Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:17:12 +0000 Subject: AEL update NewGardiner font From: Mark-Jan Nederhof To: AEgyptian-L@rostau.org.uk To software developers: About a year ago, I announced my NewGardiner font, with the 1071 signs from the Unicode proposal WG2/N3349R. The major weaknesses in that font were in categories A, B, C (= men, women, gods). These are arguably the most difficult categories to draw, and unwisely these were the ones I had done first. In the past few weeks, I have completely redrawn all signs in categories A, B, C. They now look a lot nicer. In particular, there is more uniformity. The updated version is available from: http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~mjn/egyptian/fonts/newgardiner.html Mark-Jan ============================================================================== From: "Marianne Luban" Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 21:28:54 GMT To: AEgyptian-L@rostau.org.uk Subject: AEL The Amazing Israel Stela Parts of the "Israel Stela" of King Merneptah are a remarkable attempt by a scribe [or collaborating scribes] to employ some very clever use of the Egyptian language. There are puns, there is rhyming, there are nuances of meaning perhaps not even clear to this day. On the other hand, there are Semitic toponyms, the pronunciation of which are plain enough and can offer a clue as to the vocalization of Egyptian words at the time--and sometimes those plural endings may have been meant to be pronounced for effect. Let's look at this a line by line--and any input is welcome. Czerny has this to say in his "A Late Egyptian Grammar": "However the ending w was, in general, lost in pronunciation and the ending .wt reduced to .we. In most cases, therefore, no ending is written and the plural form was only recognizable by the plural determinatives. Even this may be omitted..." That was because, by now, the plural forms could be recognized, also, by the article "nA" and by the possessive "nAy" with its various suffixes. Also, the grapheme /A/ was by now a place holder for a couple of vowel sounds. Either the toponyms or the language could be stretched just a little to accommodate what was considered a high literary art--and, of course, to make wry remarks about some of the foreigners. 1. srw pxd Hr Dd Sarma ["The princes are prostrate, saying 'Shalom''] Here we can infer that "sr" was vocalized "sar", the same as Semitic "prince" but perhaps, this time, the plural pronunciation was intended, being "saro" to go with "Shalom". It is difficult to know whether "pxd" and " Hr Dd" are merely a visual rhyme or an actual one. Coptic "pakh't" demonstrates the retention of the final /d/ in "pxd" but just when was it lost in "Dd"? And it lost it surely was. 2. bn wa Hr fA tp=f m tA pdtiw psDt ["Not one of the Nine Bows lifts his head"] This one is problematic. Since the first word was probably vocalized "ban", the next "wa" possibly was heard as "wa'an". Then comes "khi fee", but then is it "tap-f m ta pidati pisdja" ["pidati" is cuneiform from Amarna and rather belies the "pDt" of Hannig--even though "bow" or "stretch" is written with both /D/and /d/. Maybe /D/ dropped out early in order to end up as Coptic "pite".] --or is it "DADA=f" for "his head" to go with "nine"? Remember, the words were chosen to have a relation to one another. "fA" is now "fee" [fi], must be, in order to go with the "pi" of the next two words indicated by their survival in Coptic. See how the "bow" is considered femine. 3. xf n tiHnw xttA Htp ["Vanished is Tehenu, Hatti is at peace"] Therefore, "khaf n Takh'n, Khatta khatap". I don't know why it became "Hatti" modernly. Anyway, see Gardiner, page 519, who believes it should be just "khat" for "Hatti". 4. HAq pA kAnna m bin nb ["Canaan is captured with all woe"] "khaq p' Kana'an ma'on nib". There may also be sly reference here to "HAk" or "shave" [Arabic "Halaq"] with the meaning of the bearded Canaanites being "shaved" by the Egyptians, while the literal meaning is "cut down". But, since "Canaan" means "low", "cut down [to size]" is also fitting. As "bin" survives as "bo'one" in Coptic, it must surely have been vocalized something like "ba'on" to match Kana'an" to a degree, but the /b/ would have disappeared after /m/. I suppose the /b/ in "nib" was intended to go with the /p/ in "pA", both being vocalized more or less alike. 5. inw isqArny mHw m qADAr ["Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized"] Since what seems like a superfluous /y/ was attached to "isqAr[o]n" it must have to do with "inw" being pronounced something like "any" or even "ony". Recall the name "in Hrt" or "Onouris". Ashkelon means "migration" and I am not aware of any pun there. Final /w/ often turns to a kind of "i" in pronunciation. "makh m Gezer"--since "Gezer" means "steep", it virtually also says "down with Gezer".. 6. YnwamA m irw m tm ["Yanoam made nonexistent"] "Yanoam m eiro m tom". Since I don't know the literal meaning of "Yanoam" I can't be certain what's there, but I have a feeling the Semitic has something to do with "rest" or "stop". The Egyptian means "a finish has been made [to it]"] I am not sure why Yanoam ends with Gard. G3--unless it has been forced to agree with some final vowel involved in "tm" which I do not realize. 7. 'wn yzriAr fkt bn prtw=f ["Israel is laid waste; it's seed is no more"] "oun Yisrael foke ban ebreo=f "[?] Needless to say, this is the most fascinating part and probably even more than meets the eye. Even though it is "Jezreel" that has to do with "seed" [meaning "seed of God"], most think that "Israel" must be there. But this "prtw", as vocalized, can also have a telling connection. But how was it vocalized at the time and to what was the pun intended? In Coptic, the /p/ usually becomes "b" in this word except in one dialect where it amounts to "ephrai" [see Crum, page 53. If this really is a reference to the people called Israel, were they truly referred to as "ebreu" already? And what does that mean? The Bible connects it all to "Eber", a person, whose name seems to mean "beyond". Does this have to do with "aprw", a term in no way connected to "prtw"? Another strange aspect of this may be that, chronologically, the devastating feud between the men of Gilead and those of Ephraim can well have taken place in the reign of Merneptah. The Bible claims that 42,000 men of the hill country were killed in the conflict and, even though Merneptah had nothing to do with it, it may have appeared that Israel truly was "fkt" in some great slaughter. 8. XArw xprw m xArt n tA- mry "Khor is made a widow on account by Egypt" "khor khoro [?] m khare n to-mare" This is rather obvious--except for one thing. Was the /p/ in "xprw" really vocalized or not? It was in "xpr", it seems, but the Akkadian appears to indicate that it wasn't in "xprw" at least when writing those kingly names that contained the element. Marianne Luban http://thetimetravelerreststop.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 17:56:23 +0100 (CET) From: "omezzab@tin.it" To: AEgyptian-L@rostau.org.uk Subject: AEL Sinuhe B 230-31 Hi all and Happy 2010! First question of the year about Sinuhe. B 230-31: n ink is qA sA xnt snD s rx(w) tA =f I read back messages, various translations and comments and I know there is much controversy about it. I gave a tentative try and I found two possible solutions, but I don't know how fair they are and grammatically correct. 1) n ink is qA sA xnt snD [ink ] s rx(w) tA =f "I am not arrogant in front of fear, [I am] a man who knows his land" (he knows his land and the fear that its king inspires, so he shows his respect - he didn't leave Egypt out of arrogance) 2) n ink is qA sA xnt snD(w) s rx(w) tA=f I read "snD" as "snD(w) = one who fears" so: "I am not arrogant (I don't feel superior) in front of one who fears, (a man in awe) (that is) a man who knows his land (and the fear its king inspires) (So: I didn't leave Egypt because I feel a better man than commoners) In both cases I take "s rx(w) tA =f" by itself, a sort of indipendent clause, used to explain more clearly the meaning of what precedes it. Am I off track? Bear with me, please, and thank you! Orlando Mezzabotta ==============================================================================