Negative and Complementary Infinitives

• Negatival complement
  • Form
  • Syntax
  • Subject and Object
• Complementary infinitives

Negatival complement

Egyptian does not negate the infinitive by saying one of the words which negate a finite verb, like English does (“not to try”, “not to go”). Instead, it uses the infinitive of 𓏏𓍃𓅓 tm “finish, not do, fail” followed by a verbal noun called the negatival complement.

Form

If a verb’s root is geminated, its negatival complement is the root. The negatival complement of all other verbs is the base stem plus the ending -w, which is often omitted in writing.

Note that this depends only on whether the root itself is geminated, and not on whether the verb can form a genitive stem.

Syntax

The negatival complement follows 𓏏𓍃𓅓 tm “finish, not do” to form the negative of an infinitive.

𓂋𓏤𓈖𓏏𓍃𓅓𓅓‌𓏏𓏱𓅓𓄙𓅓
r n tm mwt m wḥm
“Chapter of not dying again”
(literally “spell of not doing dying in repetition”)
(Title of Book of the Dead spell 175)

Subject and Object

The subject and object are expressed the same ways they are for the infinitive, with one difference: When a suffix pronoun is used, it is appended to tm, not the negatival complement.

𓏏𓍃𓅓‌𓆑𓃹𓈖‌𓉿𓂡𓂋𓏤𓆑
tm.f wn r.f
“his (act of) not opening his mouth”
(literally “his not doing opening his mouth”)

Complementary Infinitives

The complementary infinitive is a reiteration of a verb as an adverb of itself. It is rare in Middle Egyptian and really only in found in older religious texts:

𓅱𓃀𓈖𓇶𓎡𓅱𓃀𓈖𓇶𓏏
wbn.k wbnt
“you rise, rising”

The complementary infinitive is formed by adding -t to the root of 2ae-gem. verbs, but adding the -t to the base stem for most other verbs. The ending in final-weak verbs was originally -wt, which became -yt, but the w/y usually disappear in writing.

rd “grow” (2-lit.) → 𓂋𓂧𓇟𓏏 rdt
wnn “exist” (2ae-gem.) → 𓃹‌𓈖𓈖𓏏 wnnt
msj “give birth” (3ae-inf.) → 𓄟𓋴‌𓏏 mst, 𓄟𓋴𓇋𓇋‌𓏏 msyt