Ancient Egyptian Phonology

by James P Allen

In Ancient Egyptian Phonology. James Allen studies the sounds of the language spoken by the ancient Egyptians through application of the most recent methodological advances for phonological reconstruction. Using the internal evidence of the language, he proceeds from individual vowels and consonants to the sound of actual ancient Egyptian texts. Allen also explores variants, alternants, and the development of sound in texts, and touches on external evidence from Afroasiatic cognate languages. The most up to date work on this topic, Ancient Egyptian Phonology is an essential resource for Egyptologists and will also be of interest to scholars and linguists of African and Semitic languages.

Genres: Linguistics

244 pages, Paperback

Published May 21, 2020

Reviews

[André · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allen's book gives so much insight into the reconstructable phonology of the various stages of the Egyptian–Coptic language. He usually gives reasons for his reconstruction choices, though I'm still often puzzled why he chose certain reconstructed vowels over others (like *i instead of *u sometimes, or vice versa). The readers should themself collect the data presented and put them into a neat table as an overview, as – sadly – such an overview of sound correspondences between the historical stages isn't included.
I also disliked the lack of grammatical information about the different verb forms described. The reader is simply supposed to know which sDm(w) form is meant, and also the stages of reconstruction (Old Egyptian? Middle Egyptian? Old Coptic?) within the different chapters is often not mentioned. I feel like the author only related 70% of the necessary information and withheld some essentials. Also, apart from consonantal reconstructions, not much has been mentioned about other vocalic reconstructions by previous scholars. All in all, super interesting read (not for laypeople), but feels very incomplete.

[Georg Sagittarius · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) interesting:
a) Similarity beetween Coptic & Greek graphemes: p. 4-7
b) p. 45: e.g., jbnw “alum” [formerly, erstwhile] > Ʒbn > B wben, S obn [oben (German) = above, top], jsy “light” > ƷsƸ > A esieei, B asiai, FS asai;

2) other books from Allen (not listed at goodreads.com):
a) Pyramid Texts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid...
Oho! Oho! Rise up, O Teti! Take your head, collect your bones, Gather your limbs, shake the earth from your flesh! Take your bread that rots not, your beer that sours not, Stand at the gates that bar the common people! The gatekeeper comes out to you, he grasps your hand, Takes you into heaven, to your father Geb. He rejoices at your coming, gives you his hands...
("The Complete Pyramid Texts of King Unas, Unis or Wenis": https://web.archive.org/web/201803290... )
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...

b) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/midd...
c) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/midd...

3) "This book, the first of its kind, examines how the phonology and grammar of the ancient Egyptian language changed over more than three thousand years of its history, from the first appearance of written documents, c.3250 BC, to the Coptic dialects of the second century AD and later. Part One discusses phonology, working backward from the vowels and consonants of Coptic to those that can be deduced for earlier stages of the language. Part Two is devoted to grammar, including both basic components such as nouns and the complex history of the verbal system. The book thus provides both a synchronic description of the five major historical stages of ancient Egyptian and a diachronic analysis of their development and relationship." https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...

4) About James P. Allen
"James P. Allen received his PhD from the University of Chicago. Before joining Brown in 2007, Prof. Allen was an epigrapher with the University of Chicago's Epigraphic Survey, Cairo Director of the American Research Center in Egypt, and curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From 2008 to 2015, he was President of the International Association of Egyptologists.
Prof. Allen's research interests include ancient Egyptian grammar and literature, religion, and history. He has written extensively on these subjects, including

Genesis in Egypt: the Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts (Yale, 1988), Middle Egyptian: an Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (Cambridge, 2000; 2010, 2014), The Heqanakht Papyri (MMA, 2002), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), The Debate between a Man and His Soul (Brill, 2011), The Ancient Egyptian Language, an Historical Study (Cambridge, 2013), Middle Egyptian Literature: Eight Literary Works (2014), and The Grammar of the Pyramid Texts, Vol. 1: Unis.

His most recent work has been on Ancient Egyptian Phonology (to be published by Cambridge University Press) and Ancient Egyptian Thought (to be published by the American University in Cairo Press)." https://vivo.brown.edu/display/jpallen