Fundamentals of Egyptian Grammar: Elements

This is part 1 of an introduction to hieroglyphic Middle Egyptian, also known as Classical Egyptian. It was spoken in ancient Egypt around 2000 BC and remained in use later on as a written-only language. There is much controversy on the proper analysis of the verb in Middle Egyptian. But Part 1 should already lead one far enough into a knowledge of the language to begin making up one's own mind about theories on the verb. This work is organized in two ways: first, in chapters and sections by subject matter; and second, in thirty-six lessons with questions and exercises. The book is suitable for both classroom use and self-teaching. It is fully self-sufficient, containing all the necessary vocabulary, a full answer key to all the exercises, a list of all the hieroglyphic signs occurring in text and exercises, and definitions of every single grammatical term used in the book. Much emphasis is placed on analysis. This book is not only a textbook but also an analysis ! of the fundamentals of Middle Egyptian presented in textbook format for clarity. The analysis progresses from the most basic elements to ever increasing complexity by simple and obvious incremental steps. No prior knowledge of grammar or of any theory of language is presupposed. Grammatical terms are used parsimoniously. The work is inspired by teaching Egyptian at Yale, Brown, and Harvard Universities.