Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

"
Introduction. vii
supposed enchorial, i.e., demotic alphabet," and " specimens of
phrases." The Vllth Section of the letterpress contained the Young's
"
Rudiments of a Hieroglyphic Vocabulary," and thus Young Hieroglyphic
'
Vocabulary.
became the "father" of English compilers of Egyptian Vocabu-
laries. In this article, which formed a most important and epoch-
making contribution to Egyptology, Young gave a list containing
a number of alphabetic Egyptian characters, to which, in most
cases, he assigned correct phonetic values, i.e., values which are
In fact, he showed
accepted by Egyptologists at the present day.
that he had rightly grasped the idea of a phonetic principle in
the reading of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the existence of which had
been assumed and practically proved by Barthelemy and Zoega, His
and applied it FOR THE FIRST TIME in the decipherment of application of
r
the Phonetic
Egyptian hieroglyphs. This seems to me to be an indisputable principle.
fact, which can easily be verified by any one who will take the
trouble to read Young's article, EGYPT, in the "
Supplement "
to the Encyclopedia Britannica and study his correspondence
and papers which John Leitch reprinted in the third volume of Young's
the Miscellaneous Works of the late Thomas Young, M.D., F.R.S.,
c^s^ d '
London, 1855. Those whom such evidence will not satisfy may Chan-pollion
consult the five volumes of his papers that are preserved in the ^
British Museum (Additional MSS. 27,281-27,285). In the first
volume (Add. 27,281) are all the principal documents dealing with
his work on the Rosetta Stone, and in the second (Add. 27,282)
will be found his copies of a series of short vocabularies of Egyptian
words. Without wishing in any way to reopen the dispute as
to the merits and value of Young's work in comparison with that
out that scholars who were
of Champollion, it may be pointed
contemporaries of both and who had competent knowledge of
Egyptology couple together the names of Young and Champollion,
and place Young's name first. Thus Kosegarten groups Young,
Champollion and Peyron 1 ; Birch speaks of the " discoveries of
Dr. Young and M. Champollion " 2
; and Tattam says that the contemporary
sculptured monuments and papyri of Egypt have long " engaged ^ n^ t
the attention of the Learned, who have in vain endeavoured to Young's
decipher them, till our indefatigable and erudite countryman, discovery.
Dr. Young, and, after him, M. Champollion, undertook the task." 3
1
Debitas vero gratias refero Youngio, Champolliono, Peyronio, viris praeclarissimis,
quo quoties aliquid ad hoc studiorum genus pertinens
abiis sciscitarem,
toties benevole semper et promte quae desiderarem mecum communicaverunt.
De Prisca Aegyptiorum Litteratura Commentatio prima. Weimar, 1828, p. iv.
1 Sketch of a Hieroglyphical Dictionary. London, 1838, p. 3.
3
Coptic
Grammar. London, 1830, p. ix.
a 4
n
of