The Early Demotic is a writing system used in ancient Egypt between the late 7th century BCE and the 5th century BCE. It is also known as “Enchorial” script, which means “the language of the people.” The early Demotic script was mainly used for administrative purposes, legal documents, and literary texts, including medical and religious texts. The early Demotic script evolved from the earlier hieratic script, which was used primarily by scribes to record religious and administrative texts. script was developed to make writing more accessible to the wider population, particularly those who were not trained in hieroglyphs or hieratic. The early script is based on the Egyptian language, and its characters are a mix of hieroglyphic, hieratic, and abstract symbols. The script was written from right to left, with the text arranged in horizontal lines. Unlike hieroglyphs, it does not use phonetic values of individual signs, but rather a mix of phonograms and logograms. The early it was widely used during the Late Period of Ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic period when Greek influence in Egypt was significant. As a result, Demotic script eventually gave way to the use of Greek and the Coptic alphabet, the latter being a modified version of the Greek alphabet, in the later periods of ancient Egyptian history. Overall, it played a significant role in the development of written communication in ancient Egypt, providing an accessible form of writing for the wider population and contributing to the preservation of a rich body of literature and cultural heritage.

Late Roman Demotic refers to a form that was used during the Roman period of ancient Egypt, around the 1st to 4th centuries CE. This period saw significant changes in the use of the Demotic script, as well as the introduction of new writing systems such as Greek and Coptic. Late Roman Demotic differed from the early Demotic script in several ways. Firstly, it was heavily influenced by Greek writing, and many of its symbols and characters were borrowed from the Greek alphabet. Secondly, Late Roman was used more for personal and literary texts, rather than administrative or legal documents as in the earlier form of Demotic script. One of the most significant examples of Late Roman script is the Gospel of Judas, a Gnostic text written in Coptic using Demotic characters. The manuscript, which was discovered in Egypt in the 1970s, dates back to the 4th century CE and is believed to have been composed in Demotic before being translated into Coptic. Late Roman Demotic continued to be used in Egypt until the 5th century CE when it was eventually replaced by the Coptic script. Despite its relatively short lifespan, Late Roman Demotic played an important role in the cultural and literary history of ancient Egypt and its contribution to the development of the Coptic script.