Adverbial Sentences

• Simple form
• jw
• m.k
• nn
• nḥmn
• ḥꜣ
• Subject pronouns
• Special preposition uses
• Interrogatives

An adverbial sentence is a sentence which gives adverbial information about its subject; that is, information expressed by an adverb such as “here” or “there”, or by a prepositional phrase such as “at home” or “next to the tree”. (Recall that prepositional phrases themselves function as adverbs in sentences.)

Simple form

A sentence can be formed simply with a subject followed by a prepositional phrase:

𓇓𓅭𓏏𓁐𓎡‌𓅓𓎡𓇌𓇓‌𓏏𓈖𓉐𓏤 zꜣt-nswt.k m ky pr-nswt
“Your princess is in another castle.”

The prepositional phrase is occasionally put before the subject, but this is less common: m ky pr-nswt zꜣt-nswt.k, for the above example.

A sentence like this can also express a wish or a command, not just a fact. As Allen notes (2014, p. 140), English can do this too: “A plague on both your houses” has no verb. Here is an example from Ptahhotep:

𓁷𓏤𓎡‌𓅓𓌨𓂋‌𓏲‌𓏛𓏥 ḥr.k m ẖrw
“Let your face be down!” (lit. “your face in what-is-downward”)

𓇋𓅱 jw

Usually, however, Middle Egyptian adverbial sentences begin with a particle word, which introduce the sentence and provide some shades of meaning. One of the most widely used particles is jw. When used in this way, jw is followed by the subject, which can be a noun, a demonstrative pronoun, or a personal pronoun in suffix form:

𓇋𓅱‌𓏏𓏐𓏒𓆑‌𓅓𓉐𓏤𓀀 jw t.f m pr.j “his bread is in my house”
𓇋𓅱‌𓀀𓅓𓊹𓉗𓏏𓉐 jw.j m ḥwt-nṯr “I am in the temple”

jw is used in many other grammatical situations besides this. No one has been able to come up with a notional definition of jw that seems to cover all its uses, but it seems to point to the temporary nature of the situation in question. In the bread example above, it adds the distinction that “his bread is in my house now”, in that the bread could be somewhere else. The sentence is not saying that “his bread is permanently or usually in my house.”

Similarly, the temple example above is what I might say if someone called me and I said “Yeah, I’m in the temple right now”. jw would be less correct if the “I” in the sentence was the god whose temple it was, or if I were someone who worked full-time in the temple.

𓅓‌𓂟𓎡‌ m.k

m.k (or mj.k) means “behold”, and is used to point something out or make the listener aware of it. It always has a 2nd person suffix pronoun, for the listener, so it can also be found as m.ṯ (m.t) for a feminine listener, or m.ṯn (m.tn) for plural listeners. It might be translated as “behold”, “hey”, “see”, “look you”, “check it out”, or other such phrases.

The suffix pronoun of m.k matches the listener, not the subject of the statement. The subject, if a pronoun, is the appropriate dependent pronoun. If I were posting to social media and therefore expected multiple listeners, I might say:

𓅓𓂟𓍿𓈖𓏥𓅱‌𓀀𓅓𓆎‌𓅓‌𓏏𓊖 m.ṯn wj m kmt
“See, I’m in Egypt!”

𓅓‌𓂟𓎡‌𓇋𓏠𓈖𓊵𓏏𓊪𓉻𓂝‌𓄿𓈐 m.k jmn-ḥtp ꜥꜣ
“Hey, Amenhotep is here.”

𓂜𓈖 nn

nn negates an adverbial sentence; it comes before the subject but could have m.k or another particle before it.

𓂜𓈖𓅱‌𓀀𓅓𓊹𓉗𓏏𓉐 nn wj m ḥwt-nṯr
“I am not in the temple.”

𓈖𓈟‌𓅓𓂡𓈖 nḥmn

nḥmn is a more emphatic “behold” or “see”, emphasizing the sentence’s truth.

𓈖𓈟‌𓅓𓂡𓈖𓇋𓏠𓈖𓊵𓏏𓊪𓉻𓂝‌𓄿𓈐 nḥmn jmn-ḥtp ꜥꜣ
“Amenhotep is really here.”

𓇉𓄿𓀁 ḥꜣ

ḥꜣ (and its variants 𓇉𓄿𓀁𓄿 ḥꜣ ꜣ, 𓎛𓅱𓏭𓀁𓄿 ḥwj ꜣ) expresses a wish that is not certain to come true.

𓇉𓄿𓀁𓇋𓏠𓈖𓊵𓏏𓊪𓉻𓂝‌𓄿𓈐 ḥꜣ jmn-ḥtp ꜥꜣ
“If only Amenhotep were here.”

Subject Pronouns

A new set of pronouns, the subject pronouns, began to be used in Dynasty 17, as the subject in adverbial sentences. In first and second person, they take the form of 𓏏𓏲‌ tw plus the suffix pronouns. In third person, the normal dependent pronouns were used.

𓏏𓏲‌𓈖𓏥𓅓𓉐𓏤𓀀 tw.n m pr.j
“we are in my house”

Special preposition uses

Egyptian prepositions have nuances of meaning that differ from their usual English translations, which give them additional uses in adverbial sentences.

• 𓅓‌ m “in” can be used to mean “in a function, role, profession, capacity” rather than its usual meaning of “in a location in space”: 𓅓‌𓂟𓎡‌𓅱‌𓀀𓅓𓏞𓀀 m.k wj m zẖꜣw “see, I am a scribe”, lit. “see, I am in a scribe”.
  • “I am a scribe” could have been said with a nominal sentence: jnk zẖꜣw. The distinction seems to be that the nominal sentence is a more permanent identity: I am vocationally a scribe, it’s who I am. The adverbial sentence is a more contingent or temporary situation: “See, right now I’m acting as scribe.”
• 𓈖 n “to, for” can be used to signify ownership: 𓂜𓈖𓇋𓇩𓉐𓏤𓈖𓋾𓈎‌𓄿𓀀 nn jz n ḥqꜣ “The ruler has no tomb”, lit. “A tomb is not for the ruler.” English could use essentially the same form: “There is no tomb for the ruler.”
  • Normally the prepositional phrase (“for” the possessor) follows the subject (the thing which is “for” the possessor). However, if the possessor is a suffix pronoun, this is usually reversed: m.k n.j pr “see, I have a house” (lit. “see, for me a house”).
• 𓂋‌ r “regarding, towards, against” has a variety of uses (see r at the Prepositions article) which can be used in an adverbial sentence.
  • Of note, if the object of r is a destination, the sentence can mean the subject is going toward it: jw.k r ḥwt-nṯr “you are headed toward the temple” (lit. “you are toward the temple”).
  • Or if the object of r is a role or function, much like m can mean the subject is serving in that capacity, r can mean they are going to be serving in that capacity: m.k wj r zẖꜣw “see, I am going to be a scribe”, lit. “see, I am toward a scribe”.

Interrogatives

Finally, interrogative pronouns or adverbs can be used in adverbial sentences to make them into questions: 𓇋𓅱‌𓎡𓂋‌𓇋𓐍𓏛 jw.k r jḫ “so what are you going to be doing?” lit. “so you are towards what?”