Inscription

• A decree appears on the stone in three languages: hieroglyphs, demotic and ancient Greek. All three decree inscriptions occur on the same face of the rock, one below the other. This decree was issued by a council of priests as one of a series in relation to 13-year-old Ptolemy V, who had been crowned king. This decree essentially asserted the cult of the young king.
  
  

Translation

• By the 5th century A.D., the use of hieroglyphs had vanished, making the picture-based language indecipherable despite many attempts by scholars throughout ensuing years. An English physicist named Thomas Young was able to decipher the royal name of Ptolemy in the Rosetta Stone's hieroglyphs in the 1800s. From there, French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion determined that the hieroglyphs represented sounds of the Egyptian language, leading to a basis of understanding the ancient language.
  
  

Hieroglyphs

• Hieroglyphs are pictures and symbols used instead of letters and words that are commonly associated with ancient Egypt. This was a method of writing used by kings in Egypt to issue decrees during the time of the pharaohs. By the time Ptolemy V ruled, only priests knew how to write in hieroglyphs. The decree on the stone in hieroglyphs signifies that the priests were in good favor with the king.
  
  

Demotic

• The word demotic comes from a Greek root, meaning "of the people." Demotic script was the native language of the Egyptians at the time and it was used in daily communications. The writing is crafted resembling a cursive style.
  
  

Greek

• Cultural administrators of the time also used the Greek language for communication. Having this language on the stone also aided later scholars in the decree's translation and the ultimate deciphering of the hieroglyphs.