Prepositions

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Egyptian prepositions work much like English ones in that they form prepositional phrases, preceding a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase, to add information to a sentence, like “in the house”, “with her friends”, and so forth.

The problem is that prepositions often don’t translate one-to-one between languages. For example, the English word “from” is often translated von in German, but in some situations it would be aus instead. And in the other direction, many German phrases with von would be “from” in English, but others would use “of” or “about” or “by”.

So we can’t simply have a table with English prepositions in one column and an Egyptian equivalent in the other. Some do match pretty closely, but there are a lot of differences.

𓏶𓅓𓏭𓏏𓅱 jmjtw

With a dual or plural it means “between” or “among” respectively; jmjtw prwj “between the houses”, jmjtw zjw “among the men”. If saying “between” for two different things, jmjtw precedes the first and r the second: jmjtw ḥm-nṯr r nswt “between the priest and the king”.

Can be used adverbially as 𓏶𓅓𓏏𓅱𓈖𓏮 jmjtw-nj. “between/among (them)”

𓇋𓈖 jn

jn is only used to specify the agent of a verb, like “by” in English: ḏd jn nswt “said by the king”. It cannot be used with a personal pronoun.

𓅓 m

With personal pronouns it is 𓇋𓅓 jm; adverbially it means “there(in)”, “in it”. It is generally translated as “in”, but has some uses that differ from English.

  • “in(to)” space, or “in/for/during” time: m pr “in the house”, m rnpt “for a year”
  • “in” a condition: m ḥtp “in peace”
  • “in, of” a material or unit: m nbw “in gold, of gold”, ꜥḥꜥw m rnpwt “period of years”
  • “from, out of” a place or condition if starting in it: prj m pr “emerge from (inside) the house”
  • “as”, “in the role of”: ḏd m nswt “speaking in the role of king”
  • “in (the use of)”, “with”, “by means of”: njs m rn “call by name”.

𓏇𓇋 mj

“like, as”: mj mdw-nṯr “like hieroglyphs”. Adverbially 𓏇𓇋𓇋 mjj “like, likewise”. Also:

  • “according to”: mj nt-ꜥ “according to ritual”
  • “as well as”: t mj ḥnqt “bread as well as beer”, lit. “bread like beer”.

𓅓𓅓 mm(j)

“among, amid”: mm ꜥnḫw “among the living”. Adverbially “among (them)”.

This refers to a more general, non-specific position compared with jmjtw.

𓈖 n

Shows the beneficiary or purpose of something. Usually “to, for”, but also:

  • “at” when it means “toward”: dgꜣ n pt “look at the sky”
  • “for, in” with time: n ḥrw “in a day”
  • “for, because of”: n mrt “for love, because of love”

𓂋 r

“with respect to”. 𓇋𓂋 jr at the beginning of a sentence, or (sometimes) with personal pronouns (but 𓂋 is typical). Adverbially 𓇋𓂋𓏭 jrj or 𓇋𓂋 jr “with respect to (it)”, “thereto”. Like m, this has a variety of uses and English translations:

  • “toward” a place: jj r pt “return to the sky”
  • “toward” a purpose: r mꜣꜣ “in order to see”
  • “against”: jrj r.f “act against him”
  • “from” when comparing/distinguishing things: rḫ mꜣꜥt r jzft
  • “about”: ḏd r.s “speak about her”
  • At the beginning of a sentence before a noun, “as for”: jr sf jsjr pw “as for yesterday, it is Osiris”; before a verb, “if, when”: jr jj.k “if you come”

When in doubt about “for, to” and purposes: n is used if the object of the preposition is the beneficiary or recipient of the action (the indirect object or dative); r is used if the object of the preposition is a place, and usually when it’s a verb.

𓇉𓄿 ḥꜣ

“behind, around”: ḥꜣ ḥwt “behind/around the enclosure”, ḥꜣ t “at/having a meal”, literally “behind bread”.

𓎛𓈖𓂝 ḥnꜥ

“with, together with”. Serves the role of “and” for a group of things: t ḥnꜥ ḥnqt “bread with beer”, “bread and beer”. Adverbially 𓎛𓈖𓂝𓏥 ḥnꜥw “with, together with (them/it)”.

𓁷𓏤 ḥr

“on”. Usually written 𓁷𓂋 ḥr with pronouns. The usual meaning is “on, upon”, but Egyptian uses it in cases where English might use “at” or “in”: ḥr kmt “in Egypt”, lit. “on the Black Land”. Also:

  • Like several other prepositions, can mean “and”: t ḥr ḥnqt “bread and beer”, lit. “bread upon beer”.
  • “with”, for example in cooking: psj ḥr bjt “cooking with honey”, lit. “cooking on (the basis of?) honey”
  • “for (each), per” with distribution: pr ḥr ḥm-nṯr “a house for every priest”, lit. “house upon priest”.
  • “from, of” when describing where something originated or was brought from: bjt ḥr ḥwt “honey from the enclosure”, lit. “honey (from) on the enclosure”
  • “at, because” of a cause that is not physical: ḥtp ḥr mꜣꜣ “content because of the sight”, lit. “content upon the sight”.

With “because”, ḥr is describing “the thing which caused the situation”, while n implies that it’s done “for” the thing. One is not content “for the sake” of the sight, but one might do something “for” love.

𓐍𓏏𓆑 ḫft

“opposite, facing; according to”. Adverbially thus or 𓐍𓆑𓏏𓅱 ḫftw, meaning “opposite, accordingly”. It can indicate two things facing each other: ḏd ḫft “speak to/before”, ꜥḥꜥ ḫft “stand before”. If that makes no sense with the object, can mean “according to, in accordance with”: ḫft zẖꜣ pn “according to this writing”. (Presumably “according to” something was thought of as being “face to face” with it.)

𓏃‌𓈖𓏏 ḫnt

“before (in sequence), ahead of”. Adverbially thus or 𓏃‌𓈖𓏏‌𓅱 ḫntw, “before, ahead of”. When “before” means “in front of (and facing)”, as in “bow before the king”, that is ḫft (see above), but when it means “at the head of a line” or “previously”, it is ḫnt. It often implies superiority: ḫnt nṯrw “at the head of the gods”.

𓐍𓂋 ḫr

“near, in the presence of”. Often implies inferiority to the prepositional object: ḏd ḫr ḥm.f “speak to His Incarnation”, lit. “speak in the presence of His Incarnation”, because one is too lowly to speak to him. Two common phrases use this: ḫr ḥm n “in the presence of the incarnation of” a pharaoh, meaning “during the reign of”; and jmꜣḫy ḫr “honored in the presence of”: jmꜣḫy ḫr nbt-ḥwt “honored before Nephthys”.

So Egyptians use n if they are speaking to peers or those beneath them, but usually ḫr if they are speaking to the pharaoh, his children, or a god.

𓆱𓐍𓏏‌𓂻 ḫt

“throughout” an area: ḫpr ḫt tꜣ “happen throughout the land”.

𓌨𓂋 ẖr

“under”; adverbial 𓌨𓂋‌𓏭𓏛 ẖrj “under (it)”. In addition to the English sense of “under”, this can mean “carrying or having” a thing: prj ẖr nbw “emerge with gold”, literally “emerge under gold”. The “burden” need not be a tangible object: wrḏ ẖr šmt “weary from walking”, literally “weary under walking”.

𓁶𓏤 tp (dp?)

“above, atop”; with pronouns often 𓁶𓊪. There is some debate about tp versus dp for the reading of the word, with Allen 2014 et al. having dp but TLA having tp, which is the older reading. In contrasting ḥr with tp, ḥr is closer to the object: ꜥnḫ tp tꜣ “live on the land” versus sḏr ḥr tꜣ “lie on the ground”. Some things are thought of as “above” by the Egyptians that are not so in English: the Egyptians think speech happens tp rꜥ “atop the mouth”

𓇥𓂋 ḏr

“since”; adverbially “to the end, finally, finished”. ḏr rk nṯrw “since the time of the gods”.

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