Home

Traces of Old Egyptian in Eurasian languages

Historical Context

𐀂 𐀋𐀫 ʰi-je-ro ἱερό- hieró- holy, sacred, priestly

To linguists in the 19th centuries, it came as a revelation when they discovered that the old Persian and Sanskrit words for family members were virtually identical to European variants:

cuneiform	transcribed	english	letters
𐎶𐎠𐎫𐎠	MaTa	mother	𐎶=M 𐎠=A 𐎫=T 𐎠=A
𐎱𐎡𐎫𐎠	PiTa	father	𐎱=P 𐎡=I 𐎫=T 𐎠=A
𐎲𐎼𐎠𐎫𐎠	BraTa	brother	𐎲=B 𐎼=R 𐎠=A 𐎫=T 𐎠=A
𐎯𐎧𐎬𐎠	Duxtua	daughter
𐎱𐎢𐏂	Pučun	puer/son

Even now, 2500 years after Persians hammered those words into stone, the modern Farsi(Iranian) words are almost identical, surviving an Arabian conquest and millenia of separation, but reinforced by international relationships and intermarriages:

Farsi	transcribed	english
مامان	mâmân	mother
مادر	mâdar	mother(formal)
بابا	bâbâ	father
پدر	pedar	father(formal)
برادر	barâdar	brother
دختر	doxtar	daughter
پسر	pesar	son

This (re)discovery lead to well established theories of Proto-Indo-European expansions. Here we investigate the relationship between these pioneers and the Pharaonic Egyptian language and culture.

First, we take a step back to the region where the PIE journey began:
The countries surrounding the black sea:

It is important to note that after the inventions of rowing and sailing boats, rivers and oceans should be considered not a barrier but a superhighway. The Euphrates river, the Tigris and the Nile soon became arteries of an ever increasing international trade network. The role of the Black Sea as the heart of the early copper age has previously been mostly neglected.

5000BC - 3000BC
A brief summary of the two millenia leading to historic dynastic civilization.

After some millenia of cold hammering metals, around 5000BC the Danube Vinča civilization pioneered advanced copper technology. The spread of this smelting technology spread so fast through the Black Sea trade corridor, that the origin might as well have been anywhere else on or near the axis from the Danube to Susa. In 4200BC Romanian Varna hordes contain more gold artifacts than all other sites of that time combined, turning a formerly egalitarian society into a more violent one lead by an elite. We have less evidence of the evolution of wooden construction, but a detailed chronology of the architectural development in the Near East of the Ubaid period. As noted in Beyond The Ubaid the “Ubaid” phenomenon was a polycentral network of overlapping cultures and technologies, not at all restricted or centered around Southern Mesopotamia (where it was first discovered).

We cannot know much about the languages of these people but it is certain that they strongly influenced the arising Proto-Indo-European and Semitic languages. After all, all humans are related after a couple millenia; the most important paradoxon of history to keep in mind. In this continuum of genetic flow, some clusters warrents special heedfulness: The Anatolians giving rise to Early European Farmers and Caucasian Hunter-Gatherers, the latter being a misnomer since by 4000BC they were no longer hunter-gatherers and not restricted to the Caucasus, but instead contributed the majority of the gene pool in the Yamnaya and Iranian bronze age. Before the invention of modern states, the correlation between genes and languages presumably was still even higher than it is today.

5000 years after the Neolithic revolution, this urbanized mobilized revolution of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) would soon transform the planet in an ever growing wave. The first(?) big city of 50000 specialists in the Cucuteni culture would soon become the norm. The exact date for the invention of the wheel is still debated, but by the end of the 4th millenium there were already intercontinental trade routes from the Balkans to Afghanistan and to an emerging Egypt. This timing is cruical and the authors generally discard theories of 'independent' inventions when there are plausible pathways for (technological/cultural) transmission. The sail boat is of vital importance to the early spread of technology: In America the Old Copper Culture began to produce metal tools about 4000BC but it dwindled afterwards. This small world theory states that sometime in the last 10000 years mobility increased to such levels that one has to be very careful to assume local developments when there are conceivable routes of (one way) transfer.

Varna King, Romania ⋍4000BC R1b-V88

Only recently has the Caucasian Maykop culture been redated to begin about 4000BC. As it contains more gold and artifacts from Sumer than the rest of the whole Mesopotamia, its central position in the formation of urbanization becomes more and more evident. Their kurgan mounts, some still reaching over 50 meters height, can be seen as predecessors of Egyptian, Iranian and Peruvian pyramids, which appeared some thousand years later. The Maykop culture united two genetically distinguishable clusters which may have given rise to a Sprachbund.

Inventions

Central to the Kurgan Copper Revolution were a bag of inventions, including metallurgy, brewing, proto-writing, kingship and the sail boat, which became a cult object in the Ubaid period - 3800BC. The first carts pulled by bulls, donkeys or horses appeared about the same time.
Trade exploded in the so called secondary products revolution: Industrial milk, wool wheel and wine production, the first leather shoes in Europe and Armenia…
This earth transforming metamorphosis reached Egypt comparatively late, in the 4th millennium, though one of its watermarks, industrial brewing, can be found as early as 3700BC. History often progresses in rising tides, but sometimes it spills over the world like a tsunami. Still this new dramatic wave reached remote China a thousand years later, the real push there came with the Seima-Turbino_phenomenon and chariots after 2000BC.

Cheese transport

In Jiroft, south Iran, a 5000 year old woman with a golden eye implant was discovered. With an outstanding 1.82 m (6 feet) she was much taller than ordinary women of her time (⋍3000BC). We anticipate that genetic tests will show that she was indeed part of the proto-indo-european founding stock. In the mean time we have new finds of blue eyed immigrants bringing bronze to Galilee, red haired mummies in Egypt (Ramses and Gebelein), and a landmark study of mummy DNA, revealing that Egyptians where closest related to Copper Age European, Anatolian and Levant cultures:

Genetic affinities of el-Meleq mummies from New Kingdom {Nature Communications May 2017}

Further East the Copper Age quickly spread via Maykop and Sumeria to Susa/Iran and by 4000BC had reached Mehrgarh, the gate of the Indus Valley civilization: The oldest known example of the lost-wax technique comes from a 6,000-year-old copper, wheel-shaped amulet found at Mehrgarh, Pakistan. On their way they picked up the technology of channel building, a most important addition to their already impressive technological bag of inventions. The brotherhood of copper kings should soon apply it to many renowned rivers.

The roots of the Persian language came via the region of Elam, south Iran, with its capital Susa on the eastern border of Sumeria. Strikingly, the cultural artifacts of Egypt and Susa were nearly identical:

Near identical building plans of the early temples and very similar early Egyptian and Sumerian ceremonies clearly demonstrate that these are not mere trade-artefacts, but in fact proof of a common anchestry of both higher civilizations.

Some context of this urbanization can be explored in the paper the Kurgan Copper Revolution

If nothing else, the little introduction above demonstrates how well the world was connected even before the building of the pyramids. Proto-Indo-Europeans are sometimes treated as if they stopped at the gates of the superpowers of the time (Sumeria, Susa and Egypt) and had little or nothing to do with its elite. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Haplogroups of the Egyptian population:

Ancient Egyptians were closely related to Anatolian and Neolithic European populations. Sub-Saharan and Arabian influences only became strong after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Here, we investigate how deeply the roots go and how the Egyptian system, its cosmology and language are intertwined with our own:

Hieroglyphics and Alphabets

The Egyptian Hieroglyphic writing system started as a syllabary➾ but soon converged to a rather small set of frequent signs and sounds plus determinants (like 𓈉 for land).

One of the most recognizable letters is '𓃀' with phonetic value 'b' (in Roman times):

Babylon is written 𓃀𓃀𓂋𓏤𓈉 b.b.l.1(𓈉land) (or b.b.r)

Using the conventional Egyptian alphabet in its late form, which is preserved to us by comparisons with the derived Coptic and demotic languages, as well as comparisons to Greek and Semitic languages.

The Egyptian 'Alphabet'

Open collection of most frequent signs

(The mnemonics can be ignored if knowledge of German is absent)

letter	glyph	mnemonic
a	𓄿	Aar air
A	𓂝	Arm
b	𓃀	Bein
c	𓍿	ⵛeh/Tau
D	𓏏	Delle/dent
δ	𓂧	Daum/dast
E	𓇋	fEather
F	𓇋	Feather 𓆑Viper
G	𓎼	Ɠiebel
h	𓉔	House
I	𓇋	fIeder 𓏭
J	𓆳	Jahr
Dj	𓆓	djungle
K	𓎡	Kelle/cup
Kr	𓐍	Kreis 𓊖court
L	𓃭𓏯	Leo
M	𓅓	Musen
N	𓈖	Nil
ϱO	𓍯	rogue
Po	𓊪	pool
Q	𓏘	kurgan
R	𓂋	round
S	𓋴	Sit
T	𓏏	Tell 𓏏𓏏tit
U	𓅱𓍢𓏲	Woun/Huhn=100
V	𓆑	Viper / phython
W	𓅳	uu
X	𓎛	Ḫairlix
Y	𓏭	𓇌ee
Z	𓊃	Zusym

With this alphabet, which linguist deciphered 200 years ago, and which received only minor modifications since then, we can start to decipher words:

𓃀𓇋𓅱𓆤𓏨 𓃀=b 𓇋=i/e 𓅱=𓍢 bee 𓆤

One cognate match might be coincidence, especially one with so few syllables, a whole cluster of words hints at connections which need refreshed investigations:

preserved roots

We subscribe to the idea that central words of frequent use and large semantic clusters have a much lower probability of mutating than other words, similar to ultra-conserved genes. Especially if they are codefied as those words that had a glyph of their own.

One of the most recognizable roots on earth is
M-R-T > M-W-T > M-T
𓅓𓏱𓏏 death, mortal…, martial… مهرگ … מות māweṯ موت mawt الموت մահ ⇔ murder… makamate …

One ubiquitous phenomenon of wanderworts is that they exhibit reanalysis in different language families, so that it is often impossible to establish its original etymology, or even its original language. Quite different readings are still consitent with the assumed phonetic values of the root consonants:

𓐍 𓆑 𓂝 𓂬 𓏤 | fist | χούφτα ⇔ γροθιά 𓂞 ⇔ אגרוף ⇔ g-r-p ⇔ grab

Since much sound-change can be assumed over the three millenia of hieroglyphic history, Egyptian words cannot be subjected to precise comparative linguistic analysis, but rather cluster-analysis and the observation that the number of potential cognates is much higher than random cognates would yield, thus permitting an in “dubio pro relatio” approach which is otherwise forbidden.

To quote the great egyptologist Frank Kammerzell:

“Da die Vokalisation ägyptischen Sprachmaterials aus vorkoptischer Zeit nicht annähernd vollständig zu rekonstruieren ist, hat es sich eingebürgert, eine künstlich konstruierte Hilfsaussprache zu benutzen, die keinerlei sprachhistorischen Eigenwert besitzt.

Selbst die in den allermeisten Fällen jegliche Authentizität entbehrende Aussprache einiger Zeichen als Vokale reichte nicht aus, zu bewirken, daß sich etwa in der Umschrift nur solche Lautfolgen ergäben, die von Gelehrten romanischer, slavischer, semitischer oder germanischer Zunge zwanglos hätten benutzt werden können.”

Since the vocalization of Egyptian linguistic material from pre-Coptic times is not nearly completely reconstructable, it has become common practice to create an artificial constructed auxiliary pronunciation that has no linguistic historically intrinsic value.

Even the pronunciation of some characters as vowels, which in the vast majority of cases lacks authenticity, was not sufficient to ensure that, for example, only those phonetic sequences would occur in the transcription that could have been used effortlessly by scholars of Romanesque, Slavic, Semitic or Germanic tongues.

Order in chaos

Sumerian / Akkadian cuneiform is notorious for having sometimes half a dozen reconstructed and assumed readings for a single sign. Fortunately, in Egypt, there are fewer signs with ambiguous readings, which makes interpretation much less arbitrary, and much less error-prone.

It is impossible to reconstruct the exact phonetic reading, which probably varied within dialects and centuries, so all we can do is align the alphabetic consonant letters with their cognates:

Glyphs	letters	cognate	meaning
𓂧𓈙𓂋𓏏𓈉	d.š.r.t	desert	desert/dashred(red-stones)
𓌹𓅓𓂋	𓌹+M+R	Amur marry	admire, love …
𓃀𓇋𓅱𓆤𓏨	b+i/e+𓅱𓆤	Biene	bee deBora
𓃀𓇜𓈖	b+𓇜+n	bien ⇔ bonbon	sweet/good
𓃀 𓇋 𓈖 𓅪	b+ei+n	bane	evil,pain?
𓎛𓆰𓈖𓄏	Ḫ+𓆰+n	horn,κέρας,शृङ्ग (śṛṅga)	horn
𓎛𓆰𓈖𓏌𓏲𓈗 𓈘 𓈇 𓏤	Ḫ+n+𓏌𓏲	channel,قناة	canal
𓆣𓐍𓊪𓂋𓂋𓆣	K-p-r-r	Käfer,κάραβ	scarab,beetle
𓈎𓄿𓇋𓇋𓈒𓏥	q+air+y+𓈒+𓏥	grains / corn	grains
𓈎𓄿𓅱𓊎	𓈎q 𓄿air 𓅱wun	cairn	cairn
𓈎𓄿𓅱𓏏𓀠	q+air+wu+t	great(f.)	great,big …
𓈎 𓌳 𓄿 𓌙 𓅯 𓏜	q+m+air+iang	qvmerang	boomerang 𓌚
𓋴𓂋𓃱	Γ+R+𓃱	𓋴 soft Γsh like giant	giraffe
𓈖𓄓𓋴𓂋𓀁	‘n+Γ+r	⋍anger	anger
𓃀𓃀	BT	ⲃϯ beide podes	both feet
𓃀𓈞𓄑	b+in+zah	ⲃⲁⲣⲟⲧ	bronze, brass
𓃀 𓇋 𓄿 𓅱 𓊌 𓏥	b+i+air+wn+s	ⲃⲁⲣⲟⲧ,bronze	brass
𓃀 𓇋 𓈅 𓄑 𓊌 𓈓	b+i+𓈅+za+s	⋍bronze	bronze
𓂝 𓈎 𓂭 𓂭 𓏜	a+qr+𓂭𓂭𓏜		accurate
𓂋 𓋴 𓌘 𓁹	r+s+𓌘𓁹	rise	wake
𓃀 𓇋 𓎡 𓅅 𓊛	bik	beak,bug	Harbicht, falkon-ship
𓂧 𓊪 𓏏 𓊛	Ϫipot		ship/boat
𓅓𓏱𓏏	M+𓏱+t	mord,mortal,moot	die …
𓂜𓈖	N.n	None, mano, nein	none, no, …
𓂜𓏏	not, nada, njet	no, not, …
𓂓𓂓	Ka	★kwerkar	kar = work in Persia
𓊪 𓊃 𓈙 𓏴	p+ṣ+ṡ	pass	pass,part,devide
𓊪 𓊃 𓈙 𓏏 𓏴 𓏛 𓏥	p+ṣ+ṡ+t+𓏴	Posten	portion
𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤	Ho+r+u	hour/jour	hour / day
𓈖 𓍇 𓏌 𓁹	nvιδur	videor,nadzar	see
𓎛 𓄿 𓏏 𓏮 𓄣	H+ar+t	heart	heart (vs Lieb♡)
𓉗	h.t	1. hut 2. die Hut	1. house 2. protection
𓉡	𓉗hut+𓅃hor(us)	Hathor	Hathor
𓁶 𓏤 𓉗 𓏏 𓉐	top.hut	Obhut	roof
𓉗 𓏲 𓏏 𓉐 𓏥 𓅨 𓂋 𓇋 𓇋 𓉐 𓏏 𓏪	hout𓏥 (g)veryt	House Gvreat	(Law) Courts "Great House"
𓉗𓏏𓏏𓈉	hut.t.t	die Hütte	mine
𓈎𓅱𓂋𓏤	𓈎q 𓅱u r𓂋𓏤 qur𓏤	𓉗,quarry,chyros	gold miner
𓎡𓄿𓊪𓄿	c+A+ph+A	cover חפז châpha	cover
𓋴𓍿𓎤	𓋴𓌢𓈖𓂉	scent	smell
𓉐	Pr(t)	porta,Pforte	door
𓉐𓂋𓂻	pr(t)ier	partier	part,leave
𓉐𓂋𓏏𓍁 𓈓	P-R+R+T	phárat,φρούτ,Brut	fruit,offspring
𓂧𓄿𓃀𓆳	D+air+b	Traube	figs/fruits/vines
𓏏𓈖𓌰𓅓𓅱𓇰	d+n+𓌰…	dunkel/tenebre/temnota	dark,taint-less
𓋴𓃀𓇋𓏏𓎸𓄑	S+b+i+t+𓄑	Spitzen/Späße	shenanigans,mirth
𓉔𓄿𓂋𓏏𓄜𓏥𓃒	H+AI+R+D+𓏥	Herden	herds

Is this all a German hoax from the 19th century? The alphabet and the standard reading of signs were developed by French, English and Semitic scholars, so it all seems genuine.

Are these just random picks from an otherwise unrelated dictionary corpus? Far from it: Most interesting are the Egyptian Grammar, Numbers and in fact the whole Dictionary.

This Discovery is not entirely new, Dr. Christian De Vartavan, head of the Armenian Egyptology Center released several papers on the subject. In fact this observation was more widely spread before the second world war, after which it became taboo. Either because the Nazis abused the Indo-Europaen data for their ideology, or because of the undeniable strong connections between Egyptian and Semitic languages; the later however is not a contradiction:

Egyptian could be related to Afro-Asiatic and Eurasian languages.

In order to appreciate the deep relationship which goes beyond lexical interbreeding, one needs to study the Grammar. It seems surprisingly compatible with Indo European. No feature of the grammar forbids a common ancestry, many similarities corroborate one.

Once it is accepted there is that there is a connection between Egyptian and European languages, we can postulate that '𓃀' b belongs to the ultra-preserved Eurasian 'pod'-cluster (all meaning 'leg'):

cognate	language
پَا pā	Persian
pāy, padistān	Persian
𒉽𒄬Pa…	Sumerian
pod	Greek
ⲫⲁⲧ	Coptic
la pierna	Spanish
láb	Hungarian
Bein	German
b…𓃀	Egyptian

Related English words:
𓃀 boot, lab⋍leg, and hundred other derived terms in this cluster.

At this stage, it is too early to assess which of the European cognates matches best the Egyptian variant.
And when exactly was 𓃀 read as something similar to Bein, pierna, pā, pod, 𒉽𒄬, PapHalf, PaDemi, 𒁇bar 𒈦pár … ?

1. during the formation period as suggested above
2. constantly as one reading among several
3. constantly as the main reading
4. reinterpretation of the glyphs at the Hyksos invasion?
5. in the advent of Christian religion (re-reading / re-alliance)?

Given the antiquity of Sanskrit and its astonishing similarity to western languages, all seem possible.

The influence of written letters on spoken vernacular has probably been underestimated.
Ever repeating recitations can preserve or shift whole languages.

Remember the Persian words for mother and father?
Here are the (deified) Egyptian variants:

hieroglyphs	transcribed	suggested	english
𓊪𓏏𓇯𓀭	𓊪=P 𓏏=T 𓇯=Air	Photair	Sky Father "Ptah"
𓇋𓏏𓆑𓀀	𓇋=(f)e 𓏏=t 𓆑=v 𓀀	★feathav	father / attav
𓅓𓅱𓏏𓅐	𓅓=M 𓅱=ⲱ 𓏏=t	Muta (Geier)	Mother (Gaia:Nature)
𓈖𓏏𓂋𓏯𓅐	𓈖=𐊎𐊪 𓏏=T 𓂋=R 𓏯	Nνture	(Mother) vulture
𓅭	sA'	χήν x̌aŋ	son
𓅭𓏏	𓅭 𓏏=t	sAta/δAta ?	daughter 𓅭=duck𓏏=ta

Because the exact original phonetics are impossible to reconstruct, the suggested readings must be consumed with a boat load of fine Sahara salt.

Crazy, but possible: The suspicious looking 𓅭=duck in the word 𓅭𓏏 daughter (𓅭=duck𓏏=ta) is part of the Indo-European vocabulary, e.g. in Persian duck = ordak . If nothing else, a fabulous mnemonic which makes Egyptian more accessible than most other languages. In fact, given its relative simple Grammar and it's central position in the language families, every student of linguistics should learn it. Egyptian is riddled with puns, making formal analysis at times difficult, but not less accessible.

… common expression: 𓅭𓇳 sA'Ra = son of the sun = ★sonray?

Egyptologists followed the path of the lowest common denominator, with the bizarre result that quite a few words are reduced to mere sequences of vowels, e.g. 𓂣𓉻𓄿 = a.a.a (magnify)
We offer working hypothesis and phonetic readings for most signs outside the alphabet, including yet silent Determinants. Similarly, we reject that the four signs 𓇋=(f)e 𓏏=t 𓆑=v 𓀀 in 'father' should be reduced to a mere 'it' as in some modern dictionaries.

This obviously needs further work, but the case should be reopened.

For comments, questions, remarks,… join the discussion

Suggested reading: Grammar, Pronouns and Numbers & Axioms