You're too quick to claim proof when there is none. The cuneiform letter
you refer to dates to the 18th dynasty, i.e. 14th century BC. "Apries"
dates to time of Herodotus, i.e., 5th century BC. That's nine centuries
between them; no living language doesn't undergo phonetic changes in that
time period, especially vowels. We know the end point of Egyptian rˁ was
Coptic ΡΗ/re, and Coptic is closer in time to Herodotus than the 18th
dynasty. I would say it's highly *unlikely* that rˁ was still pronounced
riˁa at that time.
William Parsons***
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