Middle Egyptian Grammar Chapter XXII Answers and Text


koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

8 April 2010


Some may say that Middle Egyptian is a dead language and not necessary to study. That may be true but it was once the language of Moses and the Israelites, at least as a second language. That is why there are so many Egyptianisms in the book of Job and also in the Pentateuch, besides the common ones always mentioned like Nile, Pharaoh and similar. There are roots that are important for Biblical Hebrew or vice versa. The word for "perfect" in Hebrew and Egyptian shares a common root: tm (see A. Gardiner Middle Egyptian Grammar 1927-1988: 241 at paragraph 317).

Chapter 22 of Gardiner, deals with the Old Perfective which is a relic of the Semitic finite verb (Gardiner 1988: 234).

The usual way Egyptians wrote was to add the suffix conjugation to the various forms of the verb. New special endings are added like .kwi or .ti or .wy. Any separate expressed subject, whether noun or pronoun, must be placed before the old perfective. So for example the sentence "Behold you are coming" will be written literally: "Behold you, you are coming" and even absolute literal "Behold you, coming (are) you" mk tw iw.t(i).

The old perfective serves to link with the previous noun or pronoun and qualify it more.

The best way to start Middle Egyptian, is to get Gardiner's Grammar and also a Wordlist or dictionary. It can be great fun.   

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