There are, at any rate, a number of factors making it extremely difficult to draw definite conclusions as to the earliest forms of language used in Egypt. One of these is the Egyptian system of writing. The ancient inscriptions use pictographic signs (representations of animals, birds, plants, or other objects) along with certain geometric forms, a system of writing called hieroglyphics by the Greeks. While certain signs came to represent syllables, these were used only to supplement the hieroglyphics and never replaced them. Furthermore, the precise sounds expressed by those syllables are not known today. Some help is obtained from the references to Egypt in certain cuneiform writings as early as the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. Greek transcriptions of Egyptian names and of other words dating from about the sixth century C.E., and Aramaic transcriptions beginning about a century later, likewise give some idea of the spelling of the Egyptian words transcribed. But the reconstruction of the phonology, or sound system, of ancient Egyptian is still based primarily on Coptic, the form of Egyptian spoken from the third century C.E. onward. So, the original structure of the ancient vocabulary in its earliest form, particularly before the period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt, can only be approximated. For example, see NO, NO-AMON.

Hieroglyphic writing was used especially for inscriptions on monuments and wall paintings, where the symbols were executed in great detail. While it continued to be used down to the start of the Common Era, particularly for religious texts, a less cumbersome writing that used more simplified, cursive forms was developed at an early date by scribes writing with ink on leather and papyrus. Called hieratic, it was followed by an even more cursive form called demotic, particularly from what is styled the “Twenty-sixth Dynasty” (seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E.) onward. Deciphering of Egyptian texts was not accomplished until after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. This inscription, now in the British Museum, contains a decree honoring Ptolemy V (Epiphanes) and dates from 196 B.C.E. The writing is in Egyptian hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek, and the Greek text became the key making decipherment of Egyptian possible.