Egyptian Grammar by Adolf Erman

GRAMMAR WITH

TABLE OF SIGNS, BIBLIOGRAPHY, EXERCISES FOR READING AXD

GLOSSARY BY

ADOLF ERMAN. TRANSLATED BY

JAMES HENRY BREASTED.

WILLIAMS AND NOEGATE, 14,

HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 1894. ,tlT>

^

>-

Authorized Translation.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. As the outgrowth of practical academic instruction, this

book

is

designed to facilitate as far as possible,

for the beginner, the acquisition of the

Egyptian lanand is intended and also for those who guage writing, must dispense with the assistance of a teacher in aims to acquaint the learner with those grammatical phenomena which are well established, and which must guide us in the interpretation of texts.

the study.

It further

It

aims to afford him as correct a picture as

of the general structure of the Egyptian

possible

language.

For those who are familiar with the peculiar situation of Egyptian philology, I need not premise

with the remark, that something else the study of Egyptian

a fruitful study, Coptic.

viz.

One who

is

grammar

is

if it is

necessary to to be at all

the simultaneous acquisition of

not familiar with this, the only

phase of the Egyptian language which we really understand, will never properly

comprehend

it

in its older

IV

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

periods, nor, at the

most ever attain more than a super-

capacity for reading Egyptian texts by rote. I would therefore request the student of my book to work through Steindorff's Coptic Grammar a book

ficial

parallel with this

and

especially, to note also the

constant cross references in both.

The

selection

material

offered

and limitation of the grammatical especial difficulty. The Egyptian

language as we find it, presents quite different stages of development, and even leaving Late Egyptian and still

later

idioms

out of account, fifteen hundred

years of the history of the language

be dealt with.

These

difficulties

still

remain

to

have been surmoun-

ted by relegating to certain paragraphs (A and B) the peculiarities of the

ancient religious literature

and the inscriptions of the old empire on the one hand, of the popular language of the middle

and those

empire on the other. The paragraphs therefore deal with what may be caUed the classic language, the language of the inscriptions and poems of the middle empire, with which the idiom later employed as the

learned and official language is practically identical. The material in the chrestomathy is also taken from texts of this character in order that the beginner

may

accustom himself to their linguistic usage and especially to their consistent orthography, I have tried

AUTHOR

PREFACE.

S

to facilitate the understanding of the chrestomathy

by division into sentences, clear print and explanatory remarks. In the use of the book

the beginner should

first

it

has seemed to

me

that

familiarize himself with the

most important paragraphs, designated by an asterisk, and should then work through the first part of doing this he not only looks up the paragraphs indicated, but also tries to form a connected idea of the sections of the grammar thus

the Chrestomathy.

If in

referred to, he will then be sufficiently advanced to

take hold of the second part of the chrestomathy,

where as a rule he must recognize the grammatical forms for himself. The appendix to the chrestomathy contains "the most important of the formularies from the

list

which must now be mastered,

in order to

understand Egyptian inscriptions correctly. It further behoves me to state, that in this book, much which is not so designated undoubtedly belongs to Steindorff

and Sethe.

cussed these things

among

But we have so often ourselves,, that

separate our "intellectual property" even it

dis-

we could not if

we deemed

at all important to do so. SUDENDE, August 19th, 1893.

ADOLF EEMAN.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. The peculiar

difficulties

experienced by the trans-

in transferring into English the results of the

lator,

grammatical investigations of his honored teacher, Prof. Erman, render a word of explanation necessary. These difficulties were due firstly, to the unique character of the

that the

language investigated, and secondly to the fact new science of Egyptian Grammar, as it has

been created by the German grammatical school in the last fifteen years, does not yet exist in English.* *

The above statement may seem strange to one who knows grammar of Le Page Renouf was reedited in 1889 ("An

that the

Elementary Grammar of the Ancient Egyptian Language" by P. Le Page Renouf, Bagster & Sons, London, 2nd. ed.). But this venerable scholar, the Nestor of English Egyptologists, has not followed the modern development in Egyptian grammar. His book is therefore entirely obsolete. Ex. gr. on p. 1 you will find the

Egyptian consonants I, 3, C &c. classified under a list of vowels! and the statement added, that the "vowels were very commonly omitted", and this about a system of orthography exclusively consonantal (with the exception of one or two doubtful endings).

On

p. 50

the In of the

m-form

of the verb

is

stated to be inse-

parable from the subject and separable from the verb, an assertion in direct contradiction of the facts, and due to a confusion with

VII

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

There were therefore no termini

grammar ready facility

hand

at

with which the

expression of

in

English.

German

compound

technici of

Egyptian

The ready

lends itself to the

ideas in one word,

is

enti-

and the peculiar phenomena compound was always ready in

rely foreign to English

for

which a

the flexile

the particle

felicitous

German were sometimes In.

Or turn

to p. 18

the despair of the

where the absolute pronoun

st is

called a suffix, the author being misled by the confusion purely orthographic in late and corrupt texts, between st, sn and s, for in the classic language st

is always used absolutely, i. e. separably. In the same chapter one searches in vain for any paradigm of the old absolute pronouns. Those of the 1 c. and 3 m. s. are incidentally

mentioned, the latter being called an "independent personal pronoun", but the 2 m. s., 2 f. s., 3 f. s., and all the plurals are wanting. But to enumerate forms and phenomena unknown to this

grammar would be

to repeat a large portion of the

work

though Mr. Le Page Benouf has stated in his "Concluding Observations" that the Egyptian language suffered many changes during its enormously long history, no hint of these changes appears in the treatment of grammatical forms and syntax. The entire treatise is therefore as reasonable as would be a grammar, which, without any distinction of time, should present the forms of Latin and its offspring Italian in heterogeneous combination from the Augustan age down to the present day. If the end of the period thus included were two thousand years removed from us, the parallel would be complete and it could be stated with impunity that the Latin article was il and that the Italian nouns were comprised in five terminationally inflected declensions. In France the new science is equally disregarded, as the recent "Manuel de la Langue egyptienne" of here translated.

Victor Loret

may

Further,

testify.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

VIII

translator. It

is

hoped, however, that such terms have

been made at least

intelligible to the

English reading student and the indulgence of the reader is craved wherever felicitous English has been sacrificed for the sake of clearness.

One word has been

coined, viz.

"substantivized", being simply the transferred "substantivirte".

passive" for

the

With the

German

translation "uninflected

German "endungsloses

Passiv" the

writer was not at all satisfied, but could find nothing

and

better

after

consultation

with the author,

it

The term "pseudoparticiple" is another directly transferred word for which nothing better could stands.

both in conjugation and meaning, very similar to the Assyrian "permansive", but to have used this term would have been a liberty not justified

be found;

it

is,

in translating. It

only remains

to be

hoped that the results, fifteen years, which render the

achieved within the last

grammatical structure of the ancient Egyptian tolerably intelligible, and which are herewith presented for the

first

time in English,

may be

as interesting

and

have been to to

whom

in-

and American student as they the translator, from the lips of the man

structive to the English

they are almost solely due.

BERLIN, Nov. llth, 1893.

JAMES HENEY BREASTED.

CONTENTS. GRAMMAR. So

13

INTRODUCTION

OETHOGRAPHY AND PHONETICS. 1.

In general

2.

Phonetic Signs. a. The Alphabet

412 1327

b.

Special Points in Phonetics

28

31

c.

Syllabic Signs

32

35

3.

Ideograms

36

44

4.

Determinatives

45

52 tr-

5.

Orthography. a. In general b. c.

d. e.

54

58

59

6^

Abbreviations

63

68

Inversion of the Order of

Words

Unusual Styles of Orthography Rules for Transliteration f.

G.

5^

Orthography of the Ideograms Purely phonetic Orthography

69

7071 72

PRONOUNS. J.

Personal Pronoun. a.

Personal suffixes

73

&.

Old Absolute Pronoun

8083

c.

Later Absolute Pronoun

84

d.

Expression for "self

85

79

2.

Demonstrative Pronoun. a. b.

Forms with m. pForms with n-

f.

t-

86

90

91

94

NOUNS. 1.

Substantives. a.

Expression of Gender of the Substantive

b.

Forms

c.

Expression of Number.

95 99

a. Plural /?.

y.

e.

The Article The Absolute Substantive

/".

Apposition and Coordination

d.

g.

2.

.

.

.

104106 107109 110112 113116 117

118

119

121

The Genetive. a.

Direct Genetive

122

124

/3.

Genetive with n

125

127

Adjectives Adjectives without Ending Adjectives in

128

131

b.

132

137

c.

Appendix

138

139

a.

3.

Dual Use of the Singular, Plural, Dual.

98

103

'i

(ir'i,

Imy, ns)

Numerals. a. Beal Numerals b.

Appendix

to the

140145 146147

Numeral

VERBS. 1.

In general. a.

The a. /3.

y. b.

Classes of the Verb.

Usual Classes

148154

Rare Classes and Irregular Verbs The Causative

155

2.

Expression of the Subject (Inflection). Usual Inflection. a.

161

Voice

c.

In general

160 162

.

.

.

163169 170

171

XI

CONTENTS. b.

The Formation sdmf. a. The Forms of the First Group. A.

Its

B.

Use

Formation as Indicative

172

173

174

176

C. In the Conditional sentence

177

178

D. As a Subjunctive E. In a Final Clause

179

180

As an Optative The Forms of the Second Group.

182183

A. Its Formation

184

181

F. ft.

Use as an Indicative

187

C.

In Conditional Clauses

188

D. Dependent upon Verbs E. Dependent

189

190

upon Prepositions

Appendix The -Form sdmnf. y.

c.

a. Its ft.

Its

Formation Use

191

193

194

195

196199

l>k:

A.

'

:

56*.

p

f

mw

"

fieid "'

rarely only the initial consonants, as in:

\\ff U

\ '

g.

"times" (germ. Mai),

P

s

n (^

spd p re P are ">

i

more

still

"feast",

e.

"

r

s i eze

possession",

sb3 "star".

I

In the oldest orthography writings of just this kind are ~~

frequent,

cf. e. g.

:

t



o

and

t

nfr "good",

o

Q

y A

A

J\

AAAAAA

fmH classic writings

T

"Lord'' instead of the

CliC "palace",

^' A yA J\

'

H

""""

y

'

^I^7

^ui. *\

I

I

Finally in soine isolated cases the initial conson- 57.

ant of the ideogram or placed after a

it, e. g.

wcl "to

its

entire phonetic writing

is

:

command",

r "storehouse",

^^

|

T 1\

dmd

"unite",

^^^ mr

"be sick",

mr "pyramid". A.

This

is

also a

remnant of the

pyramids such writings are frequent.

oldest orthography; in the

22

ORTH03RAPHY.

5.

C.

PURELY PHONKTIC ORTHOGRAPHY.

58. 59.

Only a few especially frequent ideograms except 67 are left without any pho-

*58.

the abbreviations of netic addition, as: Jir

"face",

pr

pn^T ^^7

"house",

^

s*

rib

"every",

^=^^

ntr "god",

"scribe",

rib

"lord",

e

#

"army",

and the feminines

"fill",

:

Q Q crz] rj^J

lit '

mrvt "mother",

"house",

Imt "woman",

st "Isis",

c.

etc.

PURELY PHONETIC ORTHOGRAPHY.

All words for which the orthography possesses

59.

no ideogram are written with purely phonetic signs These are in part very i. e. without ideograms. frequently recurring words, like: .

f)

Im "to be",

^ rn

f\

^VW\A

Jl^e,

"name",

jt f^

"*\\ r^S-

"

bln n

bad "'

^ mil

"lion",

1

CMJ**/It "fll'Mnlz" A/ f* olVi CLI111K. , Oulj.



I

C-L

In the oldest orthography the purely phonetic writing

very frequent.

wd3

Note the rare cases

"sound, healthy", |

(^

^^

also occur occasionally later.

for

^^

^\ Q

for

V\

A

^^

^ 3lit "field",

3

which

ORTHOGRAPHY.

5.

PURELY PHONETIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 60

C.

62.

23

Since the syllabic signs employed in these writings 60*. 40, originally ideograms, the were, according to

is

added to them

is

pronunciation

mostly the

final

.Hiumii

consonant which

^~

*.

WTX

mn,

ms,

But

in

mr,

many

same way.

in the is

It

e. g.

written,

:

s

*

hr,

-^*

tvn,

&c.

cases the initial consonant also

written (and such syllabic signs are thereby

inguished from the real ideograms,

cf.

56)

As a rare writing note that of the

is

dist-

e. g.

:

syllabic sign

>X n which the phonetic value is indicated by means of another frequently recurring i^

nrv:

*

^

sign for nw.

A

few syllabic signs moreover are

employed without phonetic addition, thus L

To^

fc?,

J

t

ATJ",

D

^

1

s:?,

nrv

;

often also 61*.

e. g.

^\

t'irv,

those derived from sub-

stantives then receive a stroke according to

Note the writing of the words

mm

and

51.

sl3:

(I

AAAAAA

and

In

0^\

I]

mn-i, s3-i, in

which the subjoined

be inserted within the syllabic sign.*

is to *

according to Sethe.

I

I

62.

24

5.

OBTHOGKAPHY.

63.

64.

ABBKEVIATIONS.

d.

63.

d. ABBREVIATIONS.

Since the Egyptian writing was naturally intended only for such as were familiar with the language, the

Egyptians omitted much as dispensable, which seemed to

them

self-evident.

plur. of

e. g. Jimrvt

unindicated, JJ

(that

i

oilil

all

grammatical changes take place within a word are left

therefore which

written

Almost

is

o

JJ Jimt \

"woman"

is

-I

without indication of the n>\

But further, the grammatical endings are also often omitted, where it is supposed that the reader himself

them from the connection: lr$ 2T

will perceive

I

for the plural sr(w} "princes",

"every

woman"

consonant

is

many

for Iff (j

1

1

1

for Jimt nb[t]

phonetically written words a

^

used words:

"father", n

^K

^J

JQ

for

rmt "man",

f\

for hCp "Nile",

hrd

for

9

for Iht "thing",

for

ji

regularly or often omitted. Note especi-

ally the frequently Ci

^z

I

&c.

Further with

64.

JJ

7

sms "follow", for tvsr "desolate

v

for

htm "to

seal",

AAAAAA

for inr "stone",

ft

D

"child",

for smt "land",

for ptr "see", for Ck3 "correct J J

7

',

ORTHOGRAPHY,

5.

65

ABBREVIATIONS.

d.

for df3 "food",

fl

fl

I

I

J\

25

67.

for shsh "walk, run",

&c. A. Belonging to the earliest period, but sometimes occurring

o

later also, are:

longing to",also n

for

[1

^^"

o

for

it

[1

"father",

%> *^T~



Iwf

for (I

ifI "be-

.

"flesh".

Here belong also the cases where only its second consonant is added to a triliteral ideogram in violation of

55, e. g.

for

T ^

AAAAAA

I

f

A

:

I

*

"?

for

stn "king of

"k

"?

z3

v\ M:?

"o i)

f r

oDA

''^ "offering",

u

r\ I

for

I

wsr

for s^m^

(j

"strong",

"name of a goddess", &c.

In frequently used

titles

arbitrary

abbreviations

"prince",

D

diction nr 1

?O A

A

upper Egypt".

"to reign",

|

3

65.

still

*=^

f or

occur,

like:

<

more

66.

jiCfi

for rpQ'i "hereditary prince", the bene-

A

&

and formulae,

I

for Cnh

wd3 snb

"living, hale, healthy",

\

for nhh "eternity".

Further, the old divine names, titles &c., which 67. are written with only an ideogram are abbreviations, like:

^X T

rvp rv3rvt

"opener of ways" (a divine name);

26

6.

INVERSION OF THE ORDER OF WORDS./. UNUSUAL STYLES. 68

-

"his

hCrvf-RC i

68.

i

70.

i

diadems are those of ReC" (royal name) &c. Finally, a word which is obvious from the connection, is very often so abbreviated that only its deter-

minative n

_

is

inserted,

e. g.

;ys

for

o

for

^p^

_IJTA

I

_

n

/VAAAA D

11

"statue" &c.

nht "strong",

for

o

k3t "labor", *\

n

,-.

v\

1

trvt

cf.

the

(j

(For the most important cases

table of signs).

INVERSION OP THE ORDER OF WORDS.

e.

*69.

In

titles,

formulae, names &c. words which desig-

nate the king or a god are inserted in the writing before the others belonging thereto; in reading, the correct order

must of course be

restored,

e. g.

:

sin "son of the king",

1

hn-ntr "servant of the god, priest",

Si 1 {

OQ /.

70.

ml RC

hn-ntr Hkt "priest of the goddess ffkt", "like ReC".

UNUSUAL STYLES OF ORTHOGRAPHY.

Since the m.

e.

there developed along with th(

usual writing, a syllabic orthography, which nevertheless was only used for the writing of foreign words,

proper names &c.

It consists of the syllabic signs

UNUSUAL STYLES.

/.

The sounds

:?

RULES FOR TRANSLITERATION.

27

and w evidently serve as the approx-

imate indication of the vowels tw-p3-ir3

The

72.

35 and of other syllables in ^ and

33

treated in rv.

71. 6.

for

syllables :?(?)

;

cf.

the

Hebrew

and

^^ n

seem to correspond to er and en. Sportive methods of writing,

e. g.

s=>

f\

"

"scribe" &c.

*ffib

employed therein, which ideograms

in

71.

serve as simple consonants, determinatives and un-

precedented signs are used as ideograms, are found as early as the m. a.

=^

>~\

^\

tain

msdmt

,,cosmetic",

ofms "child" represents tt

g.

\\

ffif^i

for

'

MJ

.O

_S^III tive

e. cf. e.

/~\

represents

d,

wherein

(3j)

as determina-

JT

this syllable,

\\ mwt

c^ drv "moun-

"mother"

the syllable

But this wanton method first attains importance from the fact that such an orthography gradually superceded the old hieroglyphs in the Greek period.

mt.

A summary

of these signs

may be found

Verzeichniss der Hierogtyphen mit

inBrug"sch,

Lautrvert (Leipzig

1872). 6.

RULES FOR TRANSLITERATION.

The orthography so often leaves the phonetic form of the words uncertain, that a transliteration free

from some arbitrariness

is

impossible.

accustom himself to the following rules:

One should

72.

28 PRONOUNS. 1.

1.

THE PERSONAL PRONOUN,

Since most %==>'$ and

d.

PERSONAL SUFFIXES.

'^'s according

73.

to

24,

I

25 had, in the m. texts of the m.

e.

already

become-^ and d^a,

in

and d should always be transliterated in cases of doubt, and / and d only e.

and

n. e.

s=

t

and -=^ are actually written out. employed when ^ Hence J) ntr butT^? ntrt. I

2.

\_i



1.

c.^J

o

2m. ^3^ k

s=>

t

'

I

/WWVA

C\

3. c.

I

I/

I

-- -

(^)

3m. *^ /

AAAAAA

M

/^~*

\

snf /WW\A>

I

)

\l f.

\

2. C. 1

f.

n

(

I

I

AAAWA/

,

)

[1

They are written

word

after the determinative of the

which they are subjoined,

to

rdk (copt. pATK) "thy foot",

e.

g7\

^

^