Leaning to Read Hieroglyphs

I'm going to go through the book, "Egyptian Grammar" by A.H. Gardiner, and try to learn Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs. In this column, I will attempt to share what I learn as I go along!

Meaning of the sdjmf Form

Details of this topic will be discussed later, but it should be noted that the sdjmf form excludes the meaning of hardly any English tense or mood (see the previous lesson, Dependence, Tense and Mood.) Because it is a past tense, it is replaced by another form, the sdjmnf form, which will be described later.

At the moment, render the sdjmf form as the English present tense.

Here are three common uses of the form:

1. It is often used without any introductory particle in rendering the equivalent of and English clause of purpose:
   habk ssh, djdf skhrk 'Thou sendest the scribe that he may say thy plan'
2. It may be used to express a wish:
   habk ssh 'Mayest thou send the scribe/Send thou the scribe'
3. Preceeded by the particle ykh the fundamental meaning of which seems to be 'then' or 'therefore', it expresses a consequence:
   ykh djd sr 'Then the official will say...'
   ykh djdk n sak 'Then shalt thou say to thy son...'

	maa	see
	dja	cross, ferry across
	rsh	rejoice, be glad
	hab	send
	sa	son
	sat	daughter
(var )	yt1	father
	bak	man-servant
	bakt	maid-servant
(var )	wat	road, way, side
	kha	office, hall
	kat	construction, work, device
	thaty	vizier
	`a	donkey, ass
	sshta	secret
	ytrw	river
	msh	crocodile
	r	mouth, utterance
	hr	face, sight
	hr	upon, concerning, because of; before suffixes written
	m	in, with (of instrument), from as; before suffixes

¹ The f in this word has been shown to be a determinative with some symbolic meaning, so it is not written or said as if it were an alphabetic sign.

Exercises

Try to translate the following in hieroglyphs, with transliteration sounds:

1. The crocodile is in the river
2. The moon rejoices when the sun is in his horizon
3. Then (ykh) shall thy name be heard by the vizier
4. This scribe is in his office by day (and) by night
5. The donkey goes down to the city upon another road
6. The scribe sends this boat that we may cross in it
7. He rejoices because of thy utterance
8. This land is in joy when thou art in the sky
9. He fares down to this city, his daughter with him

Can you have a look at my Egyptology Column for more Hieroglyph Lessons, Egyptian gods and goddess articles and more!

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© Caroline Seawright 2001