<< Has any Greek influence been preserved in Egyptian language? >>
" -- Ancient Egyptian has been substituted by Arabic long time ago but survives as liturgigal language of the Egytian Coptic Christian Church, which uses an slightly modified Greek alphabet. "
The history of the Egyptian language is characterized by two important transitions, one in the structure of the language and another in its orthography. First, a change from synthetic to analytic patterns in the verbal system and the nominal syntax took place, and is often described in scholarly literature as a transition from "Older Egyptian" (Old and Middle Egyptian) to "Later Egyptian" (Late, Demotic and Coptic Egyptian).
On the whole, Later Egyptian is characterized by the development of analytic features such as prefixal definite and indefinite articles, which replaced the earlier suffixal markers of morphological oppositions (more akin to Semitic), as well as a periphrastic development involving a change from the older VSO word order (also characteristic of Classical Arabic and Biblical Hebrew) to SVO.
Typical of other Afro-Asiatic languages, Older Egyptian was a fusional language with a Verb Subject Object synthetic structure. Later Egyptian, including Coptic, is marked by a diachronic shift to a Subject Verb Object word order, prefixed constructions for nominal morphemes of gender and number, as well as a move toward a polysynthetic type in Coptic.
While some vestiges of the suffix inflectional pattern survive in Coptic (mainly to indicate inalienable possession), the change is fairly uniform across the different dialects. The decline in suffix inflection can be observed when comparing the Classical Egyptian form stp.f 'he chooses' to Coptic f.sotp ϥⲥⲱⲧⲡ 'he chooses', where the third person singular masculine marker has been preposed.
So again we are in presence of a transition from synthetic to analytic induced by language contact, here Greek ruling caste in Egypt. The genesis of Romance out of Latin could have happened also this way.
" -- Ancient Egyptian has been substituted by Arabic long time ago but survives as liturgigal language of the Egytian Coptic Christian Church, which uses an slightly modified Greek alphabet. "
The history of the Egyptian language is characterized by two important transitions, one in the structure of the language and another in its orthography. First, a change from synthetic to analytic patterns in the verbal system and the nominal syntax took place, and is often described in scholarly literature as a transition from "Older Egyptian" (Old and Middle Egyptian) to "Later Egyptian" (Late, Demotic and Coptic Egyptian).
On the whole, Later Egyptian is characterized by the development of analytic features such as prefixal definite and indefinite articles, which replaced the earlier suffixal markers of morphological oppositions (more akin to Semitic), as well as a periphrastic development involving a change from the older VSO word order (also characteristic of Classical Arabic and Biblical Hebrew) to SVO.
Typical of other Afro-Asiatic languages, Older Egyptian was a fusional language with a Verb Subject Object synthetic structure. Later Egyptian, including Coptic, is marked by a diachronic shift to a Subject Verb Object word order, prefixed constructions for nominal morphemes of gender and number, as well as a move toward a polysynthetic type in Coptic.
While some vestiges of the suffix inflectional pattern survive in Coptic (mainly to indicate inalienable possession), the change is fairly uniform across the different dialects. The decline in suffix inflection can be observed when comparing the Classical Egyptian form stp.f 'he chooses' to Coptic f.sotp ϥⲥⲱⲧⲡ 'he chooses', where the third person singular masculine marker has been preposed.
So again we are in presence of a transition from synthetic to analytic induced by language contact, here Greek ruling caste in Egypt. The genesis of Romance out of Latin could have happened also this way.