LINGUIST List 26.2633
Tue May 26 2015
Review: General Ling; Historical Ling; Lexicography; Writing Systems: Allen (2014)
Editor for this issue: Sara Couture <saralinguistlist.org>
Date: 01-Dec-2014
From: Kariema El Touny <k.eltouny
gmail.com>
Subject: Middle Egyptian
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AUTHOR: James P. Allen
TITLE: Middle Egyptian
SUBTITLE: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2014
REVIEWER: Kariema El Touny, Women's College for Arts, Science, and Education, Ain Shams University
Review's Editors: Anthony Aristar and Sara Couture
SUMMARY
The aim of the book is to introduce the Egyptian language to modern learners by providing grammatical structures to be studied and the context in which they occurred to assist them in understanding, reading, and eventually reproducing it. The author includes essays at the end of each lesson, to provide background information on the history, society, religion, literature, and language of ancient Egypt.
Lesson 1 provides a general idea of Egyptian as a language: its family (Afro-Asiatic); its history from Old Egyptian to Coptic; its dialects; its hieroglyphs (the spelling, direction of writing, grouping of signs, and usage); and its decipherment. The accompanying essay details the dynasties that ruled Egypt from around 3000 BC to the end of ancient Egyptian civilization in 30 BC.
In lessons 2 and 3, the author examines hieroglyphic writing in detail. He explains the signs, both the uniliteral (used for a single sound) and the multiliteral (indicating two/three sounds). The uniliteral signs that correspond to the 23 consonant letters of the alphabet are presented in a table along with their transcription and the name of each sign. The author uses the European system for transcription throughout the book. Lesson 3 discusses bi- and tri- literal signs. The phonology of Egyptian is discussed, along with , sound changes, and pronunciation. The essays discuss ancient Egyptian geography and society.
Lessons 4-7 deal with nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adjectival and nominal sentences. The author starts with describing the noun, its root, the gender and number, and the composition of the noun phrase. In lesson 5, he discusses both dependent and independent personal pronouns and their relationship with the nouns, as well as the form, meaning, and uses of demonstrative and interrogative pronouns. Adjectives, their order, and comparative and superlative forms are discussed in lesson 6. Lesson 7 is dedicated to analyzing the forms and uses of adjectival and nominal sentences,which do not contain verbs. These are forms which in English would be translated as sentences containing a form of the verb “to be” and a second noun, or an adjective, e.g. “the man is a scribe” or “the king is good”. The essays present the ancient Egyptian Gods, their temples, and the kings’ names, and human nature respectively.
Lessons 8-11 discuss prepositions, adverbs, and numbers, as well as adverbial and non-verbal sentences. The authors extensively analyses both primary and compound prepositions with special attention to the “nisbe” form (an adjective created by adding a suffix to a noun or preposition). He also discusses the forms and usage of adverbs. Lesson 9 is dedicated to numbers in all their forms: cardinal and ordinal numbers, fractions, weights and measures, and finally dates and calendars. Lesson 10 deals with the basic patterns and usage of Egyptian sentences that have an adverb or a preposition as the predicate, which Egyptologists call adverbial sentences. In lesson 11, he compares the three types of non-verbal sentences (adjectival, nominal, and adverbial) and expands on their features and usage. The essays discuss the ancient Egyptians’ views on death and the afterlife, Egyptian chronology, Maat (the natural order of the universe: “the way things ought to be”), and the world before creation.
Lessons 12-16 discuss verbs, the infinitival forms, the pseudo-verbal constructions, the imperative and particles, and the stative. The author begins by presenting the different types of verbs with an extensive analysis of the roots, stems, and semantic features, such as tense and aspect. Lesson 13 is dedicated to the forms and usage of the infinitive, which, as a nominal, can be treated as a simple noun, or become the object of a preposition. The latter is the topic of lesson 14; the preposition and its infinitival object is called pseudo-verbal construction. He examines the three kinds of prepositional phrases in the language, specifically their meaning and basic uses. Lesson 15 examines the imperative form and a group of words known simply as particles. These words do not fall under the standard categories of words mentioned in previous lessons, such as nouns or verbs. They are used for various purposes, such as interjections, negation, or stress. Lesson 16 focuses on the stative, which expresses the past, present, or future state of the subject. The essays discuss the creation of the world, the creative word, the Memphite theology, the Creator, and heresy.
Lessons 17-19 describe suffix conjugation in detail. In lesson 17, the author presents the meaning and various uses for the SDM.N.F (D is underscored in the text), which is an aspect that denotes completed action. Lesson 18 focuses on the SDM.F. This form expresses action but has no inherent tense; thus it is subject to varying translations: past, present, etc. Lesson 19 is dedicated to the other forms of the suffix conjugation. These are the passive SDM.F, the biliteral-suffix forms, the SDMT.F, and the parenthetics. The essays discuss phonology and writing, Egyptian literature, and Middle Egyptian wisdom literature.
Lessons 20-22 describe the marked and unmarked forms of the adverb clause, the noun clause, and relative clauses respectively, along with their meaning and usage. The essays describe Middle Egyptian stories, historical texts, and religious texts. Lessons 23 and 24 discuss the Middle Egyptian counterparts to the present and past participle of English. Lesson 23 deals with their active state, lesson 24 their passive. The accompanying essays discuss hymns and poetry, and non-literary texts. Lesson 25 describes the forms and usage of emphatic sentences; essay 25 discusses letters.
In the final lesson, 26, the author gives a summary of the prominent features of Middle Egyptian grammar with references to various parts in the book. In the essay, the author provides a short history of the development of Middle Egyptian research, focusing on the major contributions of Adolf Erman, Alan H. Gardiner, and Hans J. Polotsky in the explanation of the verbal system.
The author briefly accounts the differences between the three editions of the book. In the two previous editions, the author followed the Polotskyan tradition, labeled as the “Standard Theory” of Middle Egyptian grammar. However, in this edition, he attempts to describe the verbal system forgoing some of Polotsky’s assumptions: for example, the difference in meaning should correspond to a difference in form.
He ends the narrative by providing titles and websites for further study and/or research into the language.
EVALUATION
This is an indispensable volume for students of Egyptology, Archeology, Historical Linguistics, or even laymen who are interested in learning Egyptian. The language of the book is accessible and flows naturally. It also includes many photos, some of which are from the author’s own collection. Although the language is dead, he managed to bring it and the lives of the people who used it closer to today’s reader. This is exhibited in the essays. They give a context and atmosphere in which the language was used. They are also interesting enough to be read independently.
The book has many positive qualities. One of the most visually appealing features of the book is the use of illustrations. The signs, their pronunciations, and interpretations are readily provided to the reader to facilitate their understanding without constantly resorting to indices that could result in confusion or distraction. Additionally, a comprehensive sign list is provided along with a dictionary at the end of the book.
Another salient feature related to understanding each topic is that at the beginning of each lesson, the author provides related definitions. This is a great tool for recognizing the scope in which the topic will be delivered. In addition, the author provides exercises at the end of each lesson for practicing what was learned.
The progression of the book is logical. It starts with the signs for the alphabet and builds words, then phrases, clauses, and sentences. However, it would have been better if the related lessons were grouped under a unified title. For example, lessons 1-3 could be titled “Introduction”, lessons 4-7: “Nouns and Adjectives” and so on.
Another negative feature in the organization of the book is the numbering of headers inside each lesson. They are numbered independently of their relationship to each other, which fragments the topic dramatically. Also, the addition of the lesson’s number is redundant and obtrusive, especially in the 2-digit lessons. For example in lesson 5, the order in the book is as follows:
5.1 Definitions
5.2 Personal pronouns
5.3 Personal pronouns: suffix
5.4 Personal pronouns: dependent
5.5 Personal pronouns: independent
5.6 Personal pronouns: summary. The rest of the lesson continues until 5.11.
A better alternative is the following:
1. Definitions
2. Personal pronouns
2.1 Personal pronouns: suffix
2.2 Personal pronouns: dependent
2.3 Personal pronouns: independent
2.4 Personal pronouns: summary. The following segment (Suffix pronouns with nouns) should be 3 and not 5.7.
It is apparent the amount of work and effort put into the content of the book, which is evident in the comparison drawn by the author between this and previous editions. However, for a third edition, its organization was inexplicably overlooked.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Kariema El Touny holds an MA from Women’s College, Ain Shams University. Her interests include (but are not limited to) Syntax, Arabic Dialectology, Typology, and Theory Construction. She presented and published her research on Cairene Arabic syntax within the frameworks of the Minimalist Program and Optimality Theory.
Page Updated: 26-May-2015