A Lexicon of Egyptian Lexical Roots (Project)

A Lexicon of Egyptian Lexical Roots (Project)

Helmut Satzinger

15TH MEETING OF AFRO-ASIATIC LINGUISTICS Rome, 17-19 September 2014

Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Root Lexicon (Project) The aim of this project is to establish a complete inventory of the lexical roots of the Egyptian language. This concerns all stages of the language as attested in hieroglyphic and hieratic texts, citing also those items that survive into Demotic and Coptic.

Applica'on for support of project at the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenscha2lichen Forschung (Research Fund),

of February 2014:

Decision is to be expected by October 2014.

Traditional Arabic Dictionaries are root dictionaries: Lexemes are arranged by the sequence of consonants of the roots. A.   Stirpes of verbs f-t-ḥ fataḥa ‘he opened’ (trans.)

iftataḥa ‘he opened’ (intrans.) B. Nominal forms: the Broken Plurals j-w-b jawāb ‘answer,’ ˀajwiba(t)‘answers’

C. Prefixes m-, t-. ’- f-t-ḥ miftāḥ ‘key,’ maftūḥ ‘open’ m-r-n tamrīn ‘exercise’ l-m-ð tilmīð ‘pupil’ ˁ-l-n ˀiˁlān ‘anouncement’ ṭ-r-ḥ ˀuṭrūḥa(t) ‘thesis’ Etc.

A. Stirpes of verbs Perfect Imperfect Maṣdar

I. faˁala, yafˁalu, ... II. faˁˁala, yufaˁˁilu, tafˁīl III. fāˁala, yufāˁilu, mufāʿala IV. ˀafˁala, yufˁilu, ʾifˁāl V. tafaˁˁala, yatafaˁˁalu, tafaˁˁul VI. tafāˁala, yatafāˁalu, tafāˁul VII. infaˁala, yanfaˁilu, infaˁāl VIII. iftaˁala, yaftaˁilu, iftaˁāl IX. ifˁalla, yafˁallu, ifˁilāl X. istafˁala, yastafˁilu, istifˁāl

Etc. ...

B. Broken Plural Forms of Arabic, e.g.: Singular Plural kitāb (book) kutub (books) ɣurfa (room) ɣuraf (rooms) šaqqa (apartment) šuqaq (apartment) qiṭṭ (cat) qiṭaṭ (cats) qalb (heart) qulūb (hearts) kalb (dog) kilāb (dogs) yawm (day) ʼayyām (days) film (film) ʼaflām (films) ˁamūd (pole) ʼaˁmidah (poles) ṣadīq (friend) ʼaṣdiqāʼ (friends) saˁīd (happy) suˁadāʼ (happy)

Egyptian dictionaries do not arrange items by root (although the structure of the language is not dissimilar to Semitic): Often enough, derivatives of a root do not appear in its neighbourhood. The reason? •Prefixes: ˁnḫ ‘to live’ s-ˁnḫ ‘to make live’ šnj ‘to quarrel’ n-šnj ‘to rage’ ẖnj ‘to go by boat’ m-ẖn.t ‘ferry-boat’ •Loss of initial weak consonant: wsḫ ‘be wide’ sḫ.t ‘width’ •Reduplication: sn ‘to associate’ snsn ‘to fraternize’ (will appear after snj, snˁj, snˁḥ, ... snḫn, snḫt, snẖꜣ)

Combinations of more than one phenomenon Total or partial reduplication, prefix n-, prefix s-: ḳd ‘to sleep’ ḳdd ‘sleep’ n-ḳdd ‘to sleep’ s-ḳdd ‘to make sleep’ fḫ ‘to loosen’ fḫḫ, id. s-n-fḫfḫ, id.; basically ‘to cause to become loose’

Pronoun ⸗k (2sm) sk, Old Kingdom form of sṯ kw,"Old"Kingdom"variant"of"ṯw""kb.wj ‘soles (of foot)’ nk.t ‘fetter’

⸗ṯ (2sf), ⸗ṯn (2p) sṯ, ỉsṯ""ṯw""ṯb.w,"ṯb.wt,"id.""ỉnṯ"‘to"fetter,’ ỉnṯ.t, ‘fetter’

"

k : ṯ = č

Palatalisation of Velars k : ṯ = č ḳ : ḏ = č̣ g : ḏ ẖ : š ḫ : ḏ = č̣ ḫ : š


dḳw ‘flour’ qnb!‘to!bind;!to!bend;!to!subjugate’ sqr ‘to strike’

dḏw ‘to!mill’!!ḏnb ‘to be crooked; to deflect’ sqr written with the determinative of sḏr

‘to lie down’:

!

ḳ : ḏ = č̣

gnẖ ‘wing’ (Greek period variant) gAf ‘to bake’ wg ‘plank’ wgA ‘inundation’ gn ‘twig’ gAb.t, Coptic kjōˀbe, ‘leaf’ (since Dyn. 18)

ḏnḥ ‘wing’ ḏAf ‘to burn’ wḏ, wḏy.t ‘stand of steering oar’ wḏnw ‘flood’ Late Egn. ḏl (spelt ḏnr), Coptic čal, ‘twig’ ḏbA.w ‘leaves’ (since Dyn. 18)

!

g : ḏ = č̣

Palatalisation of Velars k : ṯ = č ḳ : ḏ = č̣ g : ḏ = č̣ ẖ : š ḫ : ḏ = č̣ ḫ : š

ẖˁḳ ‘to shave’ mẖn.t ‘ferry-boat’ ẖkr ‘to decorate’ ẖA.t ‘corps’ *zẖA, Coptic (B, A) sḫai, ‘to write’ *ẖmm, Coptic (B, A) ḫmom, ‘to become

warm’ (cf. sẖmm ‘to warm’) nẖ ‘to spit; spittle’

šˁḳ, Pyr. Text spelling of ẖˁḳ mšn.t, Pyr. Text spelling variant of mẖn.t škr, Pyr. Text spelling of ẖkr šA.t, Pyr. Text spelling of ẖA.t zš(A), rare phonetic spelling of *zẖA šmm ‘to become warm’ Aš ‘to spit’; nš ‘spittle’

!

ẖ : š


ḫ : ḏ = č̣

nḫ ‘to protect’ ˁḫ ‘to burn’; ‘brazier’((wAḫı͐ ‘to become green’ ((wAḫy ‘colonnade(’((mḫA(‘to make fast; to bind’ ḫAm(‘troops’

nḏ ‘to protect ˁḏ ‘to burn’; ‘brazier’((wAḏ ‘to become green’ wAḏ(‘column’;(wAḏy.t (‘colonnade’((mḏA(‘to(fetter’((ḏAm(‘troops,(youth’

(


zḫz ‘to rear out’ ḫfˁ ‘to grasp’ sAḫ ‘to repuls’ ḫpt ‘to be discontented; discontent’ ḫpw, spelling variant of špw ‘blindness’ ı͐ḫ.t ‘thing’

zšš ‘to tear out’ šfd ‘to grasp’ sAš ‘to repuls’ špt ‘to be angry’ (Greek period) špw ‘blindness’ ı͐š.t⸗f, Old Kingdom spelling of ‘his thing’

!


ḫ : š

Debuccalisation of Dentals / Alveolars d (=ṭ) : ˁ db ‘horn’ ˁb, id. dbdb ‘to pound (of the heart)’ ˁbb ‘knock (on door)’ (√db) šfd ‘to grasp’ ḫfˁ, id. s/ts : ˁ pnz ‘to distort’ pnˁ ‘to turn around’; pnˁnˁ ‘to rotate’ ỉz ‘tomb’ ỉˁ, id. zbš ‘to drown’ ˁbš, id. r : ˁ ḏrb.t ‘charcoal’ ḏˁb.t, id. ḏḥr ‘leather’ ḏḥˁ, id.

Debuccalisation of Velars / Laryngeals ḳ : ı͐ qbH 1) ‘to become cool’; ibH ‘to sprinkle water’; 2) ‘to pour a libation’ ibH.w ‘libationer qnd ‘to rage; to be come angry’ ind ‘to be vexed; to be sad’ ḫ : ı͐ snwx ‘to cook’ snw(j?) ‘to cook’ xnm ‘to become friendly’ ỉAm ‘to become pleasant’ g : ı͐ pag ‘to spit’ (doublet of psg) paỉ ‘to spit’

snm ‘to be sad’; ‘sadness’ sAm·t ‘sadness’ bnbn ‘to make flow (of the Nile); bAbA ‘to pour out; to overflow’

to swell’ npn ‘water’ npA ‘to make wet’ drp ‘to offer’ dAp ‘to offer’

Another doublet: aAb ‘to offer’ (note that -rb- would be incompatible) ỉrT·t ‘milk’ Old Kingdom var. ỉAT·t qrs ‘to bury’ Old Kingdom var. qAs srp·t ‘lotus leaf’ New Kingdom var. sAp·t

n, r : A

Debuccalisation or Lenition of n or r (l sound)

dr ‘dispell’ Ar, id. (also m-Ar) dqw ‘flour’ Aqw, id.

d > A

Lenition, Palatalisation, Debuccalisation

q q > x (lenition) q > D (palatalisation) n < *l qnb “to bind; to

bend” qfn “to bend down” (metathesis)

Dnb “to be crooked, to deflect”

A < *l (debuccalisation)

qAb “to fold over” xAb “to bend”

r < *l qrf “to contract; to draw together”

(-rb- is avoided.)

*q-l-b “to bend, fold”

*ɣ-l-m “young, sexually mature”; “loving, amiable” Arabic ġ-l-m (1) “young person”; (2) “sexual heat”; Heb., Aram. ˁ-l-m

Another Source of Complication: Graphemes with more than 1 value

A (“Aleph”) graphemes (like ) – the corresponding phoneme is [l] or sim. in one main

idiom, [ˀ] or sim. in the other. It is always transcribed as A.

š graphemes (like ) – the corresponding phoneme was originally [x], transcription ẖ;

when this was palatalised in many cases, ẖ > š, it corresponded to š, and a new grapheme was introduced for ẖ:

Originally ẖ

Old Kingdom ẖ š (< ẖ)

g graphemes (like ): some see reasons to assume that it covered two phonemes, namely (1) g, (2) gw. Transcription always g.

ı͐ (or j) graphemes (like ): evidence seems to point to a double (or triple) phonetic value (1) [ˀ], (2) [j] and perhaps (3) [ɉ]. Transcription always ı͐ or j, according to academic tradition.!

Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Root Lexicon (Project) The aim of this project is to establish a complete inventory of the lexical roots of the Egyptian language. This concerns all stages of the language as attested in hieroglyphic and hieratic texts, citing also those items that survive into Demotic and Coptic.

Applica'on for support of project at the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenscha2lichen Forschung (Research Fund),

of February 2014:

Decision is to be expected by October, 2014.

If the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenscha2lichen Forschung (Research Fund) agrees to support

this PROJECT, there will be one or two students in part-‐'me jobs

to support the work for three years.

Otherwise, it will be a long journey ...

N.B. This presenta'on has been uploaded at SLIDESHARE: hTp://de.slideshare.net/helmutsatzinger/slideshows

N.B. This presenta'on has been uploaded at SLIDESHARE: hTp://de.slideshare.net/helmutsatzinger/slideshows

A Lexicon of Egyptian Lexical Roots (Project)

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