What are the oldest ethnic groups that still exist?

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Egyptians have been arabiazed, only speak arab and are muslims, even a few decades ago they attempted to create a big arab state with syria and libya.

Altough maybe the few million native egyptian christians can be considered to be real "egyptians", since a few centuries ago they still spoke copt (the native langauge of egypt), and still use it as a liturgic langauge, pretty much like catholics before the 60´s or jews before they resurrected hebrew as an every day langauge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_language

Sorry, but nonsense. Coptic is a dead language for over a thousand years now. It is used in the Coptic Church the same way Latin is used in Roman Catholic masses.

BTW, although Coptic was a very late form of ancient Egyptian, it was as far removed from Pharaonic Egyptian as Medieval English is to modern English.

And though modern day Egyptians may be Arabised they are still the same people that lived in ancient Egypt.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Hueij

Sorry, but nonsense. Coptic is a dead language for over a thousand years now. It is used in the Coptic Church the same way Latin is used in Roman Catholic masses.

BTW, although Coptic was a very late form of ancient Egyptian, it was as far removed from Pharaonic Egyptian as Medieval English is to modern English.

And though modern day Egyptians may be Arabised they are still the same people that lived in ancient Egypt.

EH actually, I don't think so... Most of Africa was arabized ethnically I believe. Old Egyptians and native North Africans had a different skin hue (lighter than Arabs). Copts are supposed to descend from them, but I doubt if that's still noticeable nowadays

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Hueij

Sorry, but nonsense. Coptic is a dead language for over a thousand years now. It is used in the Coptic Church the same way Latin is used in Roman Catholic masses.

Latin of course was used for secular cultural purposes right up through the late 17th century (and was THE written language of western europe during the middle ages)

Similarly Hebrew, though often considered a liturgical language, was widely used for purposes ranging from science to romantic poetry in the middle ages, and to a lesser extent, iiuc, in the early modern era, before its revival in the early 19th c by the Haskalah (enlightenment) movement.

I wonder if Coptic was also used for secular purposes while being "dead" even if not for day to day speech.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Traianvs


EH actually, I don't think so... Most of Africa was arabized ethnically I believe. Old Egyptians and native North Africans had a different skin hue (lighter than Arabs). Copts are supposed to descend from them, but I doubt if that's still noticeable nowadays

Old egyptians LIGHTER than arabs? Where did you get that from?

[Ecthy]

Would any of you consider Romans to be an ethnic group? At 100 BC? At 400 AD?

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Old egyptians LIGHTER than arabs? Where did you get that from?

I can't remember. It's just something that got stuck in my mind from way back.

]Would any of you consider Romans to be an ethnic group? At 100 BC? At 400 AD?

Difficult to say because of the many peoples that were imported in Rome. I would be inclined to say no. Perhaps in the earliest stages of its development when it was still insignificant yea, but soon afterwards lots of mixture occured. Then again what means an ethnic group to you...

[Janaki]

I had a friend from Egypt. His had Arabic origins but spoke of the Original Egyptians as a distinct race of people who still existed in Egypt as a distinct race.

Hope that helps...

[Az]

Most of Africa was arabized ethnically I believe.

That's not really true, I believe. The assimilation was at a cultural level, really, although of course, some mixing occured.

[C0ckney]

in east africa, there was an arab migration starting in 8th century, these people became the ruling, commercial and religious elite. initially the africans were forced back into the interior, but over time the populations became mixed. although in many places there are still visible as well as cultural differences, i'm led to believe.

[Heresson]

Originally posted by Janaki
I had a friend from Egypt. His had Arabic origins but spoke of the Original Egyptians as a distinct race of people who still existed in Egypt as a distinct race.

Hope that helps...

He ment Copts

[Ned]

Chinese

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Ned
Chinese

Which ones, there's hundreds of different kinds of Chinese...

[Ned]

Originally posted by Traianvs


Which ones, there's hundreds of different kinds of Chinese...

The different dialetics of Chinese is symptomatic of the culture's age, not its youth.

[One_more_turn]

Speaking of genes, we are all descendants from ~2000 individuals 70000 years ago.

[MOBIUS]

I love this thread...

Everyone shouting "Er, that's wrong..." and "I don't think so!" and then proceeding to waffle off their own BS.

Keep it up, very entertaining!