Dictionary Translates Ancient Egypt Life

             The article "Dictionary Translates Ancient Egypt Life" was written by John Noble Wilford of The New York Times. Wilford has been working as a journalist since 1956 when he started at the Wall Street Journal, spending two years on a military tour of duty and then becoming a medical reporter. He joined The New York Times in 1965 as a science reported and, in 1969, he wrote the front-page article, "Men Walk on Moon". Forty-three years later it was his byline that appeared in the Times' front-page obituary of Neil Armstrong. In addition, Wilford has received two Pulitzer prizes. If there ever was a credible source, John Wilford is it. This particular article of his was about a dictionary that has been in the works for over forty years at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Numerous Egyptologists have devoted the better part of their careers to the compilation of this dictionary in the hopes that it will make translating Demotic documents easier. This article's exigence is within an intellectual community of people trying to broaden historical understanding, basically through a massive research tool.  If you were to ask your average American what the Egyptians used to communicate, they'd probably respond with hieroglyphs. This is a common misconception. The language of the common people in Egypt from 500 BC to about 500 AD, as well as one of the languages found on the Rosetta Stone, is called Demotics. This article served to explain how creating a large dictionary about Demotics could unveil the Egyptians "words of love and family, the law and commerce, private letters and texts on science, religion and literature" (Wilford 1). It was written partly to the public, or readers of The New York Times, but also partly to the community of intellectuals specializing in historical research. It provided information regarding how the dictionary could be accessed for free online and about its likely ensuing publication, both of these things being useful heads-up's for someone in that field of work. I was unable to find many examples of rhetoric, spare the loose simile "What the Chicago Demotic Dictionary does is what the Oxford English Dictionary does". Wilford accomplished his purpose by laying what Demotic is and how it can be used in the context of historical research. He even included quotes from individuals such as James P. Allen, an Egyptologist at Brown University and soon to have his history of the Egyptian language published by Cambridge University Press. Dr. Allen said, "I could not have done what I did without the dictionary," he said. “Or at least not as well.”  Wilford went on to explain that the newly defined words have already expanded upon pivotal knowledge of Egyptain life. For example, many Egyptians kept their records in Demotic, including financial records that spanned multiple years. There has also been government legislation translated that reveals interesting facts about an ancient Egyptian woman's role in society. They "detailed a husband’s acknowledgment of the money his wife brought into the marriage and the promise to provide her with a set amount of food and money for clothing each year of their marriage". Also, other contracts stated that women could own land and had the right to divorce their husbands! It's interesting to see the stark contrast between the way women were treated in Egyptain society and in other flourishing societies (such as Roman, and then eventually European, where they had little to no power). Wilford's use of multiple specific examples and relative quotations allows the reader to understand how essential an all-encompassing dictionary of "common" Egyptain is to modern historians and how it can be utilized as studies in these areas continue.



Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/science/new-demotic-dictionary-translates-lives-of-ancient-egyptians.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=science