like the Arabs of a later day, imposed their
language on the country, but disappeared, being weakened by the climate
or absorbed by the native population. The latter acquired the Semitic
language imperfectly from their conquerors; they expressed the verbal
conjugations by periphrases, mispronounced the consonants, and so
changed greatly the appearance of the vocabulary, which also would
certainly contain a large proportion of native non-Semitic roots. Strong
consonants gave place to weak consonants (as [Arabic: Qaaf] has done to
[Arabic sign], in the modern Arabic of Egypt), and then the weak
consonants disappearing altogether produced biliterals from the
triliterals. Much of this must have taken place, according to the
theory, in the prehistoric period; but the loss of weak consonants, of
[ayin] and of one of two repeated consonants, and the development of
periphrastic conjugations continued to the end. The typical Coptic root
thus became biliteral rather than triliteral, and the verb, by means of
periphrases, developed tenses of remarkable precision. Such verbal
resemblances as exist between Coptic and Semitic are largely due to late
exchanges with Semitic neighbours.

The following sketch of the Egyptian language, mainly in its earliest
form, which dates from some three or four thousand years B.C., is
founded upon Erman's works. It will serve to contrast with Coptic
grammar on the one hand and Semitic grammar on the other.

THE EGYPTIAN ALPHABET

[HRG: M17] = _l_; so conventionally transcribed since it unites two
values, being sometimes y but often [Hebrew: alef] (especially
at the beginning of words), and from the earliest times used in
a manner corresponding to the Arabic _hamza_, to indicate a
prosthetic vowel. Often lost.

[HRG: Z4] and [HRG: M17-M17] are frequently employed for _y_.

[HRG: G1] = '([Hebrew: alef]); easily lost or changes to _y_.

[HRG: D36] = '([Hebrew: ayin]); lost in Coptic. This rare sound, well
known in Semitic, occurs also in Berber and Cushite languages.

[HRG: G43] = _w_; often changes to _y_.

[HRG: D58] = _b_.

[HRG: Q3] = _p_.

[HRG: I9] = _f_.

[HRG: G17] = _m_.

[HRG: N35] = _n_.

[HRG] = _r_; often lost, or changes to _y_. _r_ and _l_ are
distinguished in later demotic and in Coptic.

[HRG] = _h_ } distinction lost in Coptic.
[HRG] = _[