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ANCIENT EGYPTIAN

A linguistic introduction

ANTONIOLOPRIENO

Department ofwar Emtern Languages and Cultures

University of Califarnia, Los Angeh

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY PRESS

(:ON TENTS

- ..

Published by the Press Syndicate ofrhe University ofcambridge

The Pirr Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 I RP

40West 20th Street, NewYork, NY 10011-421 1, USA

10Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3 166, Australia

Prrfacr

Major chronoiopcal divisions of E~ptianhistoty

pap xi

xiv

0 Cambridge Universiry Press 1995

1 The language of Ancient Egypt

I.1 The gcnctic framc

1.2 History of thc Egyptian language

1.3 A brief look at Egyptologicd linguistics

Furtbcr rcdding

First published 1995

A catalogue rccord$r this book is availablcfiom the British Library

Library of Congress catalopinginpublication data

2 Egyptian graphcmiu

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The basic principlcs of hieroglyphic writing

2.3 Connotational devices in rhc hieroglyphic system

2.4 Thc historical development of Egyptian writing

2.5 The end of the system and its rediscovery

Furthcr reading

Loprieno, Antonio.

Ancient Egyptian: a linguistic introduction I Antonio Loprieno

p. cm.

lncludes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0 521 44384 9 (hardback) lSBN 0 521 44849 2 (~a~erback)

1. Egyptian language. I. Title.

PJI 111.L66 1996

493'. 1 - dc20

3 Egyptian phonology

3.1 lnrroduction

3.2 Heuristic criteria

3.3 The prehistory of Egyptian phonology

3.4 The phonological system of earlier Egyptian

3.4.1 Consonants

3.4.2 Vowclr

3.4.3 Syllabic structures

ISBN 0 521 44384 9 hardback

ISBN 0 521 44849 2 paperback

Transferred to digital printing 2004

3.5

The phonological system of later Egyprian

3.5.1 Consonants

3.5.2 Vowrls

3.5.3 Syllabic structurrs

'l'he phonological system oC (:oprlL

3.6.

l C..onronantr

5.62 Vou,r/~

5.6

Existential scntcnccs and rcmporal-modal fcaturcs

122

5.7 Ncgativc patrcrns

125

5.8 Nominal scntcnccs In latcr L;.gypt~an

131

4 Elements of historical morphology

4.1 lntroducrion

4.2 Root, stcm, word

4.3 Nominal morphology

4.3.1 Grnrral featurer

4.3.2 Compound nounr

4.3.3 Thefeminine

4.3.4 Plural and dual

4.3.5 Feminine andplural in later E~ptian

4.4 Pronouns

4.4.1 Personal pronouns

44.2 Personal pronouns in later Egptian

4.4.3 Deictic, intrrrogative, and relative pronouns

4.5 Numerals

4.6 The verb

4.6.1 Introduction

4.62 General fratures of verbal morpholo~

4.63 Verbal morphology in earlier Egyptian

4.64 Non-jinite vcrbal$nns

4.65 Negative verbal$nns

4.6 6 Verbal morphology in later Egyptian

4.7 Prepositions, conjunctions, particles

Further reading

142

6 Adverbial and pseudoverbal syntax

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Advcrbial and pscudovcrbal pattcrns

6.3 Advcrbial conversions

6.3.1 Adverbial clauses

63.2 Adverbial phrases

6.3.3 Converted us. unconverted relative claust~

6.4 Initial vs. non-initid clauses

64.1 Generalfiatures

64.2 The proclitic particles jw and mk

6.5 Negation in advcrbial and pseudoverbal patterns

6.5.1 Negation in adverbial and pseudoverbal srntences

6 5.2 Negation ofadvrrbialphrases

6.6 Advcrbial sentences in later Egyptian

6.61 The Present I and its conversions

6.62 Thefate of pseudoverbal patterm

6.6.3 Main vs. subordinate clauses

6.7 Later Egyptian negative patterns

Furthrr reading

5 Nominal syntax

5.1

Introduction

7 Verbal syntax

7.1 Introduction

7.2 The indcpendcnt vcrbal scntcncc

7.3 Initial vs. non-initial main clauscs

7.4 Verbal clauscs embedded as advcrbial ~hrascs

7.5 The verbal scntcncc with topicalizcd

7.5.1 Grnrral charactrri1tir.~

7 5.2 7bpir.ulizrd v1. ~dr~erbralizrd

5.2

Bipartite vs. tripartite pattcrns

5.2.1 Ckzssr&ing and idmtt&ing patterns

5.2.2 Sprcr&ing patterns

5.3

Entire clauses as predicate ofpw : "thctic" statcmcnts

5.4

Sentences with adjccrival predicate and cleft scntcnccs

5.4.1 Quulr&ing pattrrnr

5 4.2 iArntr&ing (clefi) sentencer

verbal forms

5.5

Posscssivc and interrogative pattcrns

5 5. 1 I'or1rsrivr constructions

5.5.2 Intrrrogntivr ronrtrurtionr

7.5..3 7hr "halnnrrd" rrnrrncr

7.5 4 Othrr fbrn/;zinR urrr of'rhr topicalized Vf'

7. Vr1l1.1lclair\r, ernbcdded as noun phrases

, (:onvertcJ rclat~vc clauscs

7,71 C~'rnrra1fraturrr

7 ".2 Rrhtrur conurrsron of agrntlrsr rrntcncrr

7.8 Ncgation in vcrbal clauscs

7.8.I contradict^^ nrgation inmain urrbal rhurps

7.8.2 Modal nrgation

7 8.3 Contrary nrgation in urrbal clausrs

7.8.4 Negation of vcrbal predicatrs rmbrddrd as A P

Z 8.5 Ncgation of vrrbal prrdicatrs rmbrddrd as NP

7.8.6 Negation of a4rctival conurrsiom

This book is neither a grammar of Ancient Egyptian for Egyptologists nor a

handbook for the study of hieroglyphs. Rather, it has been written aiming at

the needs of a multiplicity of audiences. To use a fashionable word, I wanted

to address the interdisciplinary interests of linguists and Egyptologists. In

order to achieve this result, I had to resort to sometimes quite diverse

methodological frames and scholarly conventions, which have been and are at

best indifferent to each other, and at times even in overt conflict. On the one

hand, the main goal of the book is to provide the linguistic audience with an

introduction to the historical grammar of Ancient Egyptian, one of the

oldest and longest documented languages of mankind: from its oldest (Old

Egyptian) to its most recent phase (Coptic), Ancient Egyptian remained in

productive written use for more than four millennia - from about 3000

BCE to the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the book also tries to reach the

numerically much smaller public of Egyptologists interested in lingi~istic

issues, i.e. my own professional milieu, offering a global presentation of the

language from a structural as well as historical point of view.

Traditionally, the study of Ancient Egyptian has been the monopoly of

the latter group of scholars, who operate within the discipline called "Egyp-

tology." In this field of scholarship, the study of the language is necessarily

rooted in philology and has been mainly pursued with the aim of editing or

translating Egyptian and Coptic texts. The handbooks for the academic and

individual study of Egyptian, first and foremost Alan H. Gardiner, Egyptian

Grammar (Oxford University Press, third edn 1957), share the assumption

that potential readers are Egyptologists interested primarily in acquiring the

philological tools needed for their professional encounter with Ancient

Egypt: Gardiner's grammar bears the appropriate, although certainly modest

subtitle Being an Introduction to the Study of Hferoglyphs. While much work

has been done since then in Egyptian grammar and some of the theoretical

foundations of Gardiner's approach to Egyptian have been shakcn if not

damaged, a linguist interested in the strategies adopted by F.gyptian as a

languagc will expcrience some distress in finding the answers to his or her

queries in modern secondary literature.

7.9

Vcrbal syncax in laccr Egyptian

7.9.1 Grnrral fcaturrs

7.9.2 Initial vcrbal clausrs andparatawir

7.9.3 Non-initial vrrbal clausrs and hypotavfi

Z 9.4 Drprndrnt clausrs and subordination

7.9.5 From embedding to convrrsion

Further reading

Epiloguc

Notes

Rrfrrcnrrs

Indm ofpar~age~

Index of motphcme~

Index of lexema

Indix of topics

'1 his distress IS not due to a lack of linguisric sophistication among Egypt-

ologists; on the contrary, the presence of Egyptological linguistics as one ot

the most vital components of the field of Egyptology is one of the reasons

for my trying to make its discoveries available to other linguists. But I doubt

that the work of the more linguistically inclined Egyptologists has been or is

adequately noticed by professional linguists. For one, scholars of Egyptian

linguistics tend to follow the conventions of the broader field of Egyptology

in terms of attitudes to transliteration (just to quote an example: for a

variety of reasons, there still is no universally accepted system for the pho-

netic rendition of Egyptian) and translations (which address the semantic,

rather than the grammatical sphere, interlinear translations being discour-

aged or unknown). Secondly, over the last decades we have preferred to

engage in a dialog among ourselves rather than with the broader audience of

comparative and general linguists, and we have developed conceptual and

terminological conventions that often appear opaque, if not downright

incomprehensible to the non-initiated. This is due in part to the specific

methodological frame adopted by modern students of Egyptian, the so-called

"Standard theory," in part to the ignorance of Egyptian among linguists.

Only recently, thanks to a new generation of Egyptologists also trained in

linguistics, has there been a shift towards an increased interest in theoretical

issues. The present work is a product of this change of perspectives within my

own scholarly community: although I have tried to explain unusual terms

when they appear for the first time, a certain familiarity with linguistic

terminology is expected from the Egyptological readership of the book; as for

general linguists, while no previous Egyptological knowledge is required, I

expect them to devote particular attention to the introduction and to the

chapter on graphemics, where basic preliminaries on chronology, typology,

and notational conventions of Egyptian are discussed at some length.

The concept of "Ancient Egyptian" is taken throughout this book in its

broader scope to comprise all the stages of the language from Old Egyptian

to Coptic. While focusing on Old and Middle Egyptian, i.e. on the language

of classical literature, the analysis proceeds diachronically to investigate the

main features of Late Egyptian and Coptic, especially when this evolution

displays changes which attract the linguist's attention. In essence, I have tried

to present synchronical sketches of the main properties of classical Egyptian,

Late Egyptian, and Coptic and to consitler the mechanisms of linguistic

change inherent in the history of the Egyptian language.

Although philological and not interlinear, the translation of Egyptian

and Coptic passages providcs in parcnthcsc enough incormation Tor rhc

to allow them to recognize all rhc elcn~cnts ol the morpho-

syntactic 3.5 well as lexical structure of the sentence. Mosr Egyptian texts arc

rcfcrred to according to the Egyptological conventions as established in the

Lexikon der Agyptologie (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1975 1 386), in short LA;

only less comn~onl~

quoted texts are accompanied by a reference to their

edition. Notes, bibliography and indices try to blend the expectations of the

two potential readerships for which the book is intended. In the notes, whose

number had to be limited to an acceptable minimum, books and articles are

usually referred to in short title; the reference in full detail, however, is given

both at first mention and in the bibliography at the end of the volume.

While abbreviations are used in the notes, I have tried to avoid them in the

final bibliography; for the most common ones, the reader is referred to the

list provided in vols. I and IV of the LA. In the notes, I often mention only

the more recent treatments of a particular topic, even if the interpretation

offered by the authors differs from mine; this is the reason for the relative

paucity of references to older secondary literature. Modern treatments, how-

ever, usually contain abundant references to previous studies as well. The

index of Egyptian and Coptic passages and of Egyptian grammatical words is

intended mainly for the Egyptological audience, whereas the register of

topics is conceived with a linguistic public in mind.

I would like to mention and thank those friends and colleagues who in

different ways have participated in the completion of this book: first and

foremost Wolfgang Schenkel, who followed its development with particular

attention and saved me from many inaccuracies, Bernard Comrie, who acted

as a careful and inspiring linguistic reader, and Gerald Moers, who provided

invaluable help in the preparation of the indices; further Heike Behlmer,

Mark Collier, Andrea M. Gnirs, Orly Goldwasser, Sarah I. Groll, Friedrich

lunge, Frank Kammerzell, Aldo Piccato, Dana M. Reemes, Deborah

Sweeney, and Thomas Ritter for fruitful deb~tesand assistance; and finally

Judith Ayling, Hilary Gaskin, and Ann Rex of Cambridge University Press

for guiding me in editorial matters. The book was written in part during a

sabbatical year funded by a University of California President's Fellowship in

the Humanities (1993-94): 1 would like to acknowledge with sincere thanks

the help and generosity of the Office of the President for providing me with

ideal rebearch conditions.

Thi\ book is dedicated to my wonderhll ~iat~~hter

Victoria, who is more

ofrcn than I can bear away from rny eyes, 1~11

alw;ly\ closest to my hrart.

nr,~~-s~~cIalIsts

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