with the masses

- worship of animals

• egyptians believed that an animal expressed a certain aspect or attribute of the god

- ancient egyptians divided the world into two realms - world of change and impermance; and world of changelessness

- in early egyptian lore, it was believed that egypt represented the entire world; was encircled by a mountain range, with openings in the east and west.

- ancient egyptians believed that individual human beings were made up of 5 basic building blocks, 2 physical and remaining three immaterialnand incorporeal (ka/life force; ba/personality; akh/spirit)

- immortality

• by the time of middle period (2250-1580 bce), a change in thinking --> immortality was now possible for anyone to attain as long as certain procedures and requirements were observed. --> further elaborated in hellenistic and roman times in the mysteries of isis. 
• details about immortality of soul and afterlife are mentioned in the egyptian book of the dead.  Several chapters describe the land of the dead (tuat - translated in various ways including hell or sheol).

- funeral

• opening of mouth ritual; weighing of heart of deseased (on the other side of scale is a symbol of maat (truth and justice))

- atum

• most popular myth was the one associated with city of heliopolis - heliopolis doctrine
• said to be self-begotten and bi-sexual

- re, the sun-god

• worshipped in the early dynastic period (3100-2686 bce), became popular in the period of the old kingdom (2686-2181 bce). At the time of 2600 bce, a temple dedicated to the god re was built in heliopolis 
• centered on the city of heliopolis (city of the sun), pharoah considered himself a son of re, at heliopolis, the creator-god atum was identified with re and was referred to as atum-re (associated with setting sun), re was also identified with horus, the falcon-god and called re-herakhty (associated with mid-day sun). 

- 阿蒙Amun (US: /ˈɑːmən/; also Amon, Ammon, Amen, Ancient Egyptian: jmn, reconstructed [jaˈmaːnuw]; Greek Ἄμμων Ámmōn, Ἅμμων Hámmōn) was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet. With the 11th Dynasty (c. 21st century BC), Amun rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Montu.After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I(16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, as Amun-Ra or Amun-Re.Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the "Atenist heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra in this period (16th to 11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity "par excellence"; he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety. His position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libyaand Nubia. As Zeus Ammon, he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece.  After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I(16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, as Amun-Ra or Amun-Re.Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the "Atenist heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra in this period (16th to 11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental, self-created^[2] creator deity "par excellence"; he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety.^[3] His position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libyaand Nubia. As Zeus Ammon, he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece.After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I(16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, as Amun-Ra or Amun-Re.

Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the "Atenist heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra in this period (16th to 11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental, self-created^[2] creator deity "par excellence"; he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety.^[3] His position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.

As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libyaand Nubia. As Zeus Ammon, he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece.

• regarded as king of gods during the time of new kingdom (1550-1069 bce)
• originally a local deity of thebes during the 11th dynasty (2055-1985 bce)
• honored in the festival of the valley
• [materials for life] ammonia took its name from amon

- Ptah (/pəˈtɑː/; Ancient Egyptian: ptḥ, probably vocalized as Pitaḥ in ancient Egyptian)^[2] is the demiurge of Memphis, god of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertum. He was also regarded as the father of the sage Imhotep.

• ******The English name Egypt derives from an ancient Egyptian name for Memphis, Hikuptah, which means "Home of the Soul of Ptah". This word entered Ancient Greek as Αἴγυπτος (Aiguptos), which entered Latin as Aegyptus, and which developed into English as Egypt.
• worshipped in memphis as both a mother and father of cosmos

- khnum, artisan god

• credited with creation of living things including human beings (using his potter's wheel)
• frequently depicted as a ram
• major centre of worship located in elephantine
• associated with annual flooding of the nile and fertile land surrounding the nile river valley
• in several texts of edfu, a creator-god is mentioned who dwelt in a pool of water along with a lotus flower.  In another account, the god nefertem took the form of a lotus flower upon priordial waters and in this context the god created the world

- osiris

• some believe he may originally have been an actu al ruler in nile delta area during the 4th and 5th bce
• often mentioned in conjunction with anedjti, the local ruler of the area
• in memphis, associated with sokar, god of underworld
• in abydos osiris was seen as embodiment of khentamenti, god of the dead. Eventually he was regarded as god of resurrection and the one who gave immortality in the afterlife
• during old kingdom (2686-2181 bce) the pharoah was identified as osiris and pharoah's successor was identified with horus.  Osiris ruled as the pharoah while dwelling among the living. However, upon his death, he became resurrected as the ruler of the underworld and his son horus became ruler of earthly kingdom of egypt

- seth, god of chaos and confusion

• brother of osiris
• during the hyksos occupation of egypt, seth was identified with baal, the babylonian god of thunder

- priestly classes

• ue'b or priest whose duty was to pour out the drink offering
• cherheb or reciter priest who read from holy books, believed to possess special magical powers
• largest class - servants of gods whose job was to oversee all administrative business of the temple
• during the new kingdom, most of the admin and religious functions were taken over by a permanent priesthood, usually hereditary and in some cases, could be purchased for a sum of money. There are 5 types of priests - 1st, 2nd and 3rd prophet, the divine father and the reciter priest or the ue'b

festivals

- sed, the king's jubilee festival

• pharoah rise the djed pillar up towards the sky
• coronation of pharoah re-enacted - wear two crowns, one representing upper egypt and one representing lower egypt
• ritual run - pharoah wore a special kilt with an animal's tail hanging behind it; accompanied by the apis bull during the run

- festival of min - celebration of procreativity

• Ta-gem-en-hor is described as being a “sistrum player”, a priestess of the god Min https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/journey-through-the-afterlife-life-and-death-of-an-egyptian-priestess

- opet festival

• celebrated every year during the second month of the year when the nile usually began to inundate.  The festival took place over eleven days during the 18th dynasty (1550-1295 bce) and was extended to 27 days during the 20th dynasty (1186-1069 bce).  
• involved a great priestly procession, the statues of gods amun, mut and khonos were transported from the temple of karnak to luxor

hairstyle
-  Egyptians suffered from lice attacks. So they shaved their head and used wigs from humans or horses tails.https://www.quora.com/What-were-some-of-the-most-shocking-aspects-of-ancient-Egyptian-society


Arts and culture
- Umm Kulthum (Egyptian Arabic: أم كلثوم‎‎ʾUmm Kulsūm; Arabic pronunciation: [um kulˈθuːm]), born Fātimah ʾIbrāhīm as-Sayyid al-Biltāǧī (فاطمة إبراهيم السيد البلتاجي [ˈfɑtˤmɑ (ʔe)bɾɑˈhiːm esˈsæjjed elbelˈtæːɡi]; seeKunya) on an uncertain date (December 31, 1898, or May 4, 1904) and who died February 3, 1975, was an internationally famous Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s. She was given the honorific titleKawkab al-Sharq كوكب الشرق ("The Planet of the East") in Arabic. Known for her extraordinary vocal ability and style, Umm Kulthum was one of the greatest and most influential Arab singers of the 20th century.

- Naguib Mahfouz (Arabic: نجيب محفوظ‎‎ Nagīb Maḥfūẓ, IPA: [næˈɡiːb mɑħˈfuːzˤ]; December 11, 1911 – August 30, 2006) was anEgyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays over a 70-year career. Many of his works have been made into Egyptian and foreign films.

Faience or faïence (/faɪˈɑːns/ or /feɪ-/; French: [fajɑ̃s]) is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body. It is originally associated by French speakers with wares exported from Faenza in northern Italy.^[1] The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major advance in the history of pottery. The invention seems to have been made in Iran or the Middle East before the ninth century. A kiln capable of producing temperatures exceeding 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) was required to achieve this result, the result of millennia of refined pottery-making traditions. The term is now used for a wide variety of pottery from several parts of the world, including many types of European painted wares, often produced as cheaper versions of porcelain styles.

music

- [NATS] dozens of melodic modes (where as western music largely based on major and minor). The modes most comfortable for a western singer are maqam nahawand, which is similar to minor mode, and maqam 'ajam, which is similar to the major mode (eg umm kulthum's aghadan alqak and children's songs such as mama zamanha gaya). Familiar from its imtiation in western film sound tracks is maqam hijaz (eg traditional song ah ya zayn). 

• oboe like instrument calle mizmar

Literature
- The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor is a Middle Kingdom story of an Ancient Egyptian voyage to "the King's mines" .
- The Great Hymn to the Aten is the longest of one of a number of hymn-poems written to the sun-disk deity Aten. Composed in the middle of the 14th century BC, it is attributed to the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaten, who radically changed traditional forms of Egyptian religion by replacing them with Atenism. The hymn-poem provides a glimpse of the religious artistry of the Amarna period expressed in multiple forms encompassing literature, new temples, and in the building of a whole new city at the site of present day Amarna as the capital of Egypt. Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson said that "It has been called 'one of the most significant and splendid pieces of poetry to survive from the pre-Homeric world.'" Egyptologist John Darnell asserts that the hymn was sung.

• Inscribed at the entrance to the tomb of an important official in the new capital city of el-amarna
• Lands of khor and khor - syria and sudan

language
- arabic

• https://www.quora.com/Which-Arabic-dialects-are-fully-or-partially-intelligible-with-Egyptian-Arabic The closest dialects to Egyptian are the Levantine/Sham dialects of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. Egyptian is so close to Levantine. 
• Egyptian Arabic descends from classical Arabic, but it is generally considered to be quite distinct as a dialect and is not really “standard” except in the sense that Egypt is sort of the center of the universe when it comes to Arabic culture. All Arabs tend to understand Egyptian dialect because Egypt produces tons of movies, TV shows, books, magazines, and other cultural artifacts that are in Egyptian dialect. However, Egyptian Arabic is different from other forms in pronunciation and some vocabulary.https://www.quora.com/Does-learning-Quranic-Arabic-grammar-help-in-learning-standard-Arabic-I-asked-a-Masri-he-says-Egyptian-Arabic-is-the-same-as-Fusha

- coptic

• https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-last-letter-in-the-Coptic-alphabet 

egyptian  names

-   https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-Egyptians-today-that-name-their-children-with-Ancient-Egyptian-names

- https://www.quora.com/How-do-we-know-how-to-pronounce-ancient-Egyptian-and-Sumerian-names

in popular culture
- Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga series about gaming written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine between September 30, 1996 and March 8, 2004. The plot follows the story of a boy named Yugi Mutou, who solves the ancient Millennium Puzzle. Yugi awakens a gambling alter-ego within his body that solves his conflicts using various games.
As the series progresses, Yugi and his friends learn that this person inside of his puzzle is actually the spirit of a nameless Pharaoh from Ancient Egyptian times, who had lost his memories. As Yugi and his companions attempt to help the Pharaoh regain his memories, they find themselves going through many trials as they wager their lives facing off against gamers that wield the mysterious Millennium Items (千年アイテム, Sennen Aitemu) and the dark power of the Shadow Games.