ABSTRACT
It is estimated that the Medu Netcher language originated 10,000 years ago (Brookfield 102) and it still survives as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church (Allen 2). Kemites did not call their language hieroglyphs, that is a Greek term that translates into “sacred carvings”. Instead, Kemites used the term MDW NTR (Mede Netcher) which is translated in various ways: “divine speech”, “words of nature”, “sacred speech”, among others. This chapter on the Kemetic script reviews and interprets the research on hieroglyphs and their communicative functions with special attention to the texts from Egyptian Stelae as forms of public communication intended to commemorate, dedicate, exalt, and demarcate Kemetic values. This chapter also engages a discussion of the symbolic nature of the glyphs in which depictions of animals, objects, and half-human-half-animals become demystified once we understand that these images are meant to stand for the particular attributes associated with the animal or thing as opposed to the thing itself. Like any other language, there were various dialects of Medu Netcher spoken in Kemet and the language has undergone a number of changes over its 10,000-year history. Ultimately, Medu Netcher is presented as an ideographical form of communication that has a unique link to communication ethics, a language that is not only about speaking the language but about being the language. As “divine speech”, Medu Netcher is paradigmatic of the Maatian ethical principles of the Kemetic people.
