hi people!
i’m a farely new member of the Textkit forums, you probably saw my msgs in the Outside Links of interest 
now here’s some stuff about me…
My name is (online of course lol) Ptahhotep and I live in South Africa (Ptahhotep was an overseer/vizier of some phrahaoh of Egypt in the Old Kingdom.)
I’m studying Middle Egyptian grammar as well as New Testament Greek (oh, and Modern Greek, but they’re really so similar, except in pronunciation, so i thought i may as well learn Classical Greek as well hehe ). yes, i’m fascinated in languages, in fact, i hope to study linguistics when i finish high school 
(well i’m actually doing homeschool (it isn’t so common here though) because of the crime situation at public schools.) I also like Greek and Roman history
How i started learning Greek? well i was amazed by how many words from English are of Greek/Latin origin. (you probably already know this ) over 50% of our dictionary has words of Romantic origin! fascinating…
well that’s about it i guess. i hope i can contribute to this place in anyway possible
[size=150]χαíρετἔ
Welcome, Ptahhotep! (How would you pronounce that?) I hope you like it here, and that you learn a lot. I know I have.
Keesa
Hi Ptahhotep! I see you’re home schooled… don’t hesitate to post your thoughts on the subject in the home school thread.
It’s pronounced as in the standard Spanish vowel system or Modern Greek. Pt- is a consonant cluster and should be pronounced seperately, -a- is like a normal Greek a, the -hh- is a bit of a hard h sound, pronounced somewhat deeper in the throat, the -o- is a normal Greek o, and the -e- is like a normal Greek e. lol i should make this explanation as my signiture, a lot of people seem to be unable to pronounce it! 
By the way, Ptahhotep means “Ptah (the god) is satified”.
Neat! and thank you! I’ve always been charmed by the Egyptian culture, especially their hieroglyphs, although it’s the charm of one standing on the outside looking in, since I must admit I know next to nothing about it!
Keesa
[size=150] καλῶς τον
About the suffix hotep: does that have any association with the meaning ‘love’? Also, where may one find a book detailing the grammar of the spoken Egyptian language? I have always wanted to add Egyptian to my repetoire of languages…
Post Scriptum:
A belated welcoming of sorts to textkit to you! I hope my welcoming of you didn’t seem less peremptory than my interest in having my own questions answered…
Hi Ptahhotep,
Welcome to the Textkit forum. You have a very interesting name.
Don’t forget to take a look at all the books you can download from this site. Click on the Learn Ancient Greek link above to see what’s available. I hope you enjoy your stay here.
Oy, great!
Welcome here!
Er, what textbook do you use for egyptian studies?
Not Rosetta stone, do you? ;D – Er, it’s an article about the deciphering of rosetta stone I ever heard of the god Ptah, [Cleopatra, ever beloved by Ptah] or somethin’ like that. – well, it was a dull joke, but I’m serously considering learning egyptian too, in the far future. Demotic is what I think I should start with. Or coptic, What’ you think?
As far as I know they use “Egyptian Grammar” by Alan Gardiner for learning Middle Egyptian at university in Germany - and Austria as well, I think.
Students, who study “Ägyptologie” at university first learn the Hieroglyphs and then Hieratic and Demotic…
[quote][/quote]Demotic is what I think I should start with. Or coptic, What’ you think?
Well I personally think that Coptic is easier because it uses a similar alphabet to ours (it’s based on Greek and Demotic in fact). Demotic is a very cursive alphabet and quite hard to learn. But if you know Classical Greek I would probably recommend Coptic, but there are very few online grammars on the subject. There are some free lessons availible at http://www.stshenouda.com/coptlang/cptlsn1w.htm but in my humble opinion it’s not very thorough and their are little explanations of important grammra rules. Coptic is very easy if you know some Greek, Arabic and Egyptian (it’s like Esperanto for Egypt )
The book i’m using to teach myself Middle Egyptian is by James P. Allen, he wrote an excellent book about the language and culture of the Egyptians. Do a search on amazon.com for "The Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs.
Well i hope this helps.
[size=150]χαíρετε
Oh yeah, Hieroglyphic grammars are plentyful And some are still in use after 100 years like the grammars here at Textkit
over 50% of our dictionary has words of Romantic origin! fascinating…
I am oddly reminded of the father in “My BIg Fat Greek Wedding”.
Father: Give me any word in English and I will show you it comes from Greek
Daughter’s friend: How about “kimono”?
Old English is beautiful, too. It’s in my language-to-learn list.
And a beautiful recitation of Beowulf(CD) is one of my treasures.
Pity for Old English it had lost its life.
Surge of the language from advanced culture often destroys the beauty of local tongue. Its coherence and congruency. It’s what happened to my mother tongue, too.
How can you learn old English ???
I mean, what is there to learn? I have no problems what so ever understanding it, what do you mean? Do you mean you want to be able to speak or write it?
you know Old English fluently? If so that’s pretty impressive!
Well, I just never have any trouble understanding it…
I have always subconsciously ascribed quintessential ineloquence and unpalatability to Old English (We are talking about Anglo-Saxon, correct?), and to the likes of it.
P.S.
MDS, is your adage, or whatever it may be, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses? Sorry if this is too off topic…
I assume you’re talking about the Old English language Emma? Old English (Anglo-Saxon) is part of the West Germanic family of Indo-European languages spoken somewhere around 800AD to the Middle Ages (I think!). Yes, a lot of the early Germanic languages were beautiful in poems and such (but the only text I know is in the Gothic “Attar Unsar” / Our Father!). It’s very difficault to learn Germanic languages though because of their odd vowel pronunciation systems. I’m studying Gothic on-and-off but it’s quite easy. Gothic is my favourite old Germanic language . Well anyway, Old English is a lot different from Modern Standard English (it’s possibly like the difference between Modern and Ancient Greek.) There are a lot of similar looking words but they sound very different when spoken. Can you understand “Uton we¯ efstan ealle maegene go¯dra weora, o,nd geornfulle be¯on Godes miltsa, nu¯ we¯ ongeotan magon þon ic…”? ;D
Mingshey, I have never read Beowulf but heard it was a great text in Old English literature. Do you know where I can find it online (for the record)?