[Editorial note: [...] indicates use of Coptic text. Original
script is available for viewing in the PDF format of this
article.] PROTODIALECT. From the earliest time that its
existence is attested (before 3000 B.C.) until its most recent
form, prior to its extinction as a living tongue, the Egyptian
language has evolved somewhat in its phonology. To be sure,
while this language was still alive, Coptology had not yet been
born, so that no phonologist possessing modern scientific skills
could, by hearing the language pronounced as it was spoken, note
precisely its articulation. However, there exist thousands of
Egyptian texts, both pharaonic and Coptic, that record the
existence of diverse orthographies. If they are simultaneous,
they are considered dialectal orthographies synchronically. If
they are successive, they are considered to indicate various
evolutionary stages of the language. Even though orthography is
merely a conventional system with an essentially practical usage
and therefore a system with rath