Later possessive pronouns
The -๊ฃ demonstratives eventually turned into the definite article, but they then became the root for a set of possessive pronouns, formed with the suffix pronouns going on the demonstrative instead of the possessed noun. The demonstrative often has the ending ๐ y in these forms.
| Gender and number of noun | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine singular | ๐
ฎ๐ฟ p๊ฃ or ๐
ฎ๐ p๊ฃy + suffix pronoun | p๊ฃy.sn jtj “their father” (older jtj.sn) |
| Feminine singular | ๐โ๐ฟ t๊ฃ or ๐๐ t๊ฃy + suffix pronoun | t๊ฃ.f nb.t “his mistress” (older nb.t.f) |
| Plural of either gender | ๐๐ฟ n๊ฃ or ๐๐ n๊ฃy + suffix pronoun + linking ๐ n | n๊ฃ.n n nswt “our king” (older nswt.n) |
The gender and number distinctions remained the same as when they were pure demonstratives. Note that the plural/neutral form still uses the indirect genitive n between the possessed pronoun and the noun, as when it was a pure demonstrative.
But note that the gender of the demonstrative and the gender of the suffix pronoun may differ; the demonstrative matches the noun described, while the suffix pronoun matches the “possessor”. In t๊ฃ.f nb.t “his mistress”; the demonstrative is t๊ฃ– and not p๊ฃ- because “mistress” is feminine; but the suffix pronoun is .f because it’s “his” mistress, not “her” mistress (which would be t๊ฃ.s nb.t).
Interrogative pronouns
Middle Egyptian has several interrogative pronouns, each with its own usage.
- ๐๐
or ๐
mj “who(m), what”
This turns a statement into a question by taking a place that a dependent pronoun could take:
mrj.s tw “she loves you”
mrj.s mj “she loves whom?” - ๐ช๐๐๐ต๐ ptr or ๐ช๐๐ญ๐ต๐, ๐ช๐๐ต๐ ptj “who, what”
This takes the place of the independent pronouns:
jnk jtj.f “I am his father”
ptr jtj.f “who is his father?” - ๐๐๐ jแธซ “what”
This is used sometimes where a dependent pronoun could be, instead of mj, if the question is about things rather than persons (humans or gods):
mrj.f แธซt “he wants something”
mrj.f jแธซ “he wants what?” - ๐๐ฑ๐๐ jลกst “what”
More common form of jแธซ. Like jแธซ this is used only about things and not persons, but it can be used at the start of a sentence as well, to match the independent pronouns as well as the dependent ones. - ๐๐, ๐๐ญ๐ , or ๐ zy/zj, “which (one)”, can be used by itself or with a noun; if used with a noun, it goes first: zy nแนฏrt “which goddess?”
Later possessives (“possessed”; used before nouns)
| Gender and number of noun | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine singular | ๐ ฎ๐ฟ p๊ฃ or ๐ ฎ๐ p๊ฃy + suffix pronoun | p๊ฃy.sn jtj “their father” |
| Feminine singular | ๐โ๐ฟ t๊ฃ or ๐๐ t๊ฃy + suffix pronoun | t๊ฃ.f nbt “his mistress” |
| Plural of either gender | ๐๐ฟ n๊ฃ or ๐๐ n๊ฃy + suffix pronoun + genitive ๐ n | n๊ฃ.n n nswt “our king” |
Interrogatives
| Pronoun | Meaning | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| ๐๐ or ๐ mj | who(m), what | matches dependent pronouns |
| ๐ช๐๐๐ต๐ ptr or ๐ช๐๐ญ๐ต๐ or ๐ช๐๐ต๐ ptj | who(m), what | matches independent pronouns |
| ๐๐๐ jแธซ | what | matches dependent pronouns; only used for things |
| ๐๐ฑ๐๐ jลกst | what | matches dependent or independent pronouns; only used for things |
| ๐๐, ๐๐ญ๐, ๐ zy/zj | which (one) | can be used alone, or in genitive phrase with noun |
Summary of noun declension
This table summarizes the declension of nouns. In literature about grammar (across languages, not just Egyptian), the “declension” of a noun or adjective is the set of changes it makes to indicate its gender, number, or role in a sentence. Nouns and adjectives have “declensions”; verbs have “conjugations“; collectively, they are all “inflections.”
| Gender | Singular | Plural | Dual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | root (most nouns) root + w (some nouns) root + j (some other nouns) | singular + w | singular + wj |
| Feminine | root + t | root + wt | root + tj |
- ๐๐ณ๐ด (later ๐๐ณ๐) แธs “self”
- ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ญ r๊ค (r๊คw) Ra or Re (god of the sun)
- ๐๐ แธฅm “servant” var. ๐๐ฒ๐ แธฅmw
- gghghjghj
- ๐๐๐ แธฅmt “female servant”
- ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐๐ ๐ก แนฏzm “dog” (greyhound, sighthound)
- ๐ง๐ฐ๐๐ฐ๐๐
dลกr “red”
- The determinative (also used as a triliteral; see dลกrt below) depicts a flamingo, which the Egyptians interpreted as red.
- ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฐ๐ dลกrt “desert” (lit. “red land”)
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.
- ๐ฑ๐๐ค แธซt “wood, stick, tree, timbers” is masculine; the t is part of the root, so its plural and dual would be แธซt.w, แธซt.wj.
- ๐๐๐ แธซt derives from earlier ๐๐๐ jแธซt. It can mean “thing, goods, property” and is feminine (jแธซ.t, jแธซ.wt, jแธซ.tj) when it does, but it can also mean the indefinite “something, anything”, and when it does, it is masculine (jแธซt, jแธซt.w, jแธซt.wj).
- ๐โ๐๐ 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 ๐โ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ช 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).
Examples and exceptions
| Type of noun | Singular | Plural | Dual | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine (typical) | ๐ ญ๐ค z๊ฃ | ๐ ญ๐ค๐ช z๊ฃ.w | ๐ ญ๐ค๐ฒ๐ญ z๊ฃ.wj | son(s) |
| Masculine with singular in -j | ๐๐๐๐ แธซft.j | ๐๐๐๐๐ช แธซftj.w | ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ญ แธซftj.wj | enemy(ies) |
| Masculine with singular in -w | ๐๐ zแบ๊ฃ.w | ๐๐๐ช zแบ๊ฃw.w | ๐๐๐ฒ๐ญ zแบ๊ฃw.wj | scribe(s) |
| Feminine (typical) | ๐น๐๐๐ nแนฏr.t | ๐น๐ฒ๐๐๐ช nแนฏr.wt | ๐น๐๐ญ๐ nแนฏr.tj | goddess(es) |
| Feminine with singular in -w.t | ๐ ๐๐ mjw.t | ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ช mjw.wt | ๐ โ๐๐ญ๐ mjw.tj | mother(s) |
| “wood” (m.) | ๐ฑ๐๐ค แธซt | ๐ฑ๐๐ช แธซt.w | ๐ฑ๐๐ฒ๐ญ แธซt.wj | wood(s), tree(s), stick(s) |
| “thing” (f.) | ๐๐๐ (j)แธซ.t | ๐๐๐๐ฅ (j)แธซ.wt | ๐๐๐ญ๐ (j)แธซ.tj | thing(s), good(s), item(s) |
| “something” (m.) | ๐๐๐ (j)แธซt | ๐๐๐๐ฅ (j)แธซt.w | ๐๐โ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ (j)แธซt.wj | something |
| “king” (an Egyptian) (m.) | ๐โ๐๐ nswt | ๐โ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ช nsyw? | ? | king (of Egypt, or its gods) |
When I ask you to write the uniliterals for a transliteration, I will note alternate glyph options for those glyphs which have alternates, but it should be kept in mind that the much more usual glyphs are the ones I provide first. (Consider it bonus points if you know the alternative forms as well as the standard forms.)
1: Write ๊ฅnแธซ in uniliterals.
Answer
๐๐๐ (alternative: ๐๐๐)
2: Transliterate ๐๐๐ฐ๐ญ.
Answer
jrj or jry
3: Write ๊ฃpd in uniliterals.
Answer
๐ฟ๐ช๐ง
4: Transliterate ๐ด๐ผ๐ฐ๐๐.
Answer
sgrแธฅ
5: Write mwtf in uniliterals.
Answer
๐ ๐ ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ (alternative: ๐๐ฒ๐๐, or you could replace just the m or just the w)
6. Transliterate ๐ก๐.
Answer
ky
7. Write zแบ๊ฃw in uniliterals.
Answer
๐๐ก๐ฟ๐ ฑ (alternative: ๐๐ก๐ฟ๐ฒ)
8. Transliterate ๐๐๐.
Answer
qbb
9. Write แธn in uniliterals.
Answer
๐๐
10. Transliterate ๐ ๐๐ฟ.
Answer
mnแนฏ
11. Write ลกhb in uniliterals.
Answer
๐๐๐
| ๐ | ๊ฅลก๊ฃ | Lizard | “many”-ness |
| ๐ | m๊ฃ๊ฅ | Platform for statue | truth, rightness |
| ๐ | w๊ฃb | Leg supporting water jug | clean, pure |
| ๐ต | แธฅtp | Table with offering on it | offering, satisfaction |
| ๐ | sแธm | Cow’s ear | hear, listen |
| ๐ฃ | แธซpr | Scarab beetle | form, change, evolve |
| ๐ค | nfr | Heart and windpipe | beauty, goodness |
| ๐น | nแนฏr | Flag or banner on pole | deity, divine |
| ๐น | ๊ฅnแธซ | Ankh; probably a sandal strap | life |
| ๐ | แธฅ๊ฃt | Front half of a lion | frontalness, precedence |
| ๐ค | bjt | Bee | bees, honey |
| ๐ | mwt | Vulture | motherhood |
Multiple signs and multiple readings
There are a few multiliteral signs which may have more than one reading in different words. This is unfortunately just something you have to get accustomed to, but it’s a situation in which the phonetic complements can seriously help!
One big example is the “chisel” sign ๐ , which in some words represents ๊ฃb, but in others it represents mr. The Egyptian name for the city of Abydos was ๐๐๐๐ฐ๐, ๊ฃbแธw, and the “foot” uniliteral shows you that the chisel ends in -b. But a word for “illness” was ๐๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ ช mr, which is an odd case where both of the consonants of the biliteral are written as phonetic complements (the owl m and the mouth r).
Incidentally, you may be wondering about the last glyphs of those two words. We’ll cover them in the next lesson.
However, there are a few different combinations of consonants which have multiple signs for the same combination! The pair mr is particularly “rich” for this. In addition to the chisel, the hoe for digging furrows ๐ธ and the water canal ๐ can also be mr in some words.
In some cases, a word may “favor” one biliteral sign over another; for example, “illness” may usually be written with the chisel. But other words like mrj “beloved” might be written with either the hoe or the canal, depending on which fits the text better.
All of this can apply to triliterals as well as to biliterals. The star ๐ผ stands for dw๊ฃ in the word for “worship”, but when it actually means a star, as it does in the name of the pharaoh Pasebakhaenniut, it is pronounced sb๊ฃ. (If you’ve never heard of that pharaoh, you probably know him better by his Greek name, Psusennes. His Egyptian name means “The star who has appeared in the city.”)
- his place
- she knows
- regarding this, their joy
- Ptah speaks regarding them.
- I sail downstream from this place.
- this, my boat, together with their boat
Answer 2
- ๐๐ ฑ๐ bw.f
- ๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ด rแธซ.s
- ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ฑ๐ด๐๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐ฐ๐ r rลกwt.sn tn
- ๐๐ณ๐ง๐ช๐ฐ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ฅ แธd ptแธฅ r.sn
- ๐๐ฐ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐ ฑ๐ช๐ฐ๐ แธซd(j).j m bw pn
- ๐ง๐ฐ๐ช๐ฑ๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ฐ๐ช๐ฑ๐๐๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ฅ dpt.j tn แธฅn๊ค dpt.sn
- ๐ ฑ๐๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ ๐ช๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ wbn r๊ค m.pt
- ra = raw
- ahah = jahah
Weak consonants
In discussing nswt, I said “the sedge plant (swt) is being written before the ‘belongs to’ word (nj).” But if it were really nj, shouldn’t we see that j in there, like ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐?
The way the Egyptians pronounced certain consonants caused them to often “disappear” in writing, especially at the end of a word. This happens most frequently with w or j, but can also happen with ๊ฃ and y.
For an analogy in English, consider the word “grow.” The w helps you know how to pronounce the vowel, but you still don’t need it: consider the gardening product “Miracle-Gro”. If you’re familiar with English, and you’re talking about gardening, you probably realize that “Gro” is pronounced just like “grow”. But in the word “wet”, the w is in a position where it’s needed.
These four consonants (๊ฃ, j, y, w) are known as weak consonants, because they often get left out in writing. Although it’s most common for these consonants to get dropped at the ends of words, it does sometimes happen inside words as well. Here are some examples from Allen (2014):
| With weak consonant | Weak consonant dropped |
|---|---|
| ๐๐ฟ๐๐ป h๊ฃb “send” | ๐๐๐ป hb |
| ๐๐๐ฐ๐ญ jrj “pertaining to” | ๐๐ jr |
| ๐๐ฐ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฏ ลกndyt “kilt” | ๐๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ฐ๐๐ฏ ลกndt |
| ๐๐ฐ๐๐ ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค hrw “day” | ๐๐ฐ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค hr |
This can make it pretty difficult to check dictionaries and see if the word is what you think it is. One thing that can be helpful is the determinative, though. Note that h๊ฃb, ลกndyt, and hrw all have determinatives which do not get dropped (since they’re not consonants at all!) So if you skim a dictionary and stumble on ลกndyt when looking for the translation of ลกndt, and notice they share the determinative, you can be pretty confident at that point you’ve found your word.
The disappearance of weak consonants is probably the number one cause of Egyptian spelling oddities, even more so than transpositions. Frequently, if we know a word had the consonant but it wasn’t actually written in a particular case, we’ll add it in parentheses. So the transliteration of the words in the table above would then be h(๊ฃ)b, jr(j), ลกnd(y)t, hr(w). You will see this notation very often in these lessons.
Exceptions
Although there are indeed few common ones, there are exceptions to the normal rules for nouns.
๐๐๐ฐ๐ nswt: As if it wasn’t weird enough, the word nswt “king of Egypt” is masculine despite ending in -t. As for the plural: Allen says there are no exceptions to the rules for plurals (Allen 2014, p.45), but this word seems to differ. Notably, in pWestcar ( = P. Berlin 3033), near the end of the tales, the plural appears to have a -y- in it: ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ซ , read nsyw in just about every other source I can find. The dual may be unattested (it’s not in TLA, among other sources).
๐ฑ๐ฐ๐๐ฑ๐ค แธซt โwood, stick, tree, timbersโ is masculine; the t is part of the root, so its plural and dual are แธซt.w, แธซt.wj.
๐๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ แธซt derives from earlier ๐๐๐ฐ๐ jแธซt. It can mean โthing, goods, propertyโ; when it does, it is feminine, with the root jแธซ (jแธซ.t, jแธซ.wt, jแธซ.tj). But it can also mean the indefinite โsomething, anythingโ, and when it does, it is masculine, with the singular and root jแธซt (jแธซt, jแธซt.w, jแธซt.wj).
Another group of exceptions comes from geography: the words for “country” and “city” are feminine, so the names of many countries and cities are treated as though feminine, despite their actual ending.
Sidebar: No really, jw is not a verb
Let’s take a quick poll of Egyptologists regarding jw:
- Budge (1910): “to be” (p. 149)
- Gardiner (1957): “an old verb” (ยง29), “Like other verbs” (ยง37), etc.
- Hoch (1997): “particle” (ยง9)
- Collier & Manley (1998): “auxiliary” (ยง34)
- Allen (2014): “particle” (p. 140)
Since jw takes suffix pronouns as “subjects”, and stands at the beginning of its clause like a verb would, it certainly means Egyptologists weren’t crazy to think for a time that it was a verb.
But these facts still don’t mean jw was a verb in the Egyptian mind. Let me give a purely speculative idea just to illustrate the point:
Suppose that what jw really means is something like “Here’s the situation”. When we say jw r๊ค m pt “jw the sun is in the sky”, we might be saying: “Here’s the situation of the sun: in the sky.”
In that case, jw.sn m rลกwt would not mean “They are in joy”; it could mean “Here’s their situation: in joy.”
That’s just a very simple made-up explanation. jw is used in enough ways to show that it isn’t a verb, in spite of it seeming so much like one early in our learning.
Unused Words
G. Less. II p. 37:
- rแธซ “know”
Word Order
An adjective always follows and never precedes the noun it modifies; there are no exceptions. This is how you can distinguish between ๐ nb “all, each, every” and ๐ nb “owner, lord, master” in most cases: if there is no noun before nb, then it can’t be an adjective, because an adjective must be following a noun. Instead, consider how your translation would work if it was “owner, lord, master” instead.
Multiple adjectives can be used on the same noun, all following it:
๐น๐ค๐ฐ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ nแนฏr nb nfr w๊ฅb
“every good and clean god”
Note that when there are multiple adjectives, if nb is one of them, it always comes first, directly after the noun. This again highlights how nb is more of a “selector” than a “descriptor”; it helps establish in the listener’s mind that you mean all of the things, before you proceed to describe their qualities: “a god”, “every single one”, “good”, “clean”.
Agreement
An adjective must agree with the noun’s gender and number, but there are only three options for the adjective.
There is a very slight difference for the forms of nisbes, which will be detailed when we learn more about them, but both nb and all secondary adjectives are marked thus:
| Noun | Form | Primary (nb) | Secondary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine singular | Base form | ๐ nb | ๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ nfr |
| Masculine plural | base + w | ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ nb.w | ๐ค๐๐ฐ๐๐ ฑ๐ช nfr.w |
| Feminine (any number) | base + t | ๐๐ฐ๐ nb.t | ๐ค๐๐ฐ๐๐ฐ๐ nfr.t |
We will discuss nisbes in later lessons, though much of this lesson applies to them as well, as we shall see. In fact, everything we say about “adjectives” in this and other lessons, unless otherwise specified, applies to all three kinds.
Vocabulary
- ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ jqr “excellent, skillful”
- ๐๐ w๊ฅb “clean, pure”
- ๐๐๐ w๊ฅb “wab-priest”, ritually pure and purifier
- ๐ nb (adj.) “each, all, every”
- ๐ nb (n.) “owner, lord, master”
- ๐๐ฐ๐ nb.t “owner, lady, mistress”
- ๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ nfr “good, beautiful, young”
- ๐ r “with respect to, regarding, towards”
- ๐๐ฐ๐๐ แธฅjm.t “woman, wife”
Sidebar: Secondary adjectives as verb forms
Many of the “everyday” adjectives in Egyptian are secondary adjectives, and that means they are participles. A participle is a verb that describes something by the actions it’s performing. An English example would be the phrase “the laughing child”, which means “a child who is performing the act of laughing.”
There is a verb meaning “to be or become good/ young/ beautiful”, and when we call an object “beautiful”, we are saying “the object which is doing the act of being or becoming beautiful”. The verb is ๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ nfr, and it gives us the adjective nfr.
Similarly, there is a verb ๐๐ฐ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ nแธซt which means “to be or become strong/powerful”, and if you describe an object with the adjective nแธซt, what you’re saying is that the object is doing that verb; it is “the object which is doing the act of being or becoming strong/powerful”.
Overview
In addition to the suffix pronouns, Egyptian had three more sets of personal pronouns: two during the Middle Kingdom (dependent and independent) and one that arose during Dynasty 17 (subject).
As with the suffix pronouns, each set has a number of uses, which we will explain as the lessons proceed. For this lesson, we are just presenting them, because by using them, we will soon be making complete sentences!
But as we’ll see in the next lesson, Egyptian “thinks” about its sentences very differently than modern European languages, and that’s why there’s so many different kinds of pronouns.
Compound Pronouns
These pronouns begin to appear in the 17th Dynasty, so will not be found in texts actually written during the Middle Kingdom, but they can be found in “Classical Egyptian” texts of the New Kingdom and later which imitate traditional Middle Egyptian. They are used in a limited role in such texts, as we will learn.
Unlike the other sets of pronouns, there is a wide variety of terms for these pronouns in various sources, including “pronominal compounds”, “subject pronouns”, “proclitic pronouns”, and simply “Late Egyptian pronouns”. You should be aware of that when you move on to sources by real Egyptologists. If you’re curious about those names, who uses them, and why I chose “compound pronouns”, see the Sidebar of this lesson.
| Person | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | ๐๐ ฑ๐ | tw.j | ๐๐ ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ | tw.n |
| 2nd masc. | ๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ก | tw.k | ๐๐ ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ | tw.tn |
| 2nd fem. | ๐๐ ฑ๐ | tw(.t) | ||
| 3rd masc. | ๐๐ฒ or ๐๐ ฑ | sw | ๐ด๐ or ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ฅ | st |
| 3rd fem. | ๐ด๐ญ | sj | ||
Note about dual forms
Of all the types of pronouns in Middle Egyptian, the only ones with well-attested dual forms seem to be the suffix pronouns, and that only in formal texts, especially religious ones. For all other uses or types of pronouns, the plural form covers the dual as well.
Summary: Pronouns II
- Middle Egyptian has three types of personal pronouns in all. The first are the suffix pronouns we’ve already seen.
- The others are dependent and independent.
- There is also a set of pronouns which can be found in New Kingdom texts which are otherwise written in literary Middle Egyptian. We refer to them in these lessons as compound pronouns.
- The uses of Egyptian pronouns varies a lot with the type of sentence, so these need to be dealt with separately.
- The dual forms of personal pronouns other than the suffix pronouns are poorly attested, and the plurals seem to cover the dual.
Exercises
(To be determined.)
Sidebar: Naming the compound pronouns
Unlike the suffix, dependent, and independent pronouns, Egyptologists don’t even seem to agree on what to call these pronouns:
- Gardiner (1957) calls them “pronominal compounds”.
- I would like a term with “pronouns” in the era of search engines. Obviously “compound pronouns” is pretty much that.
- Loprieno (1995) calls them “proclitic pronouns.” Johnson (2000), writing about Demotic, calls their descendants by that term.
- Overly technical, and in the written form of the third person ones (as used in literary Middle Egyptian of the New Kingdom), misleading, since there is no proclitic bit written.
- Hoch (1997) calls them “Late Egyptian pronouns”.
- This was the “runner-up”, but this is the confusion of “Middle Kingdom Egyptian” (where they are not found) versus “‘Classical’ Egyptian” of later periods (where they are found), which is based on the Middle Kingdom’s language.
- Allen (2014) calls them “subject pronouns”.
- They are used as subjects, but so are the other three types in various situations.
- I cannot find a reference to them in Collier and Manley (1998).
When considering the above problems, I thought of “compound pronouns” myself (especially after considering Gardiner’s term), only to discover that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was already doing so in their “Hieroglyphs Step by Step” lessons! And since both their site and mine are trying to be “for beginners”, I decided to run with it.
The other reason I like “compound” is that it describes them, like “suffix”, “dependent”, and “independent” do. It doesn’t say when they’re from (“Late”), or what they’re used for (“subject”), or uses an overly technical term (“proclitic”).
- You can express the comparative of an adjective by using the preposition r something like “than”: แธฅjmt nfrt r nแนฏrt “a woman beautiful with respect to a goddess”, or simply “a woman more beautiful than a goddess.”
- Derived adjectives or nisbes are formed from nouns or pronouns by adding -j. In the feminine, the -t does not add to the -j but replaces it.
Vocabulary
- ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฐ๐ค jz “tomb”
- ๐๐ฟ h๊ฃ “Oh!” (exclamation)
- ๐ง๐ฐ๐๐ฑ๐ค แธr.t “hand”
- ๐๐ณ๐ง แธd “say”
- ๐ก๐ ky “other, another” (masc.)
- ๐ก๐ฐ๐ kt “other, another” (fem.)
- ๐๐๐ฐ๐ jแธซ.t “goods, property”, var. ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐ แธซt
- ๐ช๐ฐ๐๐๐ถ๐ก๐ฐ๐ฅ prj “battlefield”
- ๐๐๐ ฑ๐ mjw “cat”
- ๐ ๐ ฑ๐ mjw.t “mother”
- ๐น๐๐ฐ๐๐ฐ๐๐ nแนฏr.t “goddess”
- ๐๐๐ฐ๐ซ๐ ฑ๐ แธฅf๊ฃ.w “snake”
- ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ แธซft.j “enemy”
- ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐๐ฑ๐ค แธซt “wood, stick”
- ๐๐ฐ๐๐ฑ๐ญ njwtj “local”
- ๐ข๐ฐ๐๐ sn “brother”
- ๐ข๐๐ฐ๐๐ sn.t “sister”
- Learning Egyptian numbers
- Cardinal numbers
- Ordinal numbers
- Using cardinal numbers
- Using ordinal numbers
- Summary
- Vocabulary
- Exercises
Learning Egyptian numbers
Imagine you were translating a book written in French to English and you find a sentence containing the number 66. Even if you don’t know that the spoken form of the number in French is “soixante-six“, you don’t need to know it: you can read the numerical symbols. They can go straight to “sixty-six” without having to be “soixante-six” in the interim.
Of course if you wanted to speak French, you still need to learn “soixante-six“. But since Egyptian is a dead language, usually we only need to translate to English. So while it can be a little useful or even fun to learn the Egyptian number words, it’s not really necessary to translate most texts. Even when writing a transliteration, an Egyptian phrase like ๐น๐๐ “fifty priests” is transliterated as แธฅm.w-nแนฏr 50, not แธฅm.w-nแนฏr djjw. You wouldn’t write djjw out unless the original artist or scribe did, in which case, you’d have the phonetic glyphs anyhow.
If you want to learn the names of the numbers, as well as some of the more complicated arithmetic the Egyptians could do, see Appendix 3. It is absolutely not necessary for being able to translate most Egyptian texts.
Basic symbols
The numerical symbols are: ๐บ “1”, ๐ “10”, ๐ข “100”, ๐ผ “1000”, ๐ญ “10,000”, and ๐ “100,000”. There is a word ๐จ แธฅแธฅ “one million”, but in Middle Egyptian the word often is used indefinitely for “many”, “countless” rather than precisely “a thousand times a thousand.” So here’s a few numbers:
๐ฟ๐ฃ๐๐ฝ 4234
(four thousands, two hundreds, three tens, four ones)
๐๐๐ญ๐ผ๐ผ๐ผ๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข๐ข๐๐ฟ 213,546
(two 100,000, one 10,000, three thousands, five hundreds, four tens, six ones)
When a decimal place has zero; there’s simply no glyph of that kind there:
๐ฟ๐ 4008
(four thousands and eight ones, but no hundreds and no tens)
Note that the symbol ๐ข for 100 (Gardiner code V1) is similar to, but not the same as, the shorthand ๐ฒ for w (Gardiner code Z7). The “100” glyph is a little less smoothly rounded and has a bit of a tail.
Zero
It seems that Egyptians had no mathematical notion of zero. If they had a zero result in a math problem or in an inventory or the like, they left a blank space or wrote the nfr sign ๐ค. The word nfr usually means “good, perfect” but in this case, it’s short for ๐ค๐ ฑ๐ ช๐ฐ๐ฅ nfrw “deficiency, depletion” (there’s the “bad or insignificant” sparrow determinative!)
Cardinal numbers
The Egyptians rarely wrote out the words for numbers, except for ๐ก๐ฐ๐๐ฑ๐ค w๊ฅ (“one”, masculine), ๐ก๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐ค w๊ฅt (“one”, feminine) and ๐ข๐๐ฐ๐๐ ฑ๐ป sn(w)wj (“two”, masculine); others are simply written using the numerical symbols above. But the number words have been reconstructed from Coptic, and if you’re curious, can be found in Appendix 3.
When they stand alone (not counting nouns), the cardinal numbers are grammatically singular nouns themselves, so if you have a demonstrative on them, it takes the singular form: 45 pn “these 45”.
When used to count nouns, cardinals usually follow them. With units of measurement, the measured item comes first, then the unit, then the number. The nouns are usually singular.
๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐๐ข แธฅnqt ds 100
“100 jugs of beer” (Westcar 4, 13)
lit. “beer jug 100”
Note that since the number itself is written with numeral glyphs and not phonetically, it’s usual in transliteration to do likewise, as we did there.
Cardinals before nouns
The numbers “1000” and “1,000,000” can go before a noun (or noun phrase) or pronoun, connected either by the preposition m “in” or an indirect genitive.
๐ผ๐
๐๐ฐ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ 1000 m t
“a thousand loaves of bread” (CG 20003, 4)
(lit. “1000 in bread”, not unlike “give me a thousand in ones” with modern money)
๐จ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐ช๐ฑ๐ แธฅแธฅ n zp
“a million times” (BD 72)
(lit. “a million of occurrence”)
The number “one” can do likewise, but these methods have two different meanings. An indirect genitive acts as though the “one” were after the noun, but using m means “one (out) of a group”:
๐ก๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐ค๐
๐๐ฐ๐๐ w๊ฅt m แธฅjmt
“one of the women” (lit. “one from woman”)
๐ก๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐ค๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ w๊ฅt nt แธฅjmt
“one woman” (lit. “one of woman”)
The indirect genitive form was used to express something like the indefinite article “a(n)”; w๊ฅt nt แธฅjmt could mean “a woman” rather than “one woman”.
Ordinal numbers
Except for “first”, the ordinal numbers like “third” or “twelfth” or “thirty-first”, are all derived from the cardinals. The ordinals from “second” to “ninth” are formed by adding -nw ๐ (masculine) or -nwt ๐๐ฐ๐ (feminine) to the root of the cardinal: ๐ข๐๐ฐ๐๐ ฑ๐ป sn.nw “second”. Like the cardinals, these are infrequently spelled out phonetically (aside from “first” and “second”), but are usually written as the cardinal glyph plus the ending: ๐๐ 6-nw “sixth”, and so on.
The ordinals from “tenth” onwards are formed by putting the word ๐ mแธฅ (with -t for feminine) before the cardinal: ๐๐ mแธฅ 70 “seventieth”, ๐๐ฐ๐๐ผ mแธฅt 1000 “thousandth”.
“First” is spelled out and is related to the word for “head” or “top”: it is ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฑ๐ญ tpj (masculine; variants ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ช, ๐) or ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฑ๐ tpt (feminine; variants ๐ถ๐ฐ๐, ๐๐ช๐ฐ๐). (As we saw in our lesson on multiliterals, there is some debate about the correct transliteration of ๐ถ, whether it is tp or dp, so don’t be too confused if you see it transliterated either way.)
Ordinals are usually adjectives, so they follow the nouns they modify and agree with them. But like other adjectives, they can be used as nouns, so sometimes they proceed the noun, which means the noun is in apposition to them, or they are connected by an indirect genitive.
๐๐ฐ๐ช๐ฑ๐๐ผ๐ฐ๐ zp 3-nw
“the third occasion”
๐ฝ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐ค 4-nw pr
“the fourth house” (lit. “the fourth one, the house”)
๐ฟ๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ 6-nwt nt แธฅjmt
“the sixth woman” (lit. “the sixth one of woman”)
“Ditto”
The phrase zp sn or zp 2 ๐๐ฐ๐ป “two times, twice” is written as a “ditto” in some texts. (Note that ๐ is Gardiner glyph O50, not Aa1 ๐ which is the uniliteral แธซ; they may easily be confused in some writings.)
๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ค๐๐ฐ๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐ป jb.j n mjwt.j zp 2
“my heart of my mother, my heart of my mother!” (Ani 3)
(written literally as “my heart of my mother, two times”)
This could also be used in spelling a few words to show that signs were repeated:
๐ด๐๐ก๐ฐ๐๐ฑ๐ป๐ก sk zp 2
short for ๐ด๐๐ก๐ด๐๐ก๐ก sksk
“destroy” (Urk. IV, 729, 16)
Fractions
A few basic fractions had special symbols: ๐ ยฝ (transl. gs), ๐ด ยผ (also written ๐๐ฐ๐ฝ) , ๐ โ (rwj), ๐ ยพ (แธซmt-rw). Additionally, they could write any fraction with a numerator of 1, by putting ๐ r above a number: ๐๐ฐ๐ค ยนโโโโ.
They could not write a more “interesting” fraction, like say ยณยนโโโ, but they could nevertheless handle quantities that involved them. If you’re interested in learning more, you’ll find that in Appendix 3. The Rhind Papyrus was largely dedicated to problems involving complex fractions.
Summary: Numbers
Vocabulary
- ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ค jb “heart”
- Used for concepts like “mind”, “center”, “emotions” as well as literal
- ๐ก๐ฐ๐๐ฑ๐ค w๊ฅ “one”
- ๐ค๐ ฑ๐ ช๐ฐ๐ฅ nfrw “deficiency, lack, depletion”
- ๐จ แธฅแธฅ “million, vast number”
- ๐๐ฐ๐ช๐ฑ๐ zp “occasion, iteration, time”
- ๐ด๐๐ก๐ด๐๐ก๐ก sksk “destroy”
- ๐ง๐ด๐ ds “jug”
Exercises
(forthcoming)