Life in Egypt enjoys a quite extraordinary continuity with the past， but that doesnt mean there havent been huge changes. There have.

In the year 391 AD， the Roman Emperor， Theodosius， issued a decree banning all pagan temples throughout the empire. Well， for the Egyptians， this was a disaster， for their temples werent just places of worship. They were schools and universities， they were libraries， they were medical centres， they were law courts. They were the centre of civic life. Closing them down spelt the official end of the old ways and the end of the written language. And a few centuries later， the coming of another religion， Islam， spelt the end of the spoken language.

However， the language of ancient Egypt was still being spoken， and it still is. For 1， 600 years， despite frequent official repression， the Coptic Church and priests like Father Itsak Ramsey， have kept alive the Coptic language.

Fr. Ramsey： Coptic is a derivative of the ancient Egyptian language.

Q： So youre actually speaking the language that was spoken by the pharaohs.

Fr.Ramsey： Yes.

Of course， it may be that the way Coptic is being spoken here bears as little resemblance to the way it was spoken in the ancient world as modern English does to Anglo-Saxon. But nevertheless， the Christian Coptic Church was keeping this dead language alive in the same way that the Roman Catholic Church was keeping Latin alive.

And the worlds earliest recorded script was still being spoken. And it was this realization that was crucial to cracking the meaning of the hieroglyphs. Actually the word “hieroglyph” is a bit of a misnomer. You see， when the ancient Greeks first came across these mystical writings on the Egyptianstombs and temples， well， they naturally assumed they were full of mystical significance， so they called them“hieroglyphs， ” or “sacred carvings.” But， in fact， a lot of them were far from mystical， and they werent all just carved on temple walls.

The Egyptians invented the first paper. They used the inside of the reed， known as the papyrus， and thats where we get the name “paper” from. And this was what they used for official documents and for archiving. But， for everyday notes and messages， there was a much cheaper version at hand. They had bits of broken pottery or…or “shards” of limestone， and this is what they scribbled their messages on. But for this they developed a kind of shorthand version of the hieroglyph， which is known as Hieratic.

Papyrus grew in abundance alongside the Nile， and someone worked out that， by cutting it up， rolling it out and soaking it， interleaving it and then pressing it， you could produce something you could write on.

The invention of writing in Ancient Egypt was， of course， a boon for the accountants and managers and scribes， but it also made possible the worlds first literature.

傳統(tǒng)在當今埃及的生活中得到了不同尋常的延續(xù)，但這并不是說這里就不曾發(fā)生過巨大的轉變，巨變確曾發(fā)生。

公元391年，古羅馬皇帝狄奧多西頒布法令，取締羅馬帝國內所有異教徒廟宇。唉，這對埃及人可是一場災難，因為對他們來說，神廟不僅是祭拜的地方，那還是學校與大學，它們是圖書館、是醫(yī)院、是法庭，它們是城市生活的中心。關閉神廟相當于傳統(tǒng)習俗的正式終結和書面語言的末日。幾個世紀之后，一種新的宗教——伊斯蘭教——傳入埃及，口頭語言也繼而失傳。

然而，古埃及的語言還是流傳了下來，至今依舊有人在說。一千六百年來，盡管屢遭官方打壓，科普特教會和像拉姆齊神父這樣的神職人員依舊把科普特語傳承下來。

拉姆齊神父：科普特語是古埃及語的衍生語言。

問：這么說，你正在使用的語言就是法老曾經使用的語言？

拉姆齊神父：是的。

當然，他們如今所用的科普特語也許已跟古代所用的相去甚遠，就像當代英語跟盎格魯·撒克遜人說的英語有天壤之別一樣，但基督教科普特教會仍努力傳承這種早已不被使用的語言，如同羅馬天主教會也在努力地傳承著拉丁語。

世界上最早的手寫文字還有人會念，而這正是解讀象形文字的關鍵。其實象形文字一詞純屬誤稱。要知道，古希臘人頭一回在埃及墓地和神殿看到這些神秘的文字，自然會認為它們充滿神秘意義，所以稱它們?yōu)橄笮挝淖郑╤ieroglyph），也就是“神圣篆刻”的意思。其實許多文字根本談不上神秘，而且它們也不只出現(xiàn)在神殿的墻壁上。

古埃及人首先發(fā)明了紙張，所用材料是蘆葦內部的紙莎草（papyrus），這正是英語中“紙”（paper）這個詞的由來。他們正是用這種紙書寫官方文件，作檔案記錄;至于日常記錄與訊息，他們手邊有更便宜的工具。他們用陶器或石灰石的碎片作為傳遞訊息的工具。為此他們發(fā)展出象形文字的簡易版，也就是所謂的僧侶體。

尼羅河沿岸出產大量紙莎草，有人發(fā)現(xiàn)把它剖開、展開、泡水，交錯疊起來然后壓緊，就能做出用以書寫的紙張。

古埃及人發(fā)明的書寫方式是會計師、經理及抄寫員的一大福音，它也促成了世界文學的誕生。

科普特人Copts

科普特人指埃及的基督徒，是當代埃及的少數(shù)民族之一。他們是在公元一世紀時皈依基督教的古埃及人的后裔。目前，埃及的科普特人是中東地區(qū)最大的基督教族群，其人口約占埃及總人口的10-15%?！翱破仗亍币辉~原意為埃及人。該詞在古阿拉伯語中曾是所有埃及人的代稱，

但隨著大部分埃及居民皈依伊斯蘭教，該詞也發(fā)生語意變化，現(xiàn)專指埃及的基督徒。

現(xiàn)在，大多數(shù)科普特人使用阿拉伯語，但在宗教儀式中仍使用科普特語（由古埃及語演變而來），屬閃含語系古埃及語-科普特語族。他們全都信仰基督教，并保持著古埃及人固有的文化特色?？破仗厝藦闹惺兰o阿拉伯人入侵埃及開始，便一直處于二等公民的地位，許多古埃及人后裔頂住了巨大壓力并仍然堅守基督教信仰，這才有了如今埃及具有一定規(guī)模的科普特人群體?，F(xiàn)代科普特人的教育水平普遍較高，最有名的科普特人士是布特羅斯·加利，他曾擔任聯(lián)合國秘書長。