Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs

by James P. Allen

• ISBN13: 9780521774833
• ISBN10: 0521774837
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is an introduction to the writing system of ancient Egypt and the language of hieroglyphic texts. It contains twenty-six lessons, exercises (with answers), a list of hieroglyphic signs, and a dictionary, as well as twenty-five essays on the most important aspects of ancient Egyptian history, society, religion and literature. It also offers scholars of linguistics a complete grammatical description of the classical language of ancient Egypt.

Author Biography

James P. Allen is Curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Table of Contents

1. Language and writing: Ancient Egyptian history

2. The sounds of Middle Egyptian: Ancient Egyptian geography

3. Multiliteral signs: Ancient Egyptian society

4. Nouns: the gods

5. Pronouns: the gods on earth

6. Adjectives: the kings' names

7. Adjectival and nominal sentences: human nature

8. Prepositions and adverbs: death and the afterlife

9. Numbers: Egyptian chronology

10. Adverbial sentences: Maat

11. Nonverbal sentences: the world before creation

12. Nonverbal clauses: the creation of the world

13. Verbs: the creative word

14. The infinitival forms: the Memphite theology

15. The pseudoverbal construction: the creator

16. The imperative and particles: heresy

17. The stative: phonology and writing

18. The perfect: Egyptian literature

19. The subjunctive: Middle Egyptian wisdom literature

20. The perfective and imperfective: Middle Egyptian stories

21. The prospective and passive: historical texts

22. Other forms of the suffix conjugation: religious texts

23. The participles: hymns and poetry

24. The relative forms: nonliterary texts

25. Special uses of the relative forms: letters

26. Middle Egyptian grammar

References

Sign list

Dictionary

Answers to the exercises.