Sounds
Coptic provides the clearest indication of Later Egyptian phonology, thanks to its writing system, which fully indicates vowel sounds and occasionally stress pattern. The phonological system of Later Egyptian is also better known than that of the Classical phase of the language due to a greater number of sources indicating Egyptian sounds, including cuneiform letters containing transcriptions of Egyptian words and phrases, and Egyptian renderings of Northwest Semitic names. Coptic sounds, in addition, are known from a variety of Coptic-Arabic papyri in which Arabic letters were used to transcribe Coptic and vice versa. They date to the medieval Islamic period, when Coptic was still spoken.
Read more about this topic: Coptic Language
Famous quotes containing the word sounds:
“Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if copied out of some invisible tablet in the Eternal mind than as if arbitrarily composed by the poet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
““Try speaking. Say ‘Hello!’”
“Hello. Hello.”
“What do you hear?”
“I hear an empty room—
You know it sounds that way. And yes, I hear
I think I hear a clock and windows rattling....””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)