What If Duolingo Taught Ancient Egyptian?
What if Duolingo taught Ancient Egyptian?
I am not affiliated with Duolingo. The ideas expressed here are my own opinions.
As of Q4 2024, Duolingo doesn't presently teach Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. This shot offers a small conceptual design to show what a course in Egyptian hieroglyphs could look like using Duolingo's current design system. I've made a few modifications where things didn't quite fit in with Duo's existing framework.
Learning the Language
Duo's learning activities come in a variety of flavors. Wherever possible, I've tried to adapt them to fit a curriculum for teaching Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and their vocalizations.
Learning can proceed in a variety of ways. Here I've showcased two familiar activities — a multiple choice activity and a "build the sentence" activity — each reworked to support the context of learning Ancient Egyptian.
Learning the Glyphs
We can't forget the screen where we can see an overview of the different glyphs (graphemes) used by the language. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics made use of several hundred individual signs, some of which had purely phonetic readings.
I'd probably teach these phonetic signs (as shown in the mockup) first. The majority of us are familiar with writing systems where each symbol represents a single sound. But it's also a good exercise in demystifying the idea that hieroglyphics only represented ideas. To be sure, a great many glyphs were used as ideographs ("idea writing"), but what enabled the decipherment of the hieroglyphs was the discovery that some of these signs had purely phonetic readings.
