This volume serves as a thorough and authoritative introduction to the "classical" phase of the ancient Egyptian language and its writing systems, known by convention as Middle Egyptian. It includes sixteen chapters with practice exercises, which offer detailed discussions of the conventional hieroglyphic script, syntax and grammar, as well as overviews of diachronic change, the hieratic script, and nonstandard hieroglyphic orthographies (so-called cryptography). In addition, the volume includes an answer key to the even-numbered exercises, as well as a series of appendices, featuring an extensive glossary of particles, numerous paradigmatic charts, and a robust sign list.