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

by James P. Allen

• ISBN13: 9780521741446
• ISBN10: 0521741440
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Middle Egyptian introduces the reader 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. It also includes a series of twenty-five essays on the most important aspects of ancient Egyptian history, society, religion and literature. The combination of grammar lessons and cultural essays allows users to not only read hieroglyphic texts but also to understand them, providing readers with the foundation to understand texts on monuments and to read great works of ancient Egyptian literature in the original text. This second edition contains revised exercises and essays, providing an up to date account of current research and discoveries. New illustrations enhance discussions and examples. These additions combine with the previous edition to create a complete grammatical description of the classical language of ancient Egypt for specialists in linguistics and other fields.

Author Biography

James P. Allen is the Wilbour Professor of Egyptology at Brown University. He is a former curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and president of the International Association of Egyptologists. His previous publications include Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts (1989), The Heqanakht Papyri (2002), and The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2005).

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. viii
Preface	p. ix
Egyptian Language and Writing	p. 1
Language	p. 1
Writing	p. 2
Ancient Egyptian History	p. 9
	p. 12
The Sounds of Middle Egyptian	p. 13
Ancient Egyptian Geography	p. 21
	p. 23
Multiliteral Signs	p. 25x
Ancient Egyptian Society	p. 33
	p. 35
Nouns	p. 37
The Gods	p. 45
	p. 48
Pronouns	p. 49
The Gods on Earth	p. 57
	p. 60
Adjectives	p. 61
The King's Names	p. 66
	p. 68
Adjectival and Nominal Sentences	p. 69
Adjectival Sentences	p. 69
Nominal Sentences	p. 72
Uses of Adjectival and Nominal Sentences	p. 79
Human Nature	p. 81
	p. 83
Prepositions and Adverbs	p. 85
Prepositions	p. 85
Adverbs	p. 94
Death and the Afterlife	p. 96
	p. 99
Numbers	p. 101
Egyptian Chronology	p. 109
	p. 111
Adverbial Sentences	p. 113
Maat	p. 119
	p. 121
Nonverbal Sentences	p. 123
The World Before Creation	p. 130
	p. 131
Nonverbal Clauses	p. 133
Relative Clauses	p. 134
Noun Clauses	p. 140
Adverb Clauses	p. 143
The Creation of the World	p. 147
	p. 149
Verbs	p. 151
The Creative Word	p. 160
	p. 162
The Infinitival Forms	p. 163
The Infinitive	p. 163
The Negative Infinitive and Negatival Complement	p. 174
The Complementary Infinitive	p. 175
The Memphite Theology	p. 176
	p. 178
The Pseudoverbal Construction	p. 179
The Creator	p. 185
	p. 188
The Imperative and Particles	p. 189
Particles	p. 192
Heresy	p. 200
	p. 203
The Stative	p. 205
Phonology and Writing	p. 222
	p. 225
The Perfect	p. 227
Egyptian Literature	p. 243
	p. 246
The Subjunctive	p. 249
Middle Egyptian Wisdom Literature	p. 262
	p. 265
The Perfective and Imperfective	p. 267
Middle Egyptian Stories	p. 284
	p. 287
The Prospective and Passive	p. 289
The Prospective	p. 289
The Passive	p. 294
The Forms of the sdm.f	p. 299
Historical Texts	p. 301
	p. 305
The Other Forms of the Suffix Conjugation	p. 307
The sdm.jn.f	p. 307
The sdm.hr.f	p. 310
The sdm.k3.f	p. 312
The sdmt.f	p. 314
The Parenthetics	p. 318
Religious Texts	p. 321
	p. 324
The Participles	p. 325
Hymns and Poetry	p. 348
	p. 351
The Relative Forms	p. 353
Nonliterary Texts	p. 368
	p. 370
Special Uses of the Relative Forms	p. 373
Nominal Uses	p. 374
Emphatic Uses	p. 379
General Considerations	p. 391
Letters	p. 396
	p. 399
Middle Egyptian Grammar	p. 401
Theory	p. 416
Where to Go From Here	p. 421
Sign List	p. 425
Dictionary	p. 455
Answers to the Exercises	p. 475
Index	p. 497
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