Egyptians used hieroglyphic (a symbol system) as a writing system for formal occasions. For accounting and other day-to-day tasks, Egyptians invented a cursive form of hieroglyphics known as hieratic. Hieratic later developed into demotic, a faster and simpler script. Egyptian writings were commonly read aloud.
During the 2nd millennium BCE, the native Egyptian religion came into contact with the Semitic religion of the Canaanite people through the Hyksos and later from Egyptian settlers in Canaan. Through continuous exposure to alphabetic writing among the people of Canaan, Egyptians started to adopt an alphabetic script for writing their own language, thus developing the Old Byblos script of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, which was developed into the Phoenician alphabet. After Egyptian conquest of Canaan by Pharaoh Ahmose I, the Phoenician alphabet was introduced to Egypt and it became popular among Egyptian scribes. Egyptians would later modify the phoenician alphabet to invent their own alphabet known as the Late Egyptian alphabet, which was used till the sixth century CE.