# How long To Learn Ancient Egyptian? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2002, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476 "2002-10-02T01:27:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/1 "2002-10-02T01:27:11Z")
Ok, I know that my local Berlitz school probably doesn’t teach reading ancient egyptain hieroglyphs…but I would really like to learn to read this ancient language. So for the Egyptologists out ther-how long does it take to lean to read hieroglyphs? Where do you study this? I would like to learn enough to read the inscriptions on coffins, tomb walls, etc., and I’m wondering how many month’s study would suffice to do this. Finally, do we know how reliable the translations made (in the past) are? like, has our knowledge of hieroglyphs advanced very much in the past 100 years-can we trust the translations made in the 1800’s, for example?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/2 "2002-10-02T07:20:55Z")
You may want to start with “The Keys of Egypt” by Leslie and Roy Adkins, which describes how hieroglyphic translation advanced over time. It also contains “Suggestions for Further Reading” which discusses several books you can read to teach yourself hieroglyphics. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/3 "2002-10-02T09:48:10Z")
I took evening classes in Egyptian Hieroglyphs a few years ago at the City University, London. The classes moved at a fair old speed and I soon got left behind so I did not continue. I had naively thought that a language made up of pictures had to be simple, right? WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Unless you are ‘good at languages’ I think you might find it hard work. The litle I did was fun though, a little background to the language can make visits to the British Museum more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/4 "2002-10-02T11:12:40Z")
Wehn I was in Egypt recently, our guide said that he had taken a 2-year course in it. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/5 "2002-10-02T11:54:19Z")
To teach Egyptian Hieroglyphs at our University the professor made it so you had to request the right to join the fall semester before the classwhich took place in the spring semester and then he gave you a workbook of the hieroglyphs themselves to study and practice writing all summer. He said learning the glyphs themselves was the hard part, once you get them things should go much easier. After that the year went pretty quickly. If this is your second language things might be difficult. If you’ve already learned some other languages then things should go much quicker. Have fun! ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/6 "2002-10-02T14:35:58Z")
You might try a book by Joseph and Lenore Scott, _Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Everyone_, 1968. The edition I have is publsihed by Barnes and Noble Books in 1993 and I got it remaindered at B&N. ---
**Author:** ![cybersnark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@cybersnark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cybersnark)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/7 "2002-10-02T15:06:30Z")
My book club (Quality Paperback Book club, website at [www.qpb.com](http://www.qpb.com), a book club I HIGHLY recommend) had DECODING EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS by Bridget McDermott, which I found to ba an excellent book for beinning hieroglyphic decoding. Superb illustrations, in full color! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/8 "2002-10-02T16:25:37Z")
And thank you thank you thank you everybody for not saying _hieroglyphics_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tullius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tullius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullius)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/9 "2002-10-02T16:35:17Z")
_Hieroglyphs Without Mystery_ by Karl-Theodor Zauzich gives a good introduction to the subject and will enable you to read names and common inscriptions (things like “so-and-so, king of upper and lower Egypt, send his greetings”) in a short period of time. Beyond that, you’re into serious grammar (like extremely complicated verb forms) and can spend years slogging your way through a textbook like Alan Gardiner’s classic _Egyptian Grammar_. (There are some more recent ones like James P. Allen’s _Middle Egyptian_ with which I’m not familiar but htat have great reviews at [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com).) If you can read French, there are good correspondence courses and lots of printed materials available through the Kheops-Egyptologie organization in Paris. or [URL=]www.egypt.edu Finally, for a good popular account of the whole area, I’d recommend reading _Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs_ by Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters). She has a really interesting chapter about her experiences in studying hieroglyphs that provides a nice overview of the subject. ---
**Author:** ![tullius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tullius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullius)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/10 "2002-10-02T16:59:53Z")
The links I posted don’t seem to work. Let me try again: [http://www.kheops-egyptologie.fr/](http://www.kheops-egyptologie.fr/) (I think you need the “http” and don’t need the French accent marks.) If that doesn’t work, you can always find Kheops through Google. ---
**Author:** ![sweetsensation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@sweetsensation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweetsensation)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2002, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/11 "2002-10-03T16:47:40Z")
omg… that is so easy my uncle is an egyptologist. and he teach me lots about egypt including heiroglyphics. In my school in brazil we learn years of it. I study for a long time since my youth. All you have to do is practice at it. And make sure you under stand how tro put them together. if i go to epypt right now i could probably translate. bruna ---
**Author:** ![xejkh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/22d042/32.png) [@xejkh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xejkh)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/12 "2002-10-04T10:11:05Z")
[http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/hyrotutor/](http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/hyrotutor/) Do not underestimate the links on this page… it contains quite a few pieces of information on grammar. I also highly recommend: _How to read Egyptian Hieroglyphs_ by Mark Collier and Bill Manley. It uses a very effective system of checks to make sure that you understand. The numerous examples will also help tremendously in making sure that you know how to apply what you have learnt. The downside is that it only provides for the language in the Middle ---
**Author:** ![xejkh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/22d042/32.png) [@xejkh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xejkh)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-to-learn-ancient-egyptian/130476/13 "2002-10-04T10:12:03Z")
[http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/hyrotutor/](http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/hyrotutor/) Do not underestimate the links on this page… it contains quite a few pieces of information on grammar. I also highly recommend: _How to read Egyptian Hieroglyphs_ by Mark Collier and Bill Manley. It uses a very effective system of checks to make sure that you understand. The numerous examples will also help tremendously in making sure that you know how to apply what you have learnt. The downsides are that it only provides for the language in the Middle Kingdom, and mostly legalese, formal language. But the information given there would help in understanding most museum artefacts.