From Pharaoh's Lips: Ancient Egyptian Language in the Arabic of Today

by Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef

From the most distant past to the modern day, some things never change - including words. The modern Egyptian Arabic dialect is one of the most distinctive in the Arabic-speaking world precisely because of its illustrious heritage from the country's ancient past. Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef spends a day in the Egyptian countryside, taking note of the many expressions that once fell from the lips of the ancient Egyptians and that continue to be heard on the tongues of the modern Egyptians in their everyday speech. His charming tale of Bayoumi, a farmer, his wife Sawsan and their baby provides the backdrop for tracing the persistence of these words and phrases. What these average Egyptians do, what tools they use, what they eat, how they organize their life, even how they all interact - all can be described with words that hark back to the age of pharaohs such as Khufu and Rameses II. In telling his story, Youssef integrates the ancestry of these common expressions, with the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Coptic and Arabic words appearing alongside transliterations and translations into English. Both entertaining and instructive, this volume includes a series of glossaries in Egyptian, Coptic and Arabic.

Genres: Egypt

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Riham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting quick read that can be finished in 1 sitting. I would recommend a slow reading though, particularly if you are Egyptian, so you can enjoy the nuances behind the language we speak today, not necessarily in Cairo but for those of us with parents from Upper Egypt (El Sa3eed) it is quite amusing to know that the dialect they fall back into when meeting old friends or relatives was largely spoken by the Pharaohs. Enjoy finding the roots of different words and the subtle (or not) changes in meaning which occur over time.

I personally think this book was too short and even though it was written in story form to put words in context, it could've been expanded on. I would have enjoyed knowing more historical details of words and phrases. Otherwise, I enjoyed the conversations it sparked with my parents about those interesting phrases they use that I would not have otherwise known about.

[محمد حسين ضاحي · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب «من شفاه الفراعنة: عناصر لغوية من المصرية القديمة في العربية الحالية» هو كتاب لطيف رائع، من ذلك الذي تنهيه في جلسة، ولا ترغب أن تقوم عنه حتى تنهيه. وفي نفس الوقت فهو مصنوع بحب- إن جاز التعبير- وبعلم. فيظهر فيه معرفة المؤلف بالعربية والإنجليزية واللغات المصرية القديمة، وفيه مجهود علمي رصين في التوثيق، كما أن الأسلوب القصصي المتبع يدل على تمكن.
ذكرني بكتابات عمر طاهر وبلال فضل. وذكرني بالشعر الحلمنتيشي!
وببعد فما زالت كثير من هذه الأفاظ والأمثلة مشتهر في مصر وفي الصعيد، رغم العولمة، ورغم أنها في طريقها للإندثار، بفعل الأحوال الثقافية الوعلمية الوتعليمية التي تعانيها البلاد. وهذه الأعمال التي تجمع ما بين الروح المصرية القديمة، لو وجدت في ظروف أخرى لربما لاقت قبولاً وانتشاراً، لكن الآن علية القوم والجميع ممن في بر مصر مهتمون بإدخال أولادهم إلى مدارس اللغات ليتعلموا الإنجليزية والفرنسية والألمانية، ويحرصون على ممارسة أبنائهم لهذه اللغات في البيت، وإذا تكلم أحد بهذه الألفاظ فهو بلدي وبيئة وربما صعيدي قفل "طربش" أو "ترباس"- على حد تعبير القدماء كما بالكتاب، أو كما قال- تبقى سنة سوخة. فمثلاً كلمة "شوبش" جرى تشويه دلالتها تماماً في الإعلام المصري، من خلال تصويرها على أنها كلمة للعوالم الراقصات وستات ( أي: سيدات) "الحارة". وأيضاً في ظروف أخرى لربما اعتُبِر هذا الكتاب ترويجا للروح القومية المصرية الفرعونية! مع علامات استنكار وتعجب كثيرة، لكن الحمد لله، لا عندنا تعليم ولا يحزنون، فلا أحد يقرأ، وليست هناك ثقافة أو علم في سياسة الدولة، وقد ساد القبيلة منافقوها.
والمثسرد الذي في النهاية يساعدك على عمل "ششني" على ما قرأته.
وفي الوقت نفسه لي تساؤلٌ حول كلمات مثل "حبا" هل هي فعلاً مصرية قديمة، وليس لها صلة بالجذر اللغوي العربي "حبا يحبو"؟ ام أنها محض صدفة؟ وكذلك كلمة "دندن"، وكلمة "يحمحم"، وكلمة "ضبة" فهناك فعل "يضبب".
وأعجب من أن المؤلف أستاذ المصريات (=علم الآثار المصرية) في جامعة الأزهر! وأتمنى أن أُترجِم هذا الكتاب إلى اللغة العربية، وليته ينتشر!

[Ibrahim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird format, but it was cute.

[Dalia hassan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Egyptians of today are the only people to my knowledge who, when first talking to their infant children, unconsciously first use the language of their most ancient ancestors."

كتاب لطيف حبيت جزء الشهور القبطية والأمثله بتاعتها اللي مألوفة لنا جميعا
حبيت تداخل العربية والمصرية القديمة في جمل واحدة زي شبيك لبيك
كنت أحب بس يتم اضافه طريقة النطق للمصرية القديمة بالعربي عشان أفهمها وأعرف النطق

[Mattia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fun introduction to Ancient Egyptian and Coptic words in modern Arabic, telling the story of a day in the life of an Egyptian family in simple English suitable for small children, using several Egyptian Arabic expressions per sentence. On the pages facing the story are lists of the expressions used, in English transliteration, Arabic, Coptic, Greek, and hieroglyphs.

The main problem with this book is that it can't decide whether to be a children's book, or an academic text, and so it fails at both. Youssef states that a word or phrase comes from a particular language, but doesn't elaborate on the etymology, or provide any evidence or citations for his statements. He seems to have drawn heavily on Georgy Sobhy Bey's 1950 article 'Common Words in the Spoken Arabic of Egypt, of Greek or Coptic Origin,' but it is difficult to tell to what degree without citations.

This book had a lot of potential, but it didn't live up to it. Scholars and enthusiasts of the languages concerned will want a more in-depth book, and children who don't read several ancient languages and a few modern ones will not understand much of it.

[Fanny Fae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't let the thinness of "From Pharaoh's Lips" fool you. This book is not an easy read at all. This would be especially true for anyone who is not either a student of the Egyptian dialect of Arabic in specifics and/or also studying Middle Egyptian. To really appreciate the book, doing either or both of these things is probably a very good idea. If tracing the history of an ancient language into the modern day is not already within the realm of interest to you, you probably will not enjoy the book.

If, however, you want to understand how modern Egyptians think and interact in the modern day and how it relates to their historical and cultural past, the book is fascinating. I found it really intriguing that to this day there are still loan words that come from antiquity that can be found in the modern Egyptian Arabic language of today.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite things about this book was learning about the links between Ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and Egyptian Arabic. I liked the chapters on Celebrations and Months the best. Some of the connections seemed readily apparent while others left me wondering how we moved from one word to its modern derivation. The is a book I felt like I needed to take notes on to really grasp it all. I especially liked the inclusion of hieroglyphs, Coptic, and Arabic script. That in itself is no small accomplishment. The glossaries of the three languages take up the last portion on the book. It was a nice book, not terribly gripping but fun to read overall.