Middle Egyptian Grammar Exercises and Answers Lesson XI

The need for studying Middle Egyptian

koot van wyk Seoul South Korea 14 January 2009

Imagine a modern person do not want to study any English. How will the person in a different language than English know what internet, computer, e-mail, car, engine, factory, telephone, sports, game, video, television is?

It is for this researcher unthinkable that Israel and Moses and his parents lived in Egypt for 400 years and that linguistically they remained pure from any, absolute any Old Egyptian and Middle Egyptian influence. To know Egyptian is the first start towards unveiling this connection.

The way to solve this problem is to obtain A. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1927, 3rd edition 1988).

Egyptian is fun to study and it gives us an insight into the hapax legomena (words that occur rarely) in the Old Testament.

Moses used many Egyptian loanwords when he wrote his Pentateuch and Job as well as Psalm 90.

In turn, Moses was favorite literature for the prophets and some words occur only in Moses and Isaiah for example.

Moses also knew Akkadian and many Akkadianisms can be found also. One is in Job 31:40 with the word b'sh which is from the Akkadian word bisu meaning "bad smell". The word only occur once again in the Old Testament and that is in the reader of Moses, Isaiah in the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:2 and 4.

The word gm' in Hebrew occur only 4x and that is once in Exodus 2:3, once in Job 8:11 and two times in Isaiah, Isaiah 18:2 and Isaiah 35:7. It is from the Egyptian gmy which means "reeds". That is the meaning the word had in Late Egyptian.

Start with the alphabet. Memorize it and that is where your Egyptian experience will start. Have patience with Gardiner since he wrote the book in essence to satisfy his own mind not that of the students. However, if you keep at it, Gardiner grows on you and you will eventually gain through this seemingly unorganized approach.

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