James P. Allen is the Wilbour Professor of Egyptology at Brown University. He is a former curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and president of the International Association of Egyptologists. His previous publications include Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts (1989), Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (2000, 2010), The Heqanakht Papyri (2002), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2005) and The Debate between a Man and His Soul (2010).
'A major contribution to our understanding of the development of Ancient Egyptian throughout its recorded history, richly exemplified and with a wealth of original insights. Essential reading.' Mark Collier, University of Liverpool '... represents the cutting edge of Egyptological linguistics and is certain to be of interest to all researchers working in the field.' Sami Uljas, University of Basel 'This new history of Egyptian-Coptic - the first synthesis of its kind in nearly two decades - presents a rich material and many innovative analyses, benefiting from the author's profound expertise in the earlier textual corpora of Egyptian.' Dr Andreas Stauder, Swiss National Science Foundation and the University of Basel 'Essential reading for anyone studying the development of the ancient Egyptian language or who has a more general interest in linguistics and the history of language development.' Ancient Egypt Advance Praise: A major contribution to our understanding of the development of Ancient Egyptian throughout its recorded history, richly exemplified and with a wealth of original insights. Essential reading. --Mark Collier, University of Liverpool ... represents the cutting edge of Egyptological linguistics and is certain to be of interest to all researchers working in the field. --Sami Uljas, University of Basel ''This new history of Egyptian-Coptic--the first synthesis of its kind in nearly two decades--presents a rich material and many innovative analyses, benefiting from the author's profound expertise in the earlier textual corpora of Egyptian.'' --Dr. Andreas Stauder, Swiss National Science Foundation / University of Basel