Nouns

• Roots
• Definiteness
• Gender
• Number
• Declension
• How to write the Dual and Plural
• Exceptions

Roots

The root of a noun is the part of the noun that all other forms are derived from. For example, the root nṯr carries the concept of “divinity” and gives 𓊹𓏤 nṯr “god”, 𓊹𓂋𓏏𓆗 nṯr.t “goddess”, 𓊹𓂋𓏏𓅱𓏭 nṯr.wj “two gods”, etc.

Definiteness

Written Middle Egyptian had neither definite nor indefinite articles, so zꜣ could be translated as “son”, “a son”, or “the son” depending on the context.

Gender

Egyptian has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. With very few exceptions (see Exceptions below), a noun’s gender is easily determined: if the singular form ends in a 𓏏t, it’s feminine; if not, it’s masculine.

Usually the masculine form is just the root, like 𓌢𓈖𓀀 sn “brother”, but some masculine nouns have -j or -w added to their root: 𓎛𓆑𓄫𓅱𓆚 ḥfꜣ.w “snake”. Those consonants are weak, so they don’t always appear in the writing: 𓎛𓆑𓄫𓆚 ḥfꜣ(.w).

The feminine is always found by adding a -t to the root, not to the extra -w or -j if there is one. So the feminine sn is sn.t, but the feminine of ḥfꜣ.w is ḥfꜣ.t.

Egyptologists are not consistent about writing dots between noun roots and their endings. Therefore we will not write the dot in ḥfꜣ.w every time the word is used in these lessons, but only when it’s relevant to the present topic. If that becomes more standard practice in future, we’ll try to update these lessons when we can.

Number

Egyptian has singular and plural, but it also has dual, for when there are exactly two of the noun. The dual form was already becoming archaic by the Middle Kingdom, so it is not seen in every part of speech. Most types of pronouns don’t have a dual form, and the plural is used for two things as well as for more than two. A few nouns had dual forms which continued to be used until the latest periods: 𓇾𓇾 tꜣ.wj “The Two Lands” (Egypt) is perhaps the most common.

Declension

For masculine nouns: add -w to the singular to form the plural, or add -wj to the singular to form the dual.

For feminine nouns: start with the singular and add -w before the feminine ending -t to form the plural; the dual is formed by changing the -t of the singular to -tj.

These rules still apply even to singular masculines ending in -w or singular feminines ending in -w.t, even though this results in two consecutive w sounds in the plural or masculine dual. The plural of mjw.t is mjw.wt and its dual mjw.tj; the plural of ḥfꜣ.w is ḥfꜣw.w and its dual is ḥfꜣw.wj.

How to write the dual and plural

The -w of plurality is weak, so it is often omitted in writing. But usually there will still be a group of three strokes after the word, which can be written in several ways, depending on which suits the artist and fits with the other glyphs in the text: 𓏥, 𓏪, 𓏫, 𓏦, 𓏨 . All of these indicate that the word is a plural, even if the -w is omitted.

An older way to show plurality was to write three copies of the determinative, in words which had one: 𓌢‌𓈖𓏏𓁐𓁐𓁐 sn.wt “sisters”. The only plural that really continues to be written that way in Middle Egyptian (outside of some religious texts) is 𓊹𓊹𓊹 nṯr.w “gods”.

For the dual, 𓏲𓏭 -wj or 𓏏𓏭 -tj were usually used, though tj could use the pestle biliteral as well: 𓍘 or 𓍘𓇋. Using two determinatives for the dual was more common in Middle Egyptian than using three for the plural was: 𓌢𓈖𓏏𓏭𓁐𓁐 sn.tj “two sisters”.

Exceptions

There are very few nouns which break the normal -t rule for determining masculine and feminine, and only one that I know of with an irregular plural. This is not necessarily an exhaustive list but these are the most common ones.

• 𓆱𓏏𓏤 ḫt “wood, stick, tree, timbers” is masculine; the t is part of the root, so its plural and dual would be ḫt.w, ḫt.wj.
• 𓐍𓏏𓏛 ḫt derives from earlier 𓇋𓐍𓏏 jḫt. It can mean “thing, goods, property” and is feminine (jḫ.t, jḫ.wt, jḫ.tj) when it does, but it can also mean the indefinite “something, anything”, and when it does, it is masculine (jḫt, jḫt.w, jḫt.wj).
• 𓇓‌𓏏𓈖 nswt “king” is irregular in several ways:
  • It is masculine, despite the t.
  • Allen says there are no exceptions to the rules for plurals (Allen 2014, p.45), but the plural of nswt appears in the Westcar Papyrus (Westc. 12,11 to 12,12; Blackman 1988, p. 16), in the story about Reddjudet, who is mother to three kings, as 𓇓‌𓏏𓈖𓇌𓏲𓅆𓏪 nsyw. As for the dual, I’ve not found a reference to it in the sources I’ve checked, so perhaps it is unattested (but always remember my disclaimer!)
  • Several possible reasons for its irregularity have been suggested: that it comes from a phrase nj sw.t “owner of the sedge” (e.g. Allen 2014, p. 52), since the sedge plant symbolizes Upper Egypt, or that it is related to a Sumerian word ensi(k) for “ruler” (Peust 2007).
  • The sedge sw.t is written before the n presumably as honorific transposition, since it represents Upper Egypt (and the king themselves).