Which is better for someone interested in Egyptology to study French or German?

Question

Arabic isn't a the right answer, I know most of the research was done by French and Germans so I just want to know which would be better to take. Plus I already studied Arabic, but thank you for your answer.

Answer 1

ARABIC :-)

OR FRENCH

Answer 2

Well, if you're interested in graduate school I would say both. BUT, I at my school German is required for Ancient Near Eastern Studies. I think if you choose one, German has a larger body of work.

My advice would be to have at least two (university level) years of German and one year of French.

Answer 3

My friend has a science degree and she was told to take German for that degree. You know that there was a lot of information put in French as Napoleon occupied Egypt. Greek would be good.

"Only Greek resisted the inroads of Latin and remained the common and official language of Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and the Levant until the Arab conquest of 700 A.D. "

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/r/rileymt/cour...

See also:

http://linguistlist.org/

Answer 4

graduate schools are going to require that you have a reading knowledge of both.

I repeat graduate schools with an egyptology or near eastern studies program will require a knowledge of both languages.

Answer 5

depends on your length of study. if you took one semester of arabic, you better start taking more. I would recommend taking both french and german, however, french i feel would be better for you.

Answer 6

FRENCH!

Seriously, so much research is published by the French if you can't read it you'll be at a real disadvantage. They are very much more interested in Egypt that the Germans, and produce a higher volume of relevant publications.