Egyptian: An Introduction to the Writing and Language of the Middle Kingdom, Volume I: Grammar, Syntax and Indexes

Description

This is a data-oriented grammatical description of Middle Egyptian, a now extinct Pharaonic language, spoken and written in the hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts, between 2100 and 1700 before our era, the period of the Middle Kingdom. Middle Egyptian was regarded by the Egyptians as a classical stage of their language and it remained in use for a long time after that period. Middle Egyptian texts are extremely varied and comprise stories, historical narratives, letters, scientific treatises, and a large number of religious sources. The first volume is a systematic description of the language, illustrated by a great number of quotations from original texts, and provided with word lists and other indexes. The second volume leads the reader in a gradual way in 33 lessons through the grammatical description provided in the first volume, and moreover contains an extensive list of hieroglyphic signs and their values, exercises and, finally, original texts for reading. Contents Figures & tables Sources cited Abbreviations & sigla Introduction 1 The Egyptian language 2 The Egyptian writing system: its principles 3 One-consonant signs as phonograms, and elementary phonetics 4 Two-consonant signs as phonograms 5 Three-consonant signs as phonograms 6 Ideograms and determinatives 7 The forms of the hieroglyphs 8 Special writings: 1. Orientation, abbreviation, etc. 9 The religious and social status of writing 10 Phonology: some basic details 11 Stems, parts of speech, and endings 12 Nouns: 1. Gender 13 Nouns: 2. Number, syntax, state 14 Nouns: 3. Derived nouns and adjectives 15 Special writings: 2. Grammatical maskings 16 Pronouns and auxiliary nouns: a survey 17 The suffix pronouns 18 The independent pronouns 19 The dependent pronouns 20 The demonstrative pronouns 21 The numerals 22 Quantifiers (nb, nhy, nkt, tnw(.w)) 23 Indefinite auxiliary nouns (bw, h.t, sp, etc.) 24 ky other, and diversification 25 Expressions for complete(ly) (r-dr, etc.) 26 Reflexives (ds= self, etc.) and replacives (bm Majesty, etc.) 27 Possessive and privative expressions (ir.y, iw.t.y, etc.) 28 The interrogatives 29 Prepositions: 1. General; simple 30 Prepositions: 2. Compound 31 Adverbials 32 Particles: 1. General; proclitic particles 33 Particles: 2. Enclitic particles 34 Interjections 35 The verbal system, general: 1. Introduction 36 The verbal system, general: 2. Stems and conjugations 37 The verbal system, general: 3. Tense, aspect, voice, word order 38 The verbal system, general: 4. Auxiliary verbs 39 The Infinitive: 1. General; morphology, syntactic primaries, syntax 40 The Infinitive: 2. Independent and dependent uses; negation 41 The Infinitive: 3. After prepositions, as a predicate 42 Other verbal nouns: Negatival Complement; Gerunds 43 The Stative: 1. General; morphology, syntax 44 The Stative: 2. Independent and dependent uses 45 The Stative: 3. As an embedded predicate 46 The Imperative and Vetitive 47 The Prospective: L General, morphology, and syntax 48 The Prospective: 2. Independent use 49 The Prospective: 3. In pairs, and semi-dependent (consecutive) 50 The Prospective: 4. As a dependent pattern 51 The Prospective: 5. Negated 52 The Subsequential (the k3 patterns) 53 The Terminative (sdm.t=f): 1. General, morphology, affirmative and active uses 54 The Terminative: 2. Negated, passivized, particulars 55 The Momentaneous: 1. General, morphology, syntax 56 The Momentaneous: 2. Uses 57 The Consequential (the hr patterns) and the Eventual (the in pattern) 58 The Circumstantial: 1. General, morphology, syntax 59 The Circumstantial: 2. Embedded after a clause 60 The Circumstantial: 3. Embedded after a single word 61 The Imperfective: 1. General, morphology, and syntax 62 The Imperfective: 2. Pivot inside the clause 63 The Imperfective: 3. Pivot outside the clause 64 The Imperfective: 4. Dependent, negated 65 The Perfect (sdm.n=f): 1. General, morphology, syntax 66 The Perfect: 2. Embedded 67 The Perfect: 3. In serialization 68 The Perfect: 4. Pivot inside the clause, and negated 69 The Perfect: 5. Pivot outside the clause; Perfects paired 70 The Passives (sdm.w(=f), sdmm=f): 1. General, morphology, syntax 71 The sdm.w(=f) and sdmm=f Passives: 2. Uses 72 Participials: general 73 The Suffixing Participle (sdm.ty=fy) 74 The standard Participles: 1. General, morphology, syntax 75 Participles: 2. Imperfective 76 Participles: 3. Perfective 77 Participles: 4. Particulars: negation, substantivization, etc. 78 Relative forms: 1. General, morphology 79 Relative forms: 2. Uses; specific constructions of participials 80 Quoting, and quotation patterns (with dd, in=, hr= and k3=) 81 Surveys: 1 Compound verb forms; 2 verb stems; 3 nominal and verbal suffixes 82 Syntax: a general survey 83 Direct annexion 84 Modification 85 Indirect annexion (with .— n(y)) 86 Partitive phrases (adposition) 87 Apposition 88 Coordination 89 Sentence/Clause-as-word constructions 90 Clauses: general characteristics 91 Grammatical, semantic and pragmatic functions 92 Existential clauses 93 Deictic clauses 94 Presentational clauses 95 Ascriptive clauses 96 Possessive clauses 97 Situative clauses: 1. General 98 Situative clauses: 2. With a non-verbal predicate 99 Situative clauses: 3. With a verbal predicate 100 Situative clauses: 4. Particulars, negated 102 Equational clauses: 2. Bipartite, with a non-verbal predicate 103 Equational clauses: 3. Bipartite, with a verbal predicate 104 Equational clauses: 4. Tripartite, negated 105 Various clauses with a verbal predicate: word order, passivization, object and subject suppression 106 Negation in general 107 Interrogative clauses 108 Relative clauses: 1. General; Type (1), with straight reference 109 Relative clauses: 2. Type (2), with oblique reference; particulars 110 Prominence constructions: 1. General; focus 111 Prominence constructions: 2. Emphasis 112 Compound and complex sentences: general 113 Complex sentences, Type (1): main + relative clause 114 Complex sentences, Type (2): main clause + subordinate clause-as-noun 115 Complex sentences, Type (3): main + unmarked adverbial subordinate clause 116 Complex sentences, Type (4): main + marked adverbial subordinate clause 117 Complex sentences, Type (5): Premises, Conditionals and Temporals 118 Compound sentences: one or more coordinated clauses 119 An outline of metrical analysis Appendix 1 Dating methods Appendix 2 Royal names Appendix 3 The text material of the Middle Kingdom Appendix 4 Grammars, reading books and dictionaries of Middle Egyptian Index 1 Egyptian-English word list Index 2 English-Egyptian word list Index 3 Egyptian grammatical words Index 4 Grammatical, literary, etc. terms Index 5 General grammatical terms Index 6 Passages quoted in vol. I Index 7 Concordance with §§ in A.H. Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar