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Document Details :

Title: Egyptian 'Split' Genitives and Related Phenomena
Subtitle: Exotic Debris from Conflicting Forces
Author(s): DEPUYDT, L.
Journal: Le Muséon
Volume: 112    Issue: 3-4   Date: 1999   
Pages: 273-299
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.112.3.519478

Abstract :
K. Sethe’s “Das Verhältnis zwischen Demotisch und Koptisch und seine Lehren für die Geschichte der ägyptischen Sprache”1 was by all accounts a foundational contribution to the study of the history of Egyptian. But its remarkable main thesis about the relation between Demotic and Coptic has not gained acceptance. Instead of the now widely accepted sequence Late Egyptian (mother) — Demotic (daughter) — Coptic (granddaughter), Sethe preferred the pattern Late Egyptian (mother) — Demotic (first daughter; written idiom) — Coptic (second daughter; spoken idiom). In support of his thesis, he collected differences between Demotic and Coptic that seemed to allow no smooth path of evolution from Demotic to Coptic. Coptic could therefore not have descended from Demotic.

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