tic; demotic and Coptic express it, clumsily it must be confessed,
by an impersonal "they," e.g. "they bore him" stands for "he was
born."

It is worth noting how, in other departments besides the verb, the
Egyptian language was far better adapted to practical ends during and
after the period of the Deltaic dynasties (XXII.-XXX.) than ever it
was before. It was both simplified and enriched. The inflexions
rapidly disappeared and little was left of the distinctions between
masculine and feminine, singular, dual and plural--except in the
pronouns. The dual number had been given up entirely at an earlier
date. The pronouns, both personal and demonstrative, retained their
forms very fully. As prefixes, suffixes and articles, they, together
with some auxiliary verbs, provided the principal mechanism of the
renovated language. An abundant supply of useful adverbs was gradually
accumulated, as well as conjunctions, so far as the functions of the
latter were not already performed by the verbal prefixes. These great
improvements in the language correspond to great changes in the
economic condition of the country; they were the result of active
trade and constant intercourse of all classes of Egyptians with
foreigners from Europe and Asia. Probably the best stage of Egyptian
speech was that which immediately preceded Coptic. Though Coptic is
here and there more exactly expressive than the best demotic, it was
spoilt by too much Greek, duplicating and too often expelling native
expressions that were already adequate for its very simple
requirements. Above all, it is clumsily pleonastic.

THE WRITING

The ancient Egyptian system of writing, so far as we know, originated,
developed and finally expired strictly within the limits of the Nile
Valley. The germ of its existence may have come from without, but, as
we know it, it is essentially Egyptian and intended for the expression
of the Egyptian language. About the 1st century B.C., however, the
semi-barbarous rulers of the Ethiopian kingdoms of Meroe and Napata
contrived the "Meroitic" alphabet, founded on Egyptian writing, and
comprising both a hieroglyphic and a cursive form (see ETHIOPIA). As
yet both of these kinds of Nubian writing are undeciphered. Egyptian
hieroglyphic was carried by conquest into Syria, certainly under the
XVIIIth Dynasty, and again under the XXVIth for the engraving of
Egyptian in