Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 21:32:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Graham <geoffrey.graham@yale.edu>
Subject: Exercise

Hello,

People are requesting basic exercises in Egyptian. I have created one as an experiment. This exercise which you can find at the AEL website introduces the personal suffix pronouns, the pseudo-verbal construction, dependent pronouns, gives some examples of the use of these features, some vocabulary, and then asks you to do some exercises.

Let me put some of this information into ascii format for you here so you will know how to render your answers in e-mail format:

Suffix Pronouns:

=j	"I, me, my"
=k	"you, your" masculine singular
=T	"you, your" feminine singular
=f	"he, him, his" (or "it" when the referent is m.)
=s	"she, her, hers" (or "it" when the referent is f.)
=n	"we, us, ours"
=Tn	"you, your" plural
=sn	"they, them, theirs"
=tw	"one, one's"

Pseudo-Verbal Construction:
This construction consists of a subject introduced on a kind of conjugation base jw which is basically untranslatable into English. Its only purpose is to provide a base upon which the suffix pronoun can adhere. This is followed by a preposition and the infinitive of a verb. Prepositions which can be used in this construction are Hr "upon", r "at/to/toward", and m "in". The usage of each prepostion depends on different factors, but this will be introduced later. For now, just learn the paradigms which are presented.

Paradigm I:
jw=j Hr mrj.t "I am loving", "I was loving", or "I love".
jw=k Hr mrj.t "you (m., sing.) are loving"
jw=T Hr mrj.t "you (f., sing.) are loving"
jw=f Hr mrj.t "he is loving"
jw=s Hr mrj.t "she is loving"
jw=n Hr mrj.t "we are loving"
jw=Tn Hr mrj.t "you (pl.) are loving"
jw=sn Hr mrj.t "they are loving"

Paradigm II: (using the r of futurity)
jw=j r mrj.t "I will be loving"
jw=k r mrj.t "you (m., sing.) will be loving"
jw=T r mrj.t "you (f., sing.) will be loving"
jw=f r mrj.t "he will be loving"
jw=s r mrj.t "she will be loving"
jw=n r mrj.t "we will be loving"
jw=Tn r mrj.t "you (pl.) will be loving"
jw=sn r mrj.t "they will be loving"

Dependent Pronouns:
These are a different kind of pronoun from the suffix pronouns and they can stand alone. They serve various different functions, one of which is as subjects of pseudo-verbal constructions, but they must also be introduced by certain words. We will have a particle what introduces them in a moment. For now just learn the paradigm.

wj	"I, me"
Tw	"you" (m., sing.)
Tn	"you" (f., sing.)
sw	"he, him" (or "it" when the referent is m.)
sy	"she, her" (or "it" when the referent is f.)
st	"it" (inanimate objects which are not defined as m. or f.)
n	"we, us"
Tn	"you" (pl.)
sn	"they, them" (mostly animate beings)
st	"they, them" (mostly inanimate objects or animals)

Non-enclitic Particle:
This particle introduces the dependent pronouns as subjects of sentences.

mk "look/behold/hey" (it need not be very strong and does not always have to be translated at all.)

Examples:
Notice that the subject of these sentences is a dependent pronoun introduced by mk, and that the object of these sentences is a suffix pronoun affixed to the infinitive of the verb.

mk wj Hr mrj.t=k	"Look, I love you" or "hey, I am loving you"
mk Tw Hr mrj.t=s	"Look, you (m.) love her."
mk Tn Hr mrj.t=f	"Look, you (f.) love him."
mk sw Hr mrj.t=Tn	"Look, he loves you (pl.)"
mk sy Hr mrj.t=j	"Look, she loves me."
mk n Hr mrj.t=sn	"Look, we love them."
mk Tn Hr mrj.t=n	"Look, you (pl.) love us."
mk sn Hr mrj.t=s*	"Look, they love it/her."

*I just noticed that I wrote st in stead of =s, which is perfectly good Late Egyptian, but not really Middle Egyptian. So, treat it as =s.

Vocabulary:
Here are five more verbs in their infinitives for you to use in the exercises.

sDm	"hear"
jnj.t	"bring"
m33	"see"
s-nm	"feed"
jTj.t	"take"

The exercises are out there on the web. The first one is from Egyptian to English. Transliterate them and then translate them. The second one is from English into Egyptian. Simply transliterate them. I realize that you will not be able to send them in hieroglyphs to the list.

Then, after this, see how many other sentences you can make out of the given vocabulary and paradigms