Language

According to ehealthfacts, the language of ancient Egypt belongs to the group of Afro-Asian languages; in vocabulary and grammar it has a lot in common with other languages ​​of this group, for example with the Berber languages ​​and the Semitic languages ​​of Ethiopia in Africa, with Akkadian, Hebrew and Aramaic in the Middle East. a. the verbal system also shows a clear independence. The strict centralism ensured a great uniformity of the written language in earlier times, dialects are difficult to prove before Coptic. From the first written evidence around 3000 BC. The Egyptian language can be traced for around 4500 years; In this long period of linguistic-historical unity, a distinction is made between several levels of linguistic evidence, despite the continuity of development.

The written language of the Old Kingdom was ancient Egyptian. After the collapse of the Old Kingdom, the penetration of the spoken language into the written language resulted in Middle Egyptian, which was later perceived as the classic language of the Middle Kingdom. It is still the language form used in the documents of the New Kingdom and is used as a neo-Middle Egyptian artificial language for official and religious hieroglyphic texts until the Ptolemaic-Roman times. Through the Reformation of Amenhotep IV / Echnaton, the language of the New Kingdom, New Egyptian, written and literary skills. In particular, it is about the language of the non-literary texts, but also of other texts, which, however, have more or less classical Egyptian influences. Since the late period, Egyptian was written in the very abbreviated Demotic script and lived on as the language of documents, known as Demotic, until the 5th century AD. The language of the Christian Egyptians was Coptic. It has been written in Greek letters since the 2nd century AD and became literary thanks to the translation of the Bible. This Coptic written language no longer appears uniform, but is broken down into a multitude of dialects; since the 10th century it has been increasingly superseded by the Arabic spoken in Egypt today.

The Egyptian words that penetrated other languages ​​and survive to this day include, among others. »Soda«, »Oasis« and »Paper«.

Music

As with all ancient high cultures, only the instruments and details of performance practice are known of early Egyptian music. Sources are image testimonies and some finds; Notations, references to the tone system and the formation of melodies and rhythms have not survived.

In prehistoric times, figuratively decorated rattles and longitudinal flutes encountered as accompanying instruments of ritual dances. In the Old Kingdom, new types of rattles, simple vessel drums and sistras, flutes without mouthpieces, double clarinets, trumpets and bow harps used in the cult of the dead were added. Since the 4th dynasty (2590–2470 BC) one can clearly distinguish between cultic music and profane court music. The ritual chants are performed as soloists with instrumental accompaniment or with the participation of single or double choirs as well as cantors who give the instrumentalists instructions with hand signals. Very old ritual songs in honor of Hathor, the goddess of love and music, are exclusively vocal. Flutes evidently produced large-scale, i. H. at least full-tone intervals, while the sounds made semitone scales possible. The practice of clogging individual finger holes on a pipe with wax on double wind instruments suggests drone playing. Even in the Old Kingdom, the first historically known professional musician Chufu-anch, mentioned. The names of an almost complete series of instrumental and vocal virtuosos have been handed down for the next 2000 years. In Ptolemaic times, Egypt was also increasingly musically Hellenized, and the old Coptic -Byzantine style gradually emerged (Coptic music).

Egyptian music received completely new impulses after the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs (640/642 AD). From now on it was part of the relatively uniform music of the Islamic region (Arabic music), which had arisen from Arabic-Persian roots.

Cairo

Cairo, capital of Egypt, the main part of which is on the right bank of the Nile, at the beginning of the Nile Delta, with (2018) 9.3 million residents (around 21 million in the urban agglomeration) the largest city in Africa and the Arab world.

Cairo, the political, intellectual and economic center of the country and the entire Middle East, has three universities, several scientific institutes, libraries and museums (including the important Egyptian Museum) and numerous mosques.

Cairo was founded in the vicinity of older settlements in 969 and rose to become the dominant center of Islamic culture after the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols (1258). Since the end of the 19th century it has developed into a cosmopolitan city. Cairo is on the left bank of the Nile Giza grown together.