Adjectives

• Types of Adjectives
• Word Order
• Agreement
• Writing the forms of adjectives
• Nominalized adjectives
• Apparent adjectives
  • The apparent adjective ky
• Degrees of comparison

Adjectives in Egyptian serve the same purpose as in other languages: they describe qualities of nouns. Adjectives can also function as descriptive substitutes for nouns, when context can assist, like the title of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, or the saying “only the good die young.”

Types of Adjectives

Allen (2014) classifies Egyptian adjectives in three categories:

• Primary. There is only one primary adjective, and that is 𓎟 nb “all, each, every”. It is called a “primary adjective” because it is only an adjective and does not also function as a verb, nor is it derived from another word. Note that it is a quantifier or determiner, not so much a descriptor.
• Secondary. Most words used as adjectives in Egyptian are secondary because they are participles of verbs. For example, there is a verb 𓄤𓆑𓂋 nfr “to be good or beautiful” which gives the better-known adjective nfr “good, beautiful”. Think of the phrase 𓊹𓄤 nṯr nfr “good god” as a noun with a participle: “god who is doing the activity of being good”.
• Derived. Other adjectives are made from nouns or prepositions; the most common type of this is called a nisbe (a term from the similar feature in Arabic grammar). Examples include turning the noun 𓊖𓏏𓏤 njwt “city” into the adjective 𓊖𓏏𓏭 njwtj “local”, or turning the preposition 𓈖 n “for” into the genitival adjective n/nw/nt, which is used to form indirect genitive phrases.

Word Order

An adjective always follows and never precedes the noun it modifies; there are no exceptions. The primary adjective, 𓎟 nb “all, each, every”, looks exactly like the noun 𓎟 nb(t) “lord, master”/”lady, mistress”. If you see the word nb before a noun, it must be “lord/lady” and not “all”.

Multiple adjectives can be used on the same noun, all following it: 𓊹𓏤𓎟𓄤𓆑𓂋𓃂‌𓈗 nṯr nb nfr wꜥb “every good and clean god”.

Agreement

An adjective must agree with the noun’s gender and number. But adjectives generally have only three distinct forms, already seen with the genitival adjective: masculine singular (base form); masculine plural (or dual), with a -w ending; and feminine of any number, with a -t ending.

Writing the forms of adjectives

In addition to the –w, a masculine plural adjective is usually written with the three plural strokes 𓏥 as its noun is. (The –w, being weak, is sometimes omitted, but the plural strokes are kept.) Feminine plural adjectives are sometimes written with the plural strokes as well, even though they both have the same ending (-t).

During the Middle Kingdom the forms of the adjective were starting to be “worn down” to just the single form that was used for the masculine singular, and all of the endings (w, t, and plural strokes) start to disappear more and more often.

A dual adjective is rarely seen, but could be written with the two strokes 𓏭 indicating duality.

Nominalized adjectives

Any secondary or derived adjective may be used as a noun. (The primary adjective nb cannot; that’s what makes it primary.) When used as a noun, the adjective declines just like a noun: nfr “good one” (masc.), nfr.t “good one” (fem.), nfr.tj “two good ones” (fem.), etc.

There may be a determinative on a nominalized adjective to indicate what sort of noun it was, since the noun itself was omitted: 𓌌𓏏𓃒 ḥḏt “white (thing)”-feminine–bovine “white cow”.

Nominalized adjectives behave as nouns in pretty much every way. They can take suffix pronouns 𓌌𓏏𓃒𓀀 ḥḏt.j “my white cow”, demonstratives, and so forth; they can be used as the subjects and objects of verbs, in noun phrases, etc.

Apparent adjectives

A few concepts expressed by adjectives in English are not grammatically adjectives in Egyptian, so they behave differently.

Two nouns which have the meaning of English adjectives are ṯnw “each (one)”, used with direct genitive phrases, and nhj “some, little, few”, used with indirect genitive phrases. They do not agree with the nouns they modify in gender or number, but have only one form, since they are singular nouns themselves.

𓍿𓈖𓏌𓅱𓌙𓅯𓆳𓏏𓏤 ṯnw rnpt “each year”
𓈖𓉔𓏭𓅪𓈒𓏥𓈖‌𓂋𓍿𓀀𓁐𓏥 nhj n rmṯ “a few people”

The apparent adjective ky

The most common apparent adjective is 𓎡𓇌 ky, 𓎡𓏏 kt(y), 𓎡𓏭𓅱𓏭 kj.wj “other, another”. This word functions like a noun being used in apposition with other nouns, so it precedes the noun it modifies, unlike a true adjective. The word is spelled interestingly; even in the plural it is often written with dual strokes. It developed from a dual noun in Old Egyptian.

Like other nouns, ky can be used alone to mean “(the) other one”, “another one”. Note that if used this way, the plural form “(the) others” has a special form 𓎡𓏏𓐍𓏏𓏛𓀀𓏪 kt-ḫt or 𓎡𓏏𓐍𓏭𓀀𓁐𓏥 kt-ḫj, formed from kt and ḫt “thing”.

Degrees of comparison

To make a comparison, like “X is better/more beautiful/greater/redder than Y”, the preposition 𓂋 r “with respect to, regarding” is used much as “than” is used in English, but no change is made to the adjective: 𓊹𓂋𓏏𓆗𓄤𓆑𓂋𓏏𓂋𓊹𓂋𓏏𓆗𓋴‌𓈖𓏥 nṯrt nfrt r nṯrt.sn “a more beautiful goddess than their goddess”, literally “a goddess beautiful with respect to their goddess”.

To form the superlative (“biggest/most beautiful/reddest”), a genitive, either direct or indirect, is used: 𓅨𓂋‌𓈖‌𓅨𓂋𓏪 wr n wrw “the greatest of the great” (literally “great one of great ones”), 𓂦𓂋𓂦𓂋𓏪 ḏsr ḏsrw “the holiest of holies” (literally “holy one of holy ones”). Usually superlatives are formed with nominalized adjectives rather than with adjectives that modify nouns.