Late Egyptian FlashCards(4)

Late Egyptian forms

Preliminary : the raise of the auxiliary

A. forms which looks like a sDm=f

A.1 prospective sDm=f

Negative form :

sDm=f (as a main form) ;

sDm (as a subordinate form)

The uses of the prospective sDm=f are the same as in Middle Egyptian.

A.2 perfective sDm=f

Negative form : sDm=f, then =f sDm

For 4-lits and more, the form is always periphrased:

iry=f qnqn=i
he has beaten me up
note that the verb qnqn, a 4lit, is not in the sDm=f form. Instead, the verb iry is used as a perfective sDm=f, and the infinitive of qnqn placed as completive, with =i as direct object. This construction should not be translated #he did my beating, which in good Late Egyptian would be *iry=f pAy=i qnqn.

This form is the heir of the ME iwsDm.n=f. Like its ancestor, it can't be used with intransitive verbs (the old perfective is used instead). It can be used both in discourse and narration.

xAa=k sS.w
you have abandonned the writings.
(note for "=k")

skm=s Abd.w n ms.w
She finished the monthes of pregnancy.

A.2.1. the old sDm.n=f form

In some texts, most notably monumental royal texts, the sDm.n=f survives a bit longer. It seems that most sDm.n=f in royal texts are to be understood as emphatic forms.

A.3 i.ir.t=f sDm

B. The First Present

The first present is a rather complex tense. It's the heir of the Middle Egyptian adverbial sentence. Its general form is :

(defined) nominal phrase
	+	adverbial predicate
present I pronominal preformant

The specific pronominal preformant for the first present is :

person	form	translitteration
1		tw=i
2 m.		tw=k
2 f.		tw=T
3 m.		sw
3 f.		st
1		tw=n
2		tw=tn
3 m.		st

Confusions between

and

are rather usual, and sholars often transliterate all of them as "se" to indicate the irrelevance of the ending.

The adverbial part may be :

an adverb ;
a preposition + noun group ;
an old perfective;
+ infinitive;
+ infinitive (for movement verbs).

In all cases, the meaning is present, except for the old perfective, which is used as a perfect tense in discourse, and as a past in narratives, for intransitive verbs (for which it is used instead of the perfective sDm=f). For transitives verbs, the old perfective has its usual meaning of resultative-passive.

sw Hr sDm can have all the possible values of a present, and has lost its specific durative or concomitant aspect.

Note that particles like or, more usually can be found in front of the first present. They are optional; their absence does not, in contrast to what happens in Middle Egyptian, denote any exclamative value.

The negation of the first present is + first present.

C. The third future

D. The sequential form

D. The conjunctive

The converters

The converters are words, which placed in front of a construction, change some grammatical feature of this construction. They are only grammatical tools, with no meaning of their own. In this sense, a conjunction is not a converter, as they add some supplementary meaning.

Some converters, like existed in Middle Egyptian. What differentiate LE from ME in this respect is that the number of forms the converters can stand in front of is dramatically larger.