system of writing was rejected on account of its associations with idolatry; and the translations of the Bible and other religious books are written with Greek characters. There were, however, six sounds in Egyptian which did not occur in Greek, and the characters for these they borrowed from the ancient enchorial system. They are here subjoined : The Egyptian resembles the Hebrew, the Arabic, and other oriental languages, in the great uncertainty of its vowels. Words are written in the Coptic texts with many different vowels; thus, the word which signifies "to wrap up, to fold," is written kad, Keλ, KOλ Kwa, without the slightest change in the sense. They are also sometimes written without vowels: as, TATA, to drop. It will be observed, that in the annexed alphabet all the vowels are indiscriminately represented by one set of characters. The Coptic books are written in three different dialects, corresponding to the three great divisions of Egypt. The dialect of Lower Egypt is called by the grammarians the Memphitic; that of Middle Egypt, the Bashmuric; and that of Upper Egypt, the Sahidic. The differences between these dialects consist entirely in the employment of different consonants to spell the same word; thus ou, to be strong, in the Memphitic, is written GOU in the Sahidic; and PWLIE, a man, in the same dialect, is written wue in the Bashmuric. All the consonants which thus interchange with each other are written with the same set of Phonetic characters in hieroglyphics. This will account for their being grouped together in the preceding table, the top compartment of which contains the hieroglyphics corresponding to the Coptic vowels, which are written against it. The consonants follow in the order in which they occur in the Coptic alphabet, the several hieroglyphic signs which represent them being grouped together in the compartments opposite to them. CHAPTER V. CONSTRUCTION OF THE LANGUAGE AND WRITING OF THE Egyptian language is one of great simplicity of structure, both in its roots and in its grammatical forms. Many of the appellatives of living beings are imitations of the sounds they utter: for instance, the ass was Єw eo; the lion Hoтe moue; the ox €2e ehe; the frog Xporp chrour; the cat war shaou; the hog piprir; the hoopoe ПTENKT petepep; the serpent 204 hof, hfo. In the same manner, the names of inanimate objects or modes of existence are evidently intended to represent the sounds which proceed from them thus CENCE sensen, means to sound, to sing; orororer ouodjouedj, to chew; Xpeupeu kremrem, a noise; kpaper kradjredj, to grind the teeth; TATA teltel, to drop, fall in drops; OLK omk, to swallow; POXPEX rodjredj, to rub, to polish. The mental emotions are expressed in Coptic by various qualifications of the word signifying the heart, 2нт het, which was supposed to be the seat of them. Thus, to be in concord, is to be one-hearted ¿HTлOTOт; a coward is little-hearted 2нTWнU; a patient man is heavy-hearted gaрweнт; a proud person has a high, lofty heart GOCIEнT; a timid person is weak-hearted OREHT; an indecisive person has two hearts HTB; while a penitent is said to eat his heart оreиgенч. Notions still more abstracted are also expressed by similar compounds : thus, to reflect, is to make the heart come ElHT; to persuade, is to mingle, temper the heart OTEHT; to trust, confide, to offer the heart Kagт; to observe, examine, teнT to give the heart; to know is to find the heart децент; and to satisfy, to fill the heart rегент. Another class of ideas is conveyed by the compounds of the word TOT hand; as, to help, to give the hand †TOT; to begin, to put forth the hand gтот. Other parts of the body are also applied in the same way to express states of the mind. Thus, mawakƐ stiff-necked, means obstitinate; acea lofty-eyed, denotes audacity; BAEHT eye in the heart, clever, witty; Kwa to draw in the nose, to laugh at. Personal acts, also, are made to denote mental states; as aчp fly-seeker, a covetous man. The grammatical forms of this singular language partake of the same peculiarity. The commonest modifications of speech, even the oblique and objective cases of the pronoun, are expressed by referring to a physical object; thus, to me, is, according to the sense of the passage in which it occurs, into my hand ETOT, into my mouth epoi, into my stomach ЄSHT, on my face Єepal, on my head €Xwi, to my place . The most ordinary relations of subjects of speech to each other are thus expressed immediately by reference to parts of the body: thus, within, is, in the stomach €5€ƒ, that is, E5HT; out, is, from the eye eBod. The very particles which are prefixed to the verbs to denote the variations of tense, are all significant. The |