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Lesson 1
The Egyptian Language and its Script

The Ancient Egyptian Language

Ancient Egyptian belongs to a family of languages in Africa and the Near East that have enough
similarities in both grammar and vocabulary to make a common ancestor highly probable.
Scientists speak of the Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic language group. This group consisted of
six branches, one of them being the Ancient-Egyptian language. Other branches were Semitic,
Berber, Tsjadic, Koesjitic and Omotic. Only the Egyptian and Semitic languages have an
extensive written tradition.

In its time Egyptian was of course a living language, which continuously evolved throughout the
centuries. According to current resarch, it is possible to distinguish five different phases in the
language:

 Old Egyptian
This is the language we know through inscriptions dating from the Old Kingdom. This is
the period from which the first fully developed texts came forward (ca 2700-2200 BC).
 Middle Egytian
This form of the language was used in the First Intermediate Period and the Middle
Kingdom (ca 2200-1800 BC). Middle Egyptian is regarded as the classical phase of the
language, and remained in use in literary, religiuous and monumental inscriptions until
late in the Graeco-Roman period. It is this phase of the language that is handled in this
on-line course.
 New Egyptian
During the New Kingdom the spoken language continued to evolve, while the Middle
Egyptian form remained in use as a written language. During the Amarna period (with
Echnaton) this tradition was broken, and literary texts were written in New Egyptian (ca
1580-700 BC). An exception to this were the religous texts, were Middle Egyptian
remained the written language.
 Demotic
This is a continuation of New Egyptian, which remained in use well into the Roman
period (ca 700 BC - 600 AD). This version of the language already had a tendency to
write words alphabetically, by making use of signs having the value of 1 consonant.
 Coptic
This is the final phase of the Egyptian language, which came in use in the 3rd century
AD. The Coptic script consists of the 24 letters from the Greek alphabet, completed with
6 signs from Demotic to indicate Egyptian sounds that had no correspondence in Greek.
The Demotic language is of interest to researchers, because it also used letters for vocals.
Older versions of the language only notated a consonantal skeleton (analogous to Arabic
languages). In the 10th century AD the Coptic language was replaced by the Arabic.

The Hieroglyphic Script

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The hieroglyphic script is of a pictorial nature and the oldest written form of the Ancient
Egyptian language. It is this script with which the Egyptian culture is identified. Despite its
pictorial nature, the hieroglyphs are not a primitive script. No, they form a completely developed
writing system, with which complex semantic information could be communicated. As such, the
script is no less developed than our own alphabet.

The earliest documented occurrence of hieroglyphic inscriptions dates back to the pre-dynastic
period, mostly in the form of short documentary descriptions on stone objects and pottery. The
latest know occurrence of the script is found in the temple of Philae, and dates from 394 AD.

The script itself evolved over time. As history took its course, new hieroglyphic signs were
added to the language. As such, the number of hieroglyphs evolved from about 700 in the Old
Kingdom to over 6000 in the Ptolemaic period.

Aspects of the Script

Orientation of the Signs

The hieroglyphic script is extremely flexible, and was written both in rows (horizontally) and
columns (vertically). Furthermore, the direction of the signs could change, that is, the texts could
be written from left-to-right, as well as from right-to-left.

To find the direction and the beginning of a text, there are some very simple rules:

 As a rule, the Egyptians never wrote from bottom to top, although it could occur that a
sign was written below another sign, even if it belonged above it. This was usually done
for aesthetic reasons, to obtain a good layout of the texts (without ugly white spaces).
 To discover the direction of writing, you should look at the signs with an obvious front
and back end (e.g. human forms and animals). These signs always look to the beginning
of the text.
 When the text is a legend to some picture (e.g. in wall paintings), the depicted god or
person looks to the beginning of his/her text. The hieroglyphic signs are then oriented in
the same direction as the figure they accompany.

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 The picture above demonstrates this fact. The text in frame A belongs to Nefertari, while
the text in frame B is spoken by Toth. Notice the orientation of the signs.

The Arrangement of Signs

The aesthetic look of the text formed an important criterium for the placement of the signs with
respect to each other. The Ancient Egyptians attempted to eliminate empty spaces in the text as
much as possible (horror vacui). To this end, they divided the text lines in squares, in which the
signs were arranged. As an example, the word for beautiful would never be written as in (a)
below, but instead as demonstrated in (b) with a nicely filled square.

The Egyptian Signs

The hieroglyphs can be divided into two categories: signs with a pictorial value (ideograms) and
signs with a phonetic value (phonograms).

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  Ideograms
Ideograms are signs that depict the object that is drawn. They are direct examples of an
object or an action. Some signs have a symbolic value, e.g. a sceptre to denote power.
The hieroglyphs above are clear examples of ideograms. These signs communicate the
following ideas:
o (a) face
o (b) to walk, to run
o (c) house
o (d) duck

Ideograms can depict objects and concrete concepts. They are however not suited to
communicate abstract concepts like son, love or large. To depict such concepts, the
Egyptians made use of phonograms (according to the rebus principle: the concept to
communicate sounds like the written word).

 Phonograms
Phonograms are signs that indicate a sound, without any further relation to the object that
is depicted. The word for son e.g. sounds like the word for duck. As such, the sign (d) is
used for both words. Depending on the context it is used as a phonogram (son) or as an
ideogram (duck). As such, phonograms are signs that have no ideographic value, but that
are merely used to depict a set of consonants.

Hieroglyphic signs can have the value of 1, 2 or more consonants. Vocals were not
recorded in the hieroglyphic script.

To facilitate the search in dictionaries and to make it possible to easily read Egyptian texts, the
hieroglyphic signs are usually converted to our own alphabet (transcription). The lack of vowels
however makes it difficult to speak the language. To circumvent this problem, the following
rules are used:

 certain consonants are articulated as though they were vowels

 other consonants are attached together with a letter e

With this system one arrives at words that are connected by vowels. Take the word for beautiful
as an example: its transcription of the hieroglypic signs is nfr. To ease the pronunciation of these
three consonants, we bind them together with e-sounds, which leads to nefer.

Obviously, our pronunciation bears no relation with the original pronunciation of the Egyptian
language. It is solely a convention, to facilitate communication among us modern people.

Lesson 2
The Egyptian Alphabet - The One-Letter
Signs

The One-Letter Signs

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As discussed in lesson 1, the ancient Egyptians used literally hundreds of hieroglyphs. The 24
signs introduced in this lesson are the ones that occur most frequently, and are therefore often
referred to as the Egyptian alphabet. Each of these signs has the value of one consonant. If you
truly want to learn the old-egyptian language, it is essential that you learn these 24 signs by
heart.

The table below displays the 24 one-letter signs, together with their meaning, transcription and
sound value. Notice that some of the signs have been assigned a vocal value. This is just a
convention followed by egyptologists to make the transcribed words more easily pronouncable.
The ancient egyptians only wrote the consonantal skeleton of their words, leaving us in the dark
about their true pronunciation.

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 Alternative Writing Forms

A few consonants are sometimes written with alternative signs. The following signs are
considered equivalent:

Exercise: Write Your Own Name in Hieroglyphs

A fun exercise is to write your first name in the script of the ancient Egyptians. Try to duplicate
the sound of your name as much as possible. For the letter v you may use the hieroglyph for the
letter f; for the letter l, use the symbol .

At the end of your name, you write a male ( ) or female ( ) sign, depending on your sex.

To help you get started, we give some examples:

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 Vocabulary

A number of frequently occurring Egyptian words were written solely with one-letter signs. It is
undoubtedly useful to learn some of them.

Notice that some words are terminated with a category-determination sign, e.g. in the example
with the grape arbor in the word for wine. Such signs are (not unexpectedly) called
determinatives. In the next lesson, we'll take a closer look at this type of signs.

Lesson 3
The Egyptian Alphabet
Two-Letter Signs and Determinatives

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 The Two-Letter Signs

Besides the 24 one-letter signs which we discussed in the previous lesson, the old Egyptians also
made use of signs with the value of two consonants. These two-letter signs use a single
hieroglyph that represents a combination of two consonants.

There exist about a hundred two-letter signs. Fortunately, not all of them occur frequently in
texts, and it suffices to be familiar with about 30 of these signs. The table below summarizes the
most frequently occurring two-letter signs. It might be a good idea to memorize them.

Many of the two-letter signs have meaning on their own, and represent individual words. Often,
they are completed with a stroke, the socalled ideogram sign, to indicate that the designated
word corresponds with the pictorial value of the sign. Some examples are given below:

Determinative Signs

Many old Egyptian words are written with the same signs, even if they have a completely
different meaning. To permit an understanding of the meaning of words, so-called determinative
signs where written at the end of the word, to help determine the word's meaning. The

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hieroglyph e.g. could be followed by the determinative of a man ( ) to designate the

word writer. The same sign, completed with the determinative of the papyrus roll ( ),
indicates the word script or the verb to write.

Most determinatives serve to indicate the general category of the word they describe. Below we
give a small selection of some of the most common determinative signs:

Determinative signs come in handy when attempting to translate an old Egyptian text. The
ancient Egyptians had the nasty habit of writing their sentences without spaces between words,
and without an indication of the start of new sentences. Because the determinative signs are
placed at the end of words, they provide us with a means to decypher the structure of sentences.

Let's take the following sentence as an example:

This sentence consists of the following parts:

1. This is a verb, with the meaning to leave. Notice the determinative sign with the running
legs at the end of the word.
2. This is the word for majesty, followed by letter f, indicating the possessive pronoun his.
3. This is an adverb, with the meaning on.
4. The word for chariot, followed by the possessive pronoun f.
5. This word indicates a genitive, and can be translated as of.
6. The word for electron, a mixture of gold and silver.
7. The word for heart, followed again by the possessive pronoun f.

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 8. A word that literally means wide, width. The expression wide of heart can be translated
more clearly as his heart full of joy.

The complete sentence can be translated in English as: "His majesty left on his chariot of
electron, his heart full of joy".

Vocabulary

Notice that the list above contains a number of words that use a combination of two- and one-
letter signs. We speak of phonetic complements, a matter that will be discussed in more detail in
the next lesson.

Lesson 4
The Egyptian Alphabet
Three-Letter Signs and Phonetic Complements

The Three-Letter Signs

The ancient Egyptians also used three-letter signs, that represented a combination of three
consonants. Most of these signs have meaning on their own, but are also frequently used as
sound signs.

There exists a whole range of these three-letter signs. The table below gives an overview of the
most common ones.

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 Phonetic Complements

The two- and three-letter signs of the Egyptian script are often complemented with one-letter
signs that repeat the whole or part of their sound value. Such additions are called phonetic
complements. Usually only the last consonant of the multi-letter sign is repeated. This is however
not a fixed rule, and multiple additions are not uncommon.

The table below gives some examples of the use of phonetic complements.

Phonetic complements can be used for a number of reasons. The more common one is that the
complementary signs indicate that we have to do with a sound sign (phonogram), and not with a
sense sign (ideogram). Furthermore, they can be used to embellish the text, e.g. by filling up
unused space (horror vacui).

Inversions

One of the peculiarities of the Egyptian script is the respectful inversion. In words containing the
part 'god' or 'king', the sign for the latter is placed in front, out of respect. Note that this involves
only the way the word is written, not the way it is pronounced. Some examples are given below.
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 Vocabulary

Lesson 5
The noun - gender and number

The Gender of Nouns

Classical Egyptian distinguishes two genders: a male and a female. Male nouns don't have any
specific suffixes to indicate their gender; they are constructed solely from a number of
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consonants that form the word-stem. Female words on the other hand always end with a "t" (

). In transcription it is important to write a dot before the "t" to indicate that the "t"-suffix
does not belong to the word-stem. The "t"-suffix is written before the determinative or ideogram
sign.

 A small number of nouns ends in a "t", but is nevertheless of male gender. In that case the
end-t belongs to the word-stem. Below are some examples of such words:

 Classical Egyptian doesn't have a neutral gender. It uses the female gender instead. An
example follows below:

 Names of cities, Egyptian provinces and foreign countries are gramatically of a female
gender, whether they end with a "t"-suffix or not. Some examples are:

The Number of Nouns

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There are three numbers in Classical Egyptian: singular, plural and dual. The dual occurs mainly
with concepts that imply a pair, like obelisks, eyes, legs, the two parts of the country (i.e. Upper
and Lower Egypt). The table below indicates which suffixes are used for the different numbers
for both male and female nouns.

When applying this scheme to the Egyptian word for brother, we get the following:

The plural can be rendered in a number of different ways:

 a first way is to make use of the plural determinative. This is the most common way to
indicate a plural number. The three strokes indicating the plural are always written at the
end of the word, after any eventual determinative signs:

 a second way is the threefold repetition of an ideogram:

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  a third way is the threefold repetition of all phonograms in the word, or one thereof:

 a last way is the threefold repetition of the determinative sign:

Many female words appear as a plural, but should nevertheless be considered to be of singular
number. This is mainly the case for abstract words, and words that denote a category of things.
We call this an apparent plural. Some examples are:

The dual can also be rendered in a number of ways:

 twofold repetition of the ideogram:

 twofold repetition of the determinative sign:

 a combination of the dual-suffix and repetition of the determinative sign:

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 Vocabulary

Lesson 6
The egyptian numerals

The cardinal numbers

The Egyptians count according to the decimal system. As an indication of the cardinal numbers,
the following signs were used:

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When writing a number, higher-valued signs are placed before lower-valued signs. The number
signs are repeated as often as necessary to reach the intended value. Each signs is thus repeated
maximally nine times.

The cardinal numbers are written behind the noun, the latter usually being written as a singular.
In transcription, the numbers 1 and 2 are written behind the noun, all other numbers are written
before it. Some examples:

The dating formula

The Egyptian time system

The Egyptians used several calendar systems, all based on observation of a number of heavenly
bodies: the solar calendar, the moon calendar and the Sothis or Sirius calendar.

The Egyptian year was divided into 12 months of thirty days each. Added to these at the end of
the year were five socalled epagomenal days (extra days). Because the Egyptian year counted
only 365 days, and there was no concept of a leap year, the year shifted every 4 years with one
day.

The Egyptian year had three seasons, whose names clearly referred to agriculteral activity. We
thus have the inundation season (Achet), the summer (Sjemoe) and the winter (Peret). Each
season counted four months.

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The Egyptian dating formula

From the Middle Kingdom on it became a habit to start the year with the regnal period of the
king. At the beginning of a new reign the counting of years was thus started again from year one.
The indication of a regnal year within texts starts with the symbols:

Following the above there usually follows the specification of month, season and day. A typical
dating formula thus looks as follows:

Vocabulary

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 Lesson 7
Linking words together

Nouns can be linked together in a number of ways. Two nouns can e.g. be related to one another
through an "of" relation by means of a direct or indirect genitival relation. Further more they can
be coupled through apposition, coordination or disjunction. These different constructs are
explained in this lesson.

Not only nouns can express possessive relationships. A personal pronoun can e.g. act as a
substitute for the second noun, in which case it appears as a possessive pronoun. As an example,
the phrase 'the book of the man' will then appear as 'his book' or 'the book of him'.

The direct genitival relation

With a direct genitival construction the two nouns involved are closely coupled. They form a
union with a governing and a governed word. This is often called a status constructus. The

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connective word 'of' has no counterpart in the Egyptian language: the two nouns are simply
written side by side. Note that the nouns involved retain their individuality: there is no adaptation
in gender or number.

The connection with a direct genitive is mainly used with nouns that have a strong semantic tie,
e.g. 'the mistress of the house', 'the servant of god' (priest), 'the house of god' (temple), 'the house
of the king' (palace), etc. A fair number of these word combinations have so strong semantic ties
that they are in fact considered as compound words. The determinative sign, which belongs to
the governing noun, is in these cases written behind the second, governed noun.

When an adjective follows two nouns that are connected through a direct genitival relation, the
adjective belongs to the first noun (governing word). In that case the adjective follows the
governing noun in gender and number. An example:

The indirect genitival relation

In case of an indirect genitival relation, the connective word 'of' is explicitly written between the
governing and the governed noun. In the Egyptian script, the connective element is represented
by the letter 'n'. To be more precise, this connective element is in fact the nisbe-form of the
preposition 'n'. As such it adapts in gender and number to the governing noun. The following
forms of the connective element 'n' can thus be found:

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Below follow some examples of the indirect genitival construction:

The apposition

When two nouns follow each other, and the second one defines, clarifies or specifies the first,
this is called an apposition. In most cases the second word provides a closer identification of the
first word, e.g. 'the writer, i.e. Hetepi'. Special cases of this grammatical form are used to
specify:

 the material from which a thing is made

 measures and numbers

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  places and regions

Coordination

The Egyptian language has no special word for 'and'. The nouns that are to be joined together are
simply placed one after the other. For strongly associated nouns, the following prepositions can
be used to connect them together:

Some examples:

Disjunction

A disjunction is the connection of nouns, expressed in English with the particle 'or'. In the
Egyptian language the words are again simply written one after the other. The context must
make clear that a disjunction is being expressed. Sometimes the grammatical element

is written after the last noun. An example:

The superlative

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The superlative (the biggest, the best) is missing in the Egyptian language. To express this
concept a number of possibilities exist:

 use the same noun twice: the first time in singular form, the second time as a plural

 with the help of 'imy' (literally: 'he who is in')

Vocabulary

Lesson 8
The Adjective
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An adjective is a word that describes or qualifies a person or thing. Examples are: the beautiful
servant, the large temple, etc. In ancient Egyptian, there occur two types of ajectives:

 common adjectives
These are derived from verbs that indicate a property. E.g. the adjective "good" is derived
from the verb "to be good".
 nisbe adjectives
These are derived from nouns or prepositions.

The Common Adjective

The common adjective can be applied in three different manners:

 attributive after a noun

 substantivated (i.e. as a noun)
 as a predicate

Attributive Use

In this case the adjective functions as an attribute (qualifier) of the noun. It is placed behind the
substantive and adjusts itself in number and gender. Below you'll find some examples:

There exist a number of cases where the adjective is not placed behind the noun. These are:

 with a direct genitive construction, e.g. nb.t pr nfr.t (the beautiful mistress of the house)
 the words nb (each, every) and pn (this) are placed before the adjective
 the suffixes (possessive pronouns) are also placed before the adjective

Substantivated use

The adjective can appear as a substantive, in which case it has all the properties of a regular
noun. A determinative sign can be added at the end of the word to further qualify its precise
meaning. Some examples are:

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The substantivated adjective can be used in a number of ways:

1. the adjective can be further qualified by a noun that is written behind it (relative
accusative). This construction can be either direct (without a connecting particle) or
indirect (with the connective particle "n"). Below you'll find some examples:

2. The relative accusative can also appear as a preposition that is placed behind the noun.
An example:

3. Sometimes the adjective is placed at the beginning of a sentence. In these cases it appears
that the adjective is used as a verb. This is not the case however. We are dealing here
with a non-verbal construction (the so-called non-verbal sentence, or nominal sentence
with adjective predicate). In these cases the adjective is immutable, and does not adapt
itself in number of gender to the noun that follows it. An example:

The Nisbe Adjective

Nisbe adjectives are constructed by derivation from nouns or pronouns, and express a relation to
the noun or pronoun from which they are derived. When constructed from masculine of feminine
nouns, their meaning translates to something like "in relation with...", "related to...". When they
are derived from pronouns, their meaning is best translated as "who is in, above, with,
behind, ...".

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In attributive use, nisbe adjectives adapt in number and gender to the corresponding noun. In
substantivated use, they behave as nouns and follow the corresponding rules.

 nisbe-adjective, derived from a pronoun:

 nisbe-adjective, derived from a male noun:

 nisbe-adjective, derived from a feminine noun:

Vocabulary

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1997, Egyptologica Vlaanderen VZW

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