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!

Verbal Sentences

Verbal sentences are sentences where the predicate is a verb form, having the sense of a simple finite verb (eg. 'loves', 'loved'). In such sentences, the normal word order is:

1. Verb
2. Subject
3. Object
4. Adverb or Adverbial Phrase (preposition with noun)

Non-Verbal Sentences

These are sentences that either have no proper verb at all (in the predicate), or have one with the attenuated meaning of the copula (eg. is, are, was, etc). The copula is often unexpressed in Egyptian:

r` m pt "The sun is in the sky."

Notice how there is no 'is' in the Egyptian example above - r` The sun m in pt the sky.

Non-verbal sentences are classified according to the nature of their predicate and can be grouped together as:

1. Sentences with adverbial predicate - 'the scribe is there', 'the scribe is in the city' (a preposition together with its noun also makes up an adverbial predicate - 'in the city')
2. Sentences with nominal or pronominal predicate - 'the scribe is a jerk', 'I am he', 'who are you?'
3. Sentences with adjectival predicate - 'the scribe is good'

The word order is the same as with verbal sentences, but because there are no objects, nor (in many cases) are there copula, the order is:

1. Subject
2. Adverb or Adverbial Phrase

The word iw is frequently used to introduce adverbial predicate sentences. It is an old verb that only has this form, but it is used for 'is', 'are', etc. Eg:

iw r` m pt "The sun is in the sky."

When the subject is a noun, iw only occurs in independent statements or assertions. This means that if a sentence has iw, it gives the sentence prominence or importance. Without it, it is a simple description. r` m pt tells us that the sun is in the sky. iw r` m pt tells us that the sun is, indeed, in the sky!

When the subject is a pronoun, the iw has a wider use, which will be discussed later.

Dependance, Tense and Mood

Egyptian doesn't use the words 'when', 'if', 'though', 'for', 'and', etc, very often. This means that it's up to the translator to supply the logical meaning between sentences and words.

It is also the same for the tense and mood of the words - they are not as clearly marked as in English.

This applies to both verbal and non-verbal sentences. For instance, in context, any of the following translations may be correct:

wbn r` m pt:
"The sun rises in the sky."
"The sun rose in the sky."
"The sun will rise in the sky."
"When the sun rises in the sky."
"When the sun rose in the sky."
"If the sun rises in the sky."

r` m pt
"The sun is in the sky."
"The sun was in the sky.
"When the sun is in the sky."
"When the sun was in the sky."
"Let the sun be in the sky."

iw r` m pt
"The sun is in the sky."
"The sun was in the sky."
"Whereas the sun is in the sky." (emphatic contrast)

At the moment, translate these into the present tense, unless it is obvious that it should be translated otherwise.

Vocabulary

Hieroglyph	Sound	Transliteration	Meanings
	rkh	rekh	1. become acquainted with, know
	khm	khem	1. not know, be ignorant of
	gr	ger	1. be silent, cease
	khd	khed	1. fare downstream, northwards
	ha	ha	1. go down, descent
	sdjm	sedjem	1. hear 2. (with n 'to') hearken to, obey (a person)
	wbn	weben	rise, shine forth
	r`	ra	1. sun, day 2. with , Ra, sun god
	yah	yaeh	1. moon
	ta	ta	1. earth, land
	pt	pet	1. sky, heaven
	skhr	sekher	1. plan, counsel
	hrw	herew	1. day, day-time
	grh	gereh	1. night
	rshwt	reshwet	1. joy, gladness
	dpt	depet	1. boat
	wya	weya	1. ship, barque, divine ship
	ndjs	nedjes	1. poor man, commoner
varr.	s	se	1. a man
	st	set	1. woman
	ssh	sesh	1. scribe
	akht	akhet	1. horizon
	pr	per	1. house
	nywt	neywet	1. town, city
	sh	she	1. lake, pool

Exercise

Try to translate the following in hieroglyphs, with transliteration sounds (words in brackets are not to be translated):

1. The scribe goes down into another boat
2. Ptah knows this counsel
3. (When) this poor man fares downstream to the city, the house is in joy
4. The moon rises in the sky
5. The scribe is silent by day and by night (render: in day, in night)
6. This land is in joy (when) Ra goes down into the barque
7. A pool is in this city
8. This woman hearkens to the scribe
9. A man is there in the house

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

PS - One favour I do ask, please e-mail your comments about the articles to kunoichi@thekeep.org because it's your comments that keep me writing! Oh, and can you check out my other articles?

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© Caroline Seawright 2000