- Nominalized adjectives
- Swallow and sparrow
- The verb paradigm
- Apparent adjectives
- Summary
- Vocabulary
- Exercises
Nominalized adjectives
Except for the adjective π nb “each, every”, every adjective can be used as a noun, like in English when we say something like the title of the movie The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This is called a nominalized adjective. It can then be used as the subject in its own adjectival sentence, or modified by other adjectives, or both:
π€ππ°πππ
π nfr kmt
“The black (one) is beautiful.”
πππ°πππ§π°ππ°ππ
π€ππ°π jqr dΕ‘r nfr
“The good red (one) is excellent.”
In the first example we said kmt, using the feminine form of the adjective km. This is how it would be said if “the black (one)” was feminine, either a woman, a goddess, or a feminine noun of any other sort, such as a boat or a sky. But, nfr was left in masculine form since it’s the predicate of the sentence: “the black one is beautiful”.
In the second example we said dΕ‘r for our subject, implying that “the red (one)” in this case is a masculine entity; and furthermore, in the second example, we even modified dΕ‘r by using the adjective nfr on it, changing “the red (one)” to “the good red (one)”.
There may be a determinative on a nominalized adjective to indicate what sort of noun it is replacing, since the noun itself was omitted: πππ αΈ₯αΈt βwhite (thing)β + feminine t + βcowβ determinative = βwhite cowβ.
Nominalized adjectives can be used as nouns in any other type of sentence as well:
ππππ°ππ€ππ°π dj.j n.f nfr
“I give him the good one.”
(lit. “Give I to him good (one).”)
There are several reasons why nb cannot be used as a noun. For one, we have already seen a noun written nb, which means “lord, master, owner”. We’re going to learn another reason in a few lessons.
Swallow and sparrow
When we first looked at determinatives, we learned that the sparrow π ͺ (G37) is often a determinative for things which are “small” or “insignificant”. And of course, to make sure bad things were made insignificant, the sparrow was used on words meaning “bad” or “evil” as well.
But you may also have noticed the swallow π ¨ (G36) which we saw as a biliteral for wr. And that’s unfortunate, because wr actually means “great”, which is the opposite of “small”, “insignificant”, or “bad”. But look at the two birds together, and weep: π ¨ π ͺ.
Here’s a closer look, in two fonts available online. In each pair, the swallow is on the left; the sparrow is on the right.
The key difference is their tails. The swallow has a broader tail which is usually forked, that is, double-pointed. The sparrow has a boring rounded tail. Just remember that the bird with two points is good; the bird with only one (rounded, dull) point is bad. But it can be difficult to tell which bird a particular glyph is, if it’s in a small font, or when translating an actual object, if the glyph is damaged. So be wary of them.
The verb paradigm
Now that we’ve learned the verb ππ sαΈm “hear”, and that the suffix pronouns are used as subjects with verbs, we can learn about the terminology for many verb forms in Egyptian. Long ago Egyptologists chose sαΈm as the paradigm verb for Egyptian grammar. You may see a verb form described as “the sαΈm.n.f” or “the sαΈmt.f” and so on, always with sαΈm as a base, and defaulting to the third-person masculine suffix pronoun (.f).
So for example, the “sαΈm.n.f” form of the verb πΉππ°π κ€nαΈ« “live” would be any instance of the verb κ€nαΈ« with the special suffix -n, followed thereafter by any suffix pronoun (or a noun subject, for that matter). So all of the following would be examples of the sαΈm.n.f form of κ€nαΈ«: κ€nαΈ«.n.j, κ€nαΈ«.n.s, κ€nαΈ«.n ptαΈ₯. (We’ll learn what the suffix -n does soon!)
Apparent adjectives
A few concepts expressed by adjectives in English are actually expressed by nouns in Egyptian, so they do not follow the nouns they associate with. These are called apparent adjectives. The most frequently seen of these is the noun ky (feminine kt), which precedes its noun and means “another”.
ππ
±π‘πππ°ππ±π€π
ππ°π€π jw ky z m pr.j
“Another man is in my house.”
(lit. “Another one, a man, is in my house.”)
ππ
±ππππ°ππ‘πππ°ππ jw.f αΈ₯nκ€ kt zt
“He is with another woman.”
(lit. “He is with another one, a woman.”)
In the next lesson we will learn much more about what happens when you put two nouns in a row like this.
Summary: The good, the bad, and the verb
- Except for nb “each, every”, all adjectives can be used as nouns. These are called nominalized adjectives.
- A nominalized adjective can be described by other adjectives, or used as the subject in an adjectival sentence with another adjective as predicate, or as a noun in any other type of sentence as well.
- The swallow (G36) glyph is used in the word wr meaning “great”, but the sparrow (G37) is the determinative for things that are small, insignificant, or even evil. They look very similar, but the swallow’s tail is wider and usually forked.
- The verb sαΈm “to hear” was chosen as the exemplar or paradigm verb for describing various ways to create verb forms. Thus we speak of the sαΈm.f, sαΈm.n.f, sαΈmt.f, and other forms, even when we’re talking about verbs other than sαΈm.
- Some words which would be adjectives in English are actually nouns in Egyptian, and thus they do not all follow their nouns. Such words are called apparent adjectives. The most frequently used are ky and its feminine form kt, which mean “another” or “other”, and precede their noun.
Vocabulary
- ππ°π jnj “bring, fetch, use”
- ππ°π€ κ€ “arm, hand”
- π ‘π‘π°ππ bκ’kt “maidservant”
- ππ°π rdj, dj π “give”
- This verb is a fairly “anomalous” or “irregular” verb and it will get its own section later as we delve deeper into verbs.
- ππΏπ³ αΈ₯κ£y “naked”
- πππ΄π³ αΈ₯bs “clothing, garment”
- π‘π ky “other, another”
- π‘π°π kt “other” (fem.)
- ππ km “black”
- πΌπ°πππ° grαΈ₯ “night”
- π§π°ππ°ππ dΕ‘r “red”
- π ππ°ππ°π dΕ‘rt “desert” (lit. “red land”)