First International Workshop on Egyptian Language and Writing
at the University of Jaén

Language Change in Old Egyptian

University of Jaén 19-20 June 2025
Campus Las Lagunillas Building D 1 and Building M

Old Egyptian has been defined as the language of both Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period texts (ca. 2543-1980 BCE see Loprieno 1995: 5). It was later used as a sacred language for the transmission of religious texts, especially the Pyramid Texts. As Edel pointed out in his "Altägyptische Grammatik" (1955/1964: 5-8 §§ 12-15), Old Egyptian lacks a uniform use, but he does not tackle the causes for its change. Despite two other key studies on Old Egyptian—Allen’s "The Inflection of the Verb in the Pyramid Texts" (1984) and Doret’s "The Narrative Verbal System of Old and Middle Egyptian" (1986)—the heterogeneous use of Old Egyptian remains unclear.

The first International Workshop on Egyptian Language and Writing at the University of Jaén will address this issue by studying linguistic change in Old Egyptian from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. On the one hand, the different purposes, contexts, and audiences of Old Kingdom textual genres suggest the existence of registers in Old Egyptian characterized by linguistic features that need to be analyzed. Although it may not be possible to identify dialects in Old Egyptian, the use of Egyptian as an official language may have varied depending on the region where the texts were composed. On the other hand, the changes experienced by Old Egyptian, especially from its origins to the Middle Kingdom, require an in-depth analysis focusing on phonetic, semantic, and syntactic variations.

This workshop will analyze the evolution of Old Egyptian from its first manifestations in the 3rd and 4th Dynasties, through its full use as a spoken language in the 5th and 6th Dynasties, to its decline during the First Intermediate Period and its use as a sacred language in the Middle Kingdom and later periods. The workshop is organized by Roberto A. Díaz Hernández and funded by the University of Jaén, the Provincial Government of Jaén, and the "Cátedra de Egiptología".