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How did Akhenatenâs changes to written Egyptian contribute to the development of Late Egyptian?
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Akhenaten
Akhenaten, sculpture in the Alexandria National Museum, Egypt.
Akhenatenâs cultural and religious revolution included a vital innovation: the introduction of vernacular forms into the written language. By incorporating the spoken language of the time into monumental inscriptions, he broke with traditional linguistic conventions.1
This shift served as a precursor to the development of Late Egyptian, which became the standard vernacular form of the New Kingdom. This linguistic evolution is evidenced by the fact that Late Egyptian appears fully developed in the letters of the later 19th and 20th dynasties.1