Pre-Late Egyptian Reconstruction

Contained in the following articles are some of my notes of the Ancient Egyptian verbal system as well as research on other pertinent grammatical information and vocalizations I've gathered while studying. At times information may deviate from the original theory proposed by the Egyptian scholar. Furthermore this is a hypothetical reconstruction of the ancient Egyptian verbal system which is heavily disputed among scholars with difference of opinion in all areas. As such the information is to further assist the reader in studying the Egyptian language and is solely used for educational purposes.

Transliteration

The system of transliteration used in these articles to decipher Egyptian spelling will be that of the European system. Below is the list of letters in the order used for dictionaries (direction of reading top to bottom):

{| class="wikitable"

|- | ɜ (ꜣ , Ꜣ) || r || g |- | j || h || t |- | y || ḥ || t |- | ꜥ || ḫ || d |- | w || h || d |- | b || z || |- | p || s || |- | f || š || |- | m || q (ḳ) || |- | n || k || |}

And here are the extra Demotic signs used:
{| class="wikitable"

|- | h̭ || ṱ || e || l |}
The term 'Egyptian' used in the following articles represents the Ancient Egyptian Language (specifically the Sahidic and Bohairic dialects) in all their phases but most specifically to Old Egyptian through into Middle Egyptian; when referring to a specific phase or dialect of the language a notation or an abbreviation from the list below will be added:

Abbreviations

Copt - Coptic

  • when superscripted next to a Coptic word [e.g: ⲢⲰⲘⲈCopt - man] signifies either most dialects have identical spellings or the term is being identified as belonging to the Coptic language.
  • if a Coptic word has no superscripted abbreviation next to it [e.g: ⲢⲰⲘⲈ] then the term is in general use with no need to indicate a source dialect.

O - Old Coptic
S - Sahidic Dialect
SA - Sahidic with Achmimic tendency; mostly Theben.
SF - Sahidic with Fayyumic tendency
B - Bohairic Dialect
F - Fayyumic Dialect
FB - Fayyumic with Bohairic tendency
A - Achmimic Dialect
A2 - Subachmimic Dialect (Asyutic)
L - Lycopolitean Dialect

OEg - Old Egyptian (language)
MEg - Middle Egyptian (language)
LEg - Late Egyptian (language)
Dem - Demotic (language)

OK - Old Kingdom
MK - Middle Kingdom
NK - New Kingdom
LP - Late Period
FIP - 1st Intermediate Period
SIP - 2nd Intermediate Period
TIP - 3rd Intermediate Period
UE - Upper Egypt
LE - Lower Egypt
EA - El Amarna
Pyr - Pyramid texts
CT - Coffin texts
BD - Book of the Dead

PAA - Proto-Afro-Asiatic language

Orthography

When giving examples of Pre-Late Egyptian and hieroglyphic words [separate from those of the respected author or scholar]; e.g,

prt sm - the emerging of the sm-priest

The transliteration spelling will be used along with the reconstructed internal vowels:

prt sm => párat-săm - the emerging of the sm-priest

Below is a table of the orthographically rendered vowels which mirror the Semitic-centric three vowel inventory |a-i-u|:

Legend For Stress and Vowel Length[1]
{| class="wikitable"

|- ! stressed
long vowel !! stressed
short vowel !! short
secondary stressed
vowel[2][3] !! unstressed
short vowel |- | ā || ă || á || a |- | ī || ĭ || í || i |- | ū || ǔ || ú || u |- | ō || ŏ || ó || o |- | ē || ĕ || é || e |}

For pronunciation rules go here.

Even though I will be taking a majority of the vocalization formulas from J. Osing[4] and W. Schnekel[5] [and others] when citing examples taken from Coptic words I will generally follow vowel length based upon the Coptic spelling and when deviating away from the formulas a notation will be added.

ωcopt ~ ā ... Ocopt ~ ǎ ... Acopt ~ ǎ or ǐ sometimes ŭ ... Icopt ~ ī,ǐ or ū,ǔ sometimes ǎ... Ecopt ~ ī,ā, or ū ... Hcopt ~ ǔ,ǐ or ǎ [6] [7]
  • Sometimes syllabic letters will be used in renditions, especially for prepositions and conjunctions[8]:

n̩ , m̩ , ect.

  • Sometimes the schwa vowel |ə - ə| will be used.

Intro

The analysis of the Egyptian verb and all its forms and meanings are constantly evolving- for this reason Egyptologists have not properly categorized the verbal system nor has there been a consistent name for each of the forms. We will encounter terminology used by the Egyptologist - if needed a definition will be added if the term or phrase deviates away from common linguistic knowledge. Arbitrarily there may be more than one term or phrase, definition or idea, depending on difference of opinion. At times this may contradict "The Standard Theory" of Egyptian grammar as believed by the Egyptologist and scholar, but nonetheless the information is just as valuable and may further assist us in the understanding of the Egyptian verb.

A wealth of the information contained in these articles come from books, websites, glossaries, and other sources- when necessary they will be cited out of respect to the author ... and other information is generally accepted knowledge within Egyptian studies I acquired through self-study which have not been cited unless otherwise requested. Coptic words are mostly taken from Crumm's dictionary unless otherwise specified. I recommend anyone else to edit, add new information and opine. Enjoy =)

List of Articles

Structure of Egyptian Verb - information on Egyptian roots and stems.
Egyptian Pronunciation - general pronunciation information used by the experts
Intro to Verb Classifications
Templatic Class I - AaBaC Paradigm + The Infinitive
The Perfect Active Participle - Templatic Class II
  1. ↑ Typical diacritic marks will be used to assist in recreation of Egyptian sounds: http://www.phonicsontheweb.com/diacritical-marks.php
  2. ↑ This is a marking of Pre-Coptic unstressed vowels in lieu of the original stressed vowel used in the Coptic Construct and Pronominal forms.
  3. ↑ In Egyptian unstressed vowels are always short and there would be no need to indicate diacritics unless secondary stressed. Unstressed vowels even in the older language may have always been reduced in speech to a schwa or an e or i sound. In some cases other vowels may be used with the same accent marks above to indicate stressed long vs short qualities. Vowel length is always debatable.
  4. ↑ Osing, Jürgen 1976. Die Nominalbildung des Ägyptischen.
  5. ↑ Schenkel, Wolfgang 1983. Zur Rekonstruktion der deverbalen Nominalbildung des Ägyptischen.
  6. ↑ Loprieno, Antonio. Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction pg 46-48
  7. ↑ Allen, James P. The Ancient Egyptian Language pg 24-26
  8. ↑ IPA format will be used: syllabic consonant.
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