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Cleopatra came from a family that had been resident in Egypt for almost 300 years. In spite of that, her mother tongue was the Macedonian dialect of Greek spoken by Alexander the Great.
Cleopatra is famous for being the first Ptolemaic monarch to also speak the common language, a Semitic tongue descended from ancient Egyptian.
Cleopatra is famous for being the first Ptolemaic monarch to also speak the common language, a Semitic tongue descended from ancient Egyptian.
Ancient Egyptian is actually a Hamitic language (part of the Hamito-Semitic family).
Clepatra was famed more for her brains than her beaty (at least before Augustus propagandists was through with her) - her skill with languages especially. I think Josephus mentions that she could speak Aramaic as well (apart from Greek and "Egyptian").
/Vandelay
/Vandelay
This brings up another question. When did Ancient Egyptian become Arabic and were there intermediate stages where other languages were the "common" language of Egypt?
I´m definetly not an expert on this but I´ll have go:
As in many other Muslim conquests the inhabitants only slowly converted to Islam (mostly because it gave a taxexemption). The Egyptians at the Islamic conquest would probably been Greek speaking in the northern cities, rural people would have spoken "Coptic" (I guess) and in the South there would have been Nubian dialects akin to "Coptic". Quite possibly Arabic speaking Bedouin tribes would have been present in the Sinai and Eastern Desert prior to the Islamic conquest.
I don´t know if the Coptic Christians of today´s Egypt still speak their own language - AFAIK they´ve adopted Arabic.
/Vandelay
As in many other Muslim conquests the inhabitants only slowly converted to Islam (mostly because it gave a taxexemption). The Egyptians at the Islamic conquest would probably been Greek speaking in the northern cities, rural people would have spoken "Coptic" (I guess) and in the South there would have been Nubian dialects akin to "Coptic". Quite possibly Arabic speaking Bedouin tribes would have been present in the Sinai and Eastern Desert prior to the Islamic conquest.
I don´t know if the Coptic Christians of today´s Egypt still speak their own language - AFAIK they´ve adopted Arabic.
/Vandelay
She was the product of many generations of incest, and did have Egyptian blood(some of the Ptolomies has liasons with local egyptians) though the statue/coins make her look just slightly better than plain. Children of Incest that were not all there were routinely killed. Egypt was a wealthy realm, every roman leader desired the loot for themselves and Cleopatra was trying to maintain her rule and independance of her kingdom. Unfortunately she bet on the losing side. The best treatment of her that I have found is in
FROM ALEXANDER TO ACTIUM by Green. It will answer all your questions, and some that you have not thought of. as I recollect, she spoke many languages.
FROM ALEXANDER TO ACTIUM by Green. It will answer all your questions, and some that you have not thought of. as I recollect, she spoke many languages.
In America Cleopatra´s skincolour is a highly controversial issue. From my perspective it seems that some scholars have proclaimed a number famous people from Antiquity (Socrates, Hannibal and Cleopatra especially) as being black in some strange attempt at giving African-American students "self-esteem". Self-esteem is getting in vogue is Swedsih schools nowadays as well. I sincerely hope that knowledge and critical and creative thinking will be back in vogue when my kids go tro school.
Anyways, back to Cleopatra. She comes from a straight line of Ptolemies (incestual marriages) EXCEPT for her great-grandmother (or was it grandmother) who was not a Ptolemy but a royal concubine. There is of course a chance that this concubine was black but it´s not likely - black women didn´t domiante the concubine business...
/Vandelay
Anyways, back to Cleopatra. She comes from a straight line of Ptolemies (incestual marriages) EXCEPT for her great-grandmother (or was it grandmother) who was not a Ptolemy but a royal concubine. There is of course a chance that this concubine was black but it´s not likely - black women didn´t domiante the concubine business...
/Vandelay
I can't really understand why African is equal to black? Melanisians and Aborignies are black as well...
Do they have any good explanation for the Berbers?
Do they have any good explanation for the Berbers?
Well, black in the American context would be African/ negroid or whichever term is most PC at the time.
The proponents of "Black Athena" aim to rectify the old descriptions of Africans as being savages incapable of civilization which is necessary and meaningful. But to do so by claiming that ALL civilization comes from Africa and a number of famous people being Black Africans is counter-productive and simply bad science.
The racial status of Ancient Egyptians is especially controversial in the US. Check out this link for an introduction to the controversy.
/Vandelay
The proponents of "Black Athena" aim to rectify the old descriptions of Africans as being savages incapable of civilization which is necessary and meaningful. But to do so by claiming that ALL civilization comes from Africa and a number of famous people being Black Africans is counter-productive and simply bad science.
The racial status of Ancient Egyptians is especially controversial in the US. Check out this link for an introduction to the controversy.
/Vandelay
Why not simply argue that all the Greeks, Babylonians, Indians, Chinese and Romans were black? It seems unreasonable to end with Egypt... 