Middle Egyptian language

Spoken in

Afro-Asiatic

• Middle Egyptian

-

Egy ( Egyptian language )

Egy ( Egyptian language )

The Middle Egyptian language was the language of ancient Egypt during the so-called Middle Kingdom ( 21st -18th century BC ) to the Second Intermediate Period (17th- 16th century BC ) and was in the course from the 17th Dynasty increasingly replaced by the Late Egyptian in the vernacular, having already the beginning of the second interim first frühneuägyptische developments can be noted. It forms a development stage of the Egyptian language forms and followed the Egyptian, from which it differs only slightly.

The funds Egyptian language remained as classical literature and inscription language until the 4th century AD in use. The modern study of the Egyptian focused long time on the Middle Egyptian. Middle Egyptian inscriptions on monuments and in tombs were written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, papyri and ostraca, however, was for the hieratic script, a cursive hieroglyphs, used.

• 4.1 Morphological processes
• 4.2 Nominal and Pronominalmorphologie 4.2.1 Nouns
• 4.2.2 Adjectives
• 4.2.3 personal pronouns

• 4.3.1 suffix conjugation 4.3.1.1 form
• 4.3.1.2 Traditional approach
• 4.3.1.3 " standard theory "

• 4.3.2.1 " Pseudopartizip " / Tripod
• 4.3.2.2 Infinite forms

• 5.1 Verbal Phrases
• 5.2 Non -verbal sentences 5.2.1 Substantivalsatz
• 5.2.2 Adjektivalsatz
• 5.2.3 Adverbial

• 6.1 Grammars and Introductions
• 6.2 Studies on the grammar
• 6.3 dictionaries

Research history and didactics

The study of Middle Egyptian began with the decipherment of the hieroglyphs by Jean -François Champollion 1822 when the Egyptian language level but it has been deferred until later from the Old and Late Egyptian. Significant advances in the understanding of the Egyptian scored by Adolf Erman (1854-1937) founded the so-called Berlin School, with its emphasis increasingly to the study of Middle Egyptian. 1894 Erman put the first modern grammar ( 4th edition 1928 ) before the Middle Egyptian, which was the monumental Egyptian Grammar ( 1st edition 1927) of his student Alan H. Gardiner ( 1879-1963 ) far exceeded. Simultaneously, the Berlin School achieved by the publication of the Dictionary of the Egyptian Language (1927-1961) considerable progress in the development of Egyptian vocabulary. Around the middle of the 20th century was considered the study of Middle Egyptian grammar essentially concluded and turned to the language of scientific texts and the ancient Egyptian coffin texts related to. Developed by the Hans Jacob Polotsky (1905-1991) from 1944 " standard theory " the discussion about the syntax but was rekindled ( see below). And research in other areas remained in motion. So Wolfgang leg trying to prove in 2005 that the Middle Egyptian past tense sḏm.n = f of two syntactically distinct forms is. Uncertainties especially in the field of verbal morphology are essentially due to the fact that the traditional Egyptian forms of writing no vowels play: many Verbaltempora are marked only by their vowel structure that only limited effect on the consonant inventory, but are otherwise not consonant or only by marks a weak final consonants, which is only sporadically written.

The Middle Egyptian is taught at universities as part of the discipline of Egyptology, there being a high priority compared to other, more archaeological -oriented branches of Egyptology occupies in particular in Germany. Due to the relatively easy to learn Egyptian Hieroglyphics medium texts and classical rank, the Middle Egyptian already occupied in ancient times, it is usually the first language level, get to know the students of Egyptology.

Language Historical position

The Middle Egyptian is a development stage of the Egyptian, one of the six primary branches of the spread in North Africa and the Middle East Afro-Asiatic language family. Like the previous ancient Egyptian, with which it shared the "Older Egyptian " forms, it is an inflectional or fusional and highly inflected language. The differences are relatively minor and the ancient Egyptian make more on the orthographic level, for example in the use of different determiners, noticeable. In the area of ​​grammar is in Middle Egyptian, the decline or even loss of some pronominal and verbal forms observed, and also the advent of analytical neoplasms, which characterizes the vernacular related styles. The negation nn is an important Middle Egyptian innovation. Much more serious are the developments that separate the means from the Egyptian Late Egyptian. The tendency to form analytical forms became stronger, which led to a complete transformation of the verbal system: The complex aspect -tense system of the older Egyptian was greatly reduced, at the same time developed a variety of analytical neoplasms.

According to system

Consonants

The center has about 26 consonant phonemes Egyptian ( in the usual in Egyptology order):

The phonetic value of most of the phonemes in the Middle Kingdom is relatively safe, but with regard to D, D and 3, there are considerable differences of opinion. According to the traditional reconstruction of D and D represent the voiced counterparts of t and T, respectively; after a particularly advocated by Otto Rössler Semitists reconstruction, which is now recognized by a substantial part of Egyptology, , these are rather formed by Glottalisierung " emphatic " consonants. 3 is traditionally viewed as [ ʔ ]; due to Egyptian transcriptions of foreign names from the Middle Kingdom, it is now held, however, perhaps more for an r -like sound, [ ʀ ].

J, y and w had probably halbvokalischen character, with graphical j could also stand for [ ʔ ]. The phoneme l has no clear hieroglyphic representation, due to the Coptic and graphical variation between 3, n and r its existence but is commonly recognized. z and s were in the Middle Kingdom already collapsed to [s ], although they were still partially differentiated in historicizing overrides. During the phonetic value of ḫ by paraphrasing someone else's name as [ x] can be determined, the phonetic value of h is uncertain. Overall, - a degree of uncertainty and without 3 - the following picture:

In addition, T ( [ tʃ ] ) and D ( [t ʾ ʃ ] or [ dʒ ] ), which coincided since the Middle Egyptian partially with t or d.

Vowels

Since the Egyptian hieroglyphics in general play no vowels, also arise in the reconstruction of vocalization considerable difficulties. The main source for the vowels of Middle Egyptian Coptic forms whose writing vowels reproduces reliable. A second major source form the onset of the New Kingdom paraphrases Egyptian names and words in Akkadian and Greek as well as occasionally the Meroitic. These provide not only individual words or vocalizations in Coptic dwindling advantages and Nachtonvokale, but also show the same time, which sound shifts have changed the vowel system since the New Kingdom. By combining the Coptic vowels and tradition in foreign scripts, the vowel system during the New Kingdom can be reconstructed partially. By combining the traditional hieroglyphic consonant skeleton with the thus reconstructed vowels results in a reconstructed state which is (also below ) called Urkoptisch, Paläokoptisch or Protokoptisch.

The Urkoptische owns the three vowel phonemes * / a / * / i / and * / u /. * / i / and * / u / fell after the New Kingdom partially * / e / together, so that often no longer between * / i / and * / can u / decide Urkoptischen. All vowels have in Urkoptischen two variants that are conventionally interpreted as opposition long versus short; however, this distinction is in Urkoptischen according to the classical reconstruction is not meaningful distinctive, since it results from the syllable structure. The word accent of Urkoptischen located on one of the last two syllables (two- syllable law ), it is believed that the word accent in an earlier stage could also be on the antepenultimate syllable.

Morphology

Morphological processes

The base of the Middle Egyptian morphology as well as the lexicon forms which consists of mostly three, rarely two or four consonants root. The root formation takes place in various ways, which are characteristic of the morphology of the older Egyptian.

• Overlay with vowel " schema "

Characteristic of the African Asian languages ​​is the superposition of the consonant root which contains lexical information applied to the mold form, with a vowel pattern that is specific for the form. Since the Egyptian hieroglyphs and their daughter systems designated no vowels, this process is very difficult to track in the vorkoptischen time in detail. However, it is assumed that can indirectly find traces of the vowels in consonant inventory, especially in roots, whose last reduplicated consonant or weak ( ie j or w).

• Reduplication ( " gemination " )

An important morphological process is reduplication, in Egyptological terminology wrongly called gemination, especially the last strong stem consonants. This process is used both for word - form as well as for education.

• Affixes

Play a very important role also in the older Egyptian affixes, as in virtually all inflected languages ​​. In Egyptian here are two groups can be distinguished: the widely occurring and easily recognizable affixation of j and w, one in both the word and the form of education frequently occurring process. Might be more difficult are various other consonantal affixes the most common among them is the prefix s-, the causative in the formation and faktitiver verbs used. With the exception of gender and Numerusendungen and the " Tempus " formation to find these affixes only in word formation.

An impression of the various possibilities of root morphology in the Egyptian provides the following overview of derivatives from the root prj " go out ", in which all of the morphological possibilities of Middle Egyptian described here:

Nominal and Pronominalmorphologie

Nouns

The Middle Egyptian noun belongs to one of the two genera masculine and feminine, and can the Numbers singular, dual and plural form. The feminine is in this case the dual by tj characterized, while the masculine singular is the unmarked in the rule and the dual has the suffix wj by the suffixes t, jt or wt and. When plural mark an ending w is prepared conventionally, although this probably corresponds to the actual mold component only in a subset of nouns:

Occur, as in the Semitic and Berber languages ​​nouns according to their position in different status, including the status of the construct, but an insignificant effect on the consonant inventory. Despite various attempts have so far not succeeded in proving in the Egyptian case endings. Also articles do not exist in the actual Middle Egyptian (yet).

Adjectives

The Egyptian has very few primary adjectives. All other adjectives are either participles of verbs or property derived from nouns and prepositions (so-called Nisben ):

• Nfr " be good " > nfr "good"
• Ntr "god" > nṯr.j "divine"

In terms of their flexion to adjectives behave like nouns and congruent in attributive use with its reference word: nṯr.t nfr.t " good goddess ".

Personal pronouns

The Middle Egyptian distinguishes three sets of personal pronouns (here without some old-fashioned special shapes shown):

The absolute personal pronouns used in particular as Topik before verbal and non - verbal sentences: jnk SDM = j " I hear ". In contrast to them enclitic personal pronouns can never begin a sentence, but otherwise meet different syntactic functions, for example, as a subject of Adjektivalsatzes ( nfr wj " I'm good " ) as well as an object in verbal sentence: jw h3b = f wj " he sends me." Suffixpronomina who find themselves in very similar functions also in Semitic, Berber, Cushitic and Chadic, be suffixed to their relation with this word and merge into a single unit, which results in certain phonological consequences ( the status pronominalis ). They are mainly used as possessive pronouns after nouns (pr = f " his house " ), as the subject of the suffix conjugation ( sdmrf " he hears " ) and as subject and object of infinitives ( jr.t = f " be doing", mr. t = f " the love - him ").

Verbal morphology

Suffix conjugation

Form

A central position in the Egyptian verbal paradigm takes the suffix conjugation. It is characterized by the fact that the pronominal subject is suffixed as Suffixpronomen directly to the Tempus-/Aspekt-/Modusstämmen: sdmrf " he hears " ( = separates the trunk from Suffixpronomen ); the nominal subject is also after the verb: SDM NTR " God hears ."

Through different vocalizations and affixes possibilities such Tempus-/Aspekt-/Modusstämme could be distinguished; However, because the vowels in hieroglyphs remained unconsidered and have the hieroglyphic spellings even in regard to the consonants inconsistencies, their exact number is uncertain, but is usually assumed that about 10 asset and liability as well as two exclusive liabilities tenses / aspects. The most important position is held alongside the present tense sdmrf " he hears " the perfektische sḏm.n = f " he heard " a; added several futurist, perfektische and subjunktivische forms. The forms sḏm.jn = f "and then he heard ," sḏm.k3 = f and f = sḏm.ḫr, sḏm.t an uncertain in its basic meaning form = f and the relative forms ( sdmrf " the one he hears " sḏm.t = f" the one he hears " ) occupy a special position.

Opinions were divided as the syntactic and semantic function of the various forms of the paradigm. Here we can distinguish two main currents.

Traditional approach

According to the justified in the tradition of the Berlin School and codified in essential standard works such as Alan H. Gardiner Egyptian Grammar approach differ the various forms of suffix conjugation exclusively in semantic or pragmatic level, hence are therefore to be regarded as different tenses, aspects and / or modes. Of particular importance in the argument is a form that is formed in certain classes by verbal reduplication ( erroneously referred to as gemination ): m33 = f " he sees" jrr NTR " makes God ". It was either " emphatically " - so special Adolf Erman - or interpreted as " imperfective ". By the latter interpretation, there was a particular analogy with the relative forms and participles, where the distinction perfective vs.. impeferktiv long time as was secured:

However, here some problems arise from the realization that the " perfective " sdmrf includes several formally similar and therefore difficult to distinguish the forms, which is why younger theories have to do without this analogy.

" Standard theory "

Main article: standard theory

A completely new approach to understanding the suffix conjugation developed Hans Jacob Polotsky the first time in his Études de syntaxe copte (1944). Starting from the Coptic he hypothesized that it is about one in syntactically nominal RELATES at that form of suffix conjugation, which is formed in certain classes by reduplication of the last root consonant, the particular perform, if a focused adverbials follows. An important example from the Middle Egyptian is the following passage from the Coffin Texts:

During the first two sets have the " copulate " "normal" form of the verb STJ, is in the next blocks, each having a focused adverbials ( " the people " or " with goddesses " ), the " geminierende " form. The last two sentences are after Polotsky hence " copulated That I / My Ba / copulating " as Adverbialsätze with the subject to be analyzed and the following adverbials as a predicate. Over time Polotsky realized that, it is also "normal" forms, which are forms behind " geminierenden " explain as adverbials. This Polotsky had developed his since the 1980s as the "standard theory " called transposition theory, occur according to the forms of the suffix conjugation not only in verbal function, but can also transpose in adverbial or nominal function. An increase of this theory poses a threat of Friedrich boy in his habilitation thesis (1976 ) illustrated model, according to Middle Egyptian verb forms can only occur in nominal and adverbial function that Middle Egyptian so therefore has no verbal sentences.

Since about 1990, the standard theory is considered more critical, especially "real " verbal phrases are increasingly accepted again.

Other verbal forms

" Pseudopartizip " / Tripod

The second kind of finite verb forms in addition to the suffix conjugation is a going back to the Proto - Afro-Asiatic Konjugationsart, referred to as Pseudopartizip, tripod, or (only in English ) Old Perfective. In contrast to the suffix conjugation, it has its own set of personal endings ( separated with the structural character "." ):

The Pseudopartizip occurs predominantly expressed by states, in addition, there can also express dynamic actions in both the active (mostly intransitive verbs ) and in the passive (with transitive verbs). In syntactic terms, the use of Pseudopartizips is severely restricted: it can not be negated, occur almost exclusively in embedded clauses and do not have a nominal subject, for example. Most frequently it appears in temporal adverbial clauses expressing a condition:

A dynamic use in active and passive occurs predominantly in autobiographical passages on, compare ḫnt.kw " I drove upstream " h3b.kw " I was sent ."

A particular use is to be found in request sentences, particularly in the extremely frequent formula ˁ nḫ.w wḏ3.w snb.w "May he live, be safe and sound. "

Infinite forms

The Middle Egyptian has several infinite verbal forms, in particular several participles and infinitives. As in the Semitic and Berber languages ​​, these forms are formed to a significant extent by various Vokalisationsmuster:

Syntax

Verbal phrases

Propositions whose predicate is a form of the suffix conjugation are called verbal sentences. You have the following word position, course, not all items are mandatory:

Preliminary particles - predicate - pronominal subject ( Suffixpronomen ) - pronominal object ( indirectly ) - pronominal object (direct) - nominal subject - nominal object (direct) - nominal object ( indirectly ) - Other enhancements

As a rule must Verbal sentences if they are not embedded, are introduced by different particles or auxiliary verbs. Quite often, the introduction with the word jw.

Example:

In certain texts appear as an introduction, other auxiliary verbs, for example ˁ H ˁ, actually " stand " on:

Non -verbal sentences

In all phases of the Egyptian also substantival, adjectival and adverbial expressions can form a predicate. Depending on the nature of the predicate, different record types can be distinguished. Sets without verbal predicate are not determined with respect to tense and mood, this is the transfer in verbal sentences by means of the auxiliary verbs jw and wnn required.

Substantivalsatz

Noun phrases as predicate may in certain cases consist of a simple juxtaposition of subject and predicate: DDJ rn = f ". Djedi is his name " Mostly, however, is a copula pw, originally a flektierbares according to number and gender demonstrative, since the Old Kingdom but an unchangeable particles, is used:

Adjektivalsatz

Sentences with adjective as predicate always have the word order predicate - subject:

Adverbial

Sentences with adverbials, that is either an adverb or a prepositional phrase, as a predicate have the position of subject - predicate:

A special application of Adverbial represents the so-called pseudo- verbal sentence dar. Its predicate is either a Pseudopartizip or a prepositional phrase the preposition infinitive form; the sentence has a meaning similar to real consequent verbal sentences. While pseudo- verbal sentences still played a minor role in Ancient Egyptian, took their meaning since the Middle Kingdom is steadily increasing. In constructions with preposition infinitive have the prepositions hr " on " and m "in" presentist, r " ", however, futurist meaning:

Relative constructions

Depending on the type of the external reference word and its relative position in the syntactic phrase constructions have relative different forms. Is the reference word definite, a relative pronoun ( affirmative nt.j (m.), nt.t ( f ), nt.jw ( Pl ); negative jw.tj ) or an attributive participle may be used:

For indefinite reference words unmarked relative clauses can be applied:

Is the reference word is not the subject of the embedded verb, the so-called relative forms attributive verb forms can be used, which are inflected by tense / aspect / mode as well as gender and number of the reference word; its subject is marked as in other forms of the suffix conjugation (see above):

Negation

The negation of one of the most complex areas of Egyptian syntax. The two basic Negativadverbien n and nn, both meaning " not ". Both can negate verbal sentences by standing in front of the predicate. It is noteworthy that the temporal meaning of the verb form suffixkonjugierten deviates significantly from the affirmative use. After its discoverer, the British Egyptologist Battiscombe Gunn (1883-1950), is referred to this asymmetry as Gunnsche rule:

N and nn are sometimes also used for negation of non-verbal phrases:

A special feature of the Egyptian represent the negative verbs and jmj tm dar. Instead of the negated verb itself is conjugated the Negativverb; the meaningful verb occurs in an immutable form, the so-called Negativkomplement:

Finally Middle Egyptian also has a negative relative jw.tj " which is not ", eg jw.tj sdmrf " one who does not hear ."