OI Ancient Languages Workshop | Session 2: Meroitic

In our second ancient languages seminar, Brian Muhs, associate professor of Egyptology, discusses Meroitic.
**This is an at home seminar, please excuse the audio and video quality.
Each Sunday in May, we offer free, at-home seminars examining aspects of the ancient languages studied at the OI. If you miss the video when it goes live, you can always watch at your leisure. Next week, Ella Karev, PhD student, discuss ancient Greek in Egypt.
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[@donaloneill5363]

Thank you so much for sharing your lecture on this fascinating subject the Stela Of Aspelta is amazing !

[@NathanCook1]

​Thank you for this talk! Does any of the unknown grammatical content of Meroitic, like the verbal prefixes, resemble anything in its sister languages?

[@brianmuhs9769]

One can find similarities between some grammatical features of Meroitic and those found in sister languages, but not exact parallels, and it is not clear that the similar features served the same purposes. It is possible and likely that some do, but the small number of surviving Meroitic texts, and the small amount of vocabulary that is known, makes it difficult to confirm.

[@Nomad1992]

A bit of unrelated questions. I've read a while ago in some papers by T. kendall that jebel barkal was called "southern heliopolis". would you agree with that? Also I've read that the epithet "southern heliopolis" was also applied to karnak, Armant and Dandera. what of these is true, which was the first and to which site it was most commonly used?

[@woozyz2769]

7:27 Roman kiosk? Nubia is older than Rome and any other European civilization or empire

[@kingezana3298]

Fascinating!

[@theJellyjoker]

I'll be back tomorrow evening.

[@chinesesparks]

Meroitic definitely shows Afro Asiatic influence in it's vocabulary and syntax

[@supahotjoe6493]

No it dosen't. It is simply african just like Kemet (ancient egypt when it was still black african)Now here’s the comparaison between Wolof(west african language)and Ancient egyptian language Egyptian words Nad= ask Nah=protect, hide Nebt= braid, to braid (Funny how you Arabs don't braid your hair, but you claim that those painting of black people before the 22nd dynasty (before Hyksos invasion is you despite the obvious colour of the paiting showing their race). Ben-ben = source Funa= sure, regular, authentic-etc... etc... ----------///------ Wolof words Lad = ask Lah = protect, hide Let = braid, to braid Bel-bel = to rise Fula=dignified conduct, regular The Egyptian in question is the classical language that was written from the 9th to the 18th dynasty, between 2400 and 750 BC. The part of “Egyptian history” they say coptic comes from is the part of the Late kingdom and New kingdom where the different people who invaded egypt came mixed together and settled. That’s why the Copt’s in Egypt were unable to decipher the hieroglyphs before the arrival of Jean-Francois Champollignon the french egytptologist who deciphered the hieroglyph who he himself notes this: Quote from 1867 by founding Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollignon “The first tribes that inhabited Egypt that is, the Nile Valley between the Syene cataracts and the sea, came from Abyssinia to Sennar. The ancient Egyptians belonged to a race quite similar to the Kennous or Barabras, present inhabitants of Nubia In the Copts of Egypt we do not find any of the characteristic features of the ancient Egyptian population. The Copts are the result of crossbreeding with all the nations that have successively dominated Egypt . It is wrong to seek in them the principal features of the old race.” From Letters published by Jean-Francois Champollignon (Founding Egyptologist)

[@chinesesparks]

Don't Eastern Sudanic languages in the vicinity of Cushitic/North East Africa (Nubian Nara ETC..) have an SOV syntax yet the majority of Eastern Sudanic/Nilo Saharan languages apparently have an SVO syntax, same thing with EthioSemitic languages have SOV syntax which most linguist attribute to Cushitic influence on Ethio Semitic in contrast to middle eastern Semitic lyanguages which are VSO, why are scholars more readily To admit the Cushitic influence on EthioSemItic and not Eastern Sudanic languages like Nubian & Nara, I think it is possible Meroitic is an Afro Asiatic language or Eastern Sudanic one, either one syntax won't tell us much (though Meroitic's syntax SOV and in North east Africa Cushitic is all SOV indicating some level of influence of Cushitic on Meroitic and lookin at Meroitic's Vocabulary (Lipinski 2011) there does seem to be a stroner AA influence on Meroitics vocabulary, where there is a stronger Eastern Sudanic influence is in Meroitics Morphology which makes Meroitic still up for debate IMO

[@chinesesparks]

Also I know in academia it's normal to refer to Kushites as "Nubian" but according to Claude Rilly and ancient Roman historians the Nubians (Noba) were invaders who would conquer the Kingdom of Kush and name it after them (Nubia) it's like calling Boudica an English women when she was a Celtic not Germanic (English) women, Kushite and "Nubian" are Not synonyms