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There are four different stages of the Egyptian language.
Stage One: This is the hieroglyphic stage. It was the first to came into use, and one of the last to fade out.
Stage Two: This is hieratic, which is a stylized form of hieroglyphics. It bears some resemblance to the characters of hieroglyph writing, but it is rather hard to distiguish unless you know hieratic writing well.(I don't, just a little note.)
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Stage Three: Demotic was the third stage in the Egyptian script. It is an even more stylized version of hieratic. the characters of demotic had become so stylized and abbreviated that they bore no resemblance to their original hieroglyphic characters. The word "demotic" comes from the Greek word "demotika", meaning popular, which refers to its everyday use.
Stage Four: The fourth and final stage in the Egyptian language is Coptic. It had an alphabet of 24 Greek characters and six demotic characters. Coptic came into use for Christian church services and the word "Coptic" comes from the Arabic word "gubti", which is a corruption of the Greek word for Egypt.
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