Unlike the research by the Oriental Institute in Chicago, in our research of the demotic script we start from the fact: that it the syllabic script and we consider it sign by sign, i.e. syllable by syllable.
These are the basic characteristics of the script:
The relatively wide range of the available text, of about 4500 signs, gives us an opportunity to identify the forms of the signs which are the basis of the script used. The most frequent ones are denoted
- asymmetrical syllabic signs
- symmetrical syllabic signs
- inclined syllabic signs
- specific syllabic sign
- signs for isolated writing of consonants
- signs for isolated writing of vowels
We also defined signs which are most probably the remains of some old pictographic script, and as such they represent a whole notion. Click here to proceed to the pictographic signs.
Especially intriguing is the method of writing the so-called ligatures, which according to us is a characteristic of the ancient Macedonian variation of this widely-used script in the given period of the Mediterranean - Asian civilization.