egypt in its african context note 3

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EGYPT IN ITS AFRICAN CONTEXT NOTE 3: TOWARDS

A METHOD FOR VOCALIZING MDW NTR SYMBOLS

By Asar Imhotep (Sun of the Soil)

(November 27, 2012) [updated Dec. 2, 2012]

The MOCHA-Versity Institute of Philosophy and Research

luntu/lumtu/muntu

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LINGUISTIC ABBREVIATIONS

PB Proto-Bantu

PWS Proto-Western Sudanic (Westermann)

PWN Proto-Western Nigritic (Mukarvosky)

PNC Informal. No systematic reconstruction available

PCS Proto-Central Sudanic (Bender)

PAA Proto-Afro-Asiatic (Ehret, Diakonoff)

PPAB Proto-Potou-Akanic-Bantu (Stewart)

Bantu Proto-Bantu (Meeussen, Meinhof)

BANTU Common Bantu (Guthrie)

Bantu Bantu & Semi-Bantu (Johnston)

A-A Afro-Asiatic (Diakonoff, Ehret, Greenberg)

ES Eastern-Sudanic (Greenberg)

CS Central-Sudanic (Greenberg)

CN Chari-Nile (Greenberg)

NS Nilo-Saharan (Greenberg)

[I have used Greenbergs abbreviations (numbers & letters in brackets) to identify languages].

N-C Niger-Congo

Mande B Banbara, D Dioula, M Malinke

(Delafosse,Westermann)

TogoR Togo Remnant (Heine)

Polyglotta Koelles Polyglotta Africana

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In this essay I attempt to lay the necessary ground work for a proper vocalization of ancient Egyptian

phonographic symbols. There has been some recent interest within the African-Centered community to

revitalize the ancient Egyptian language as evidenced in its hieroglyphic writing script. Researchers have

always speculated as to the vocalization schema of the ancient Egyptian language ever since the

decipherment efforts of Champollion in the early 1800s. The problem of proper vocalization becomes apparent when one realizes that the ancient Egyptians didnt write out their vowel sounds, only their consonants. To facilitate pronunciation of Egyptian terms, Egyptologists insert the vowel /e/ for ease of

speaking among specialists: e.g., Egyptian Htp rest, > Hetep.1

The task of vocalizing the Egyptian language is not a new task among African researchers. Cheikh Anta

Diop, in his book Nations Negres et Culture (1955), devised a methodology for revitalizing the ancient

Egyptian language. Since then, this has been an ongoing project of the likes of the Kemetic Institute,

formally headed by Dr. Jacob Carruthers, and one of its founders, linguist and Egyptologist Dr. Rkhty

(Wimby) Amen. This also used to be one of the objectives of ASCAC2 as well.

There are several issues that must be kept in mind when attempting such an endeavor. One of the major

issues is dialects in the language. The question becomes, then, What dialect and in what time period are we choosing to revitalize? And more so, how can we tell dialectical differences in the early, non-Coptic

periods? As Rkhty Amen notes concerning the nature of the writing script:

There were many different dialects spoken in Kemet all along the Hapy itru (Nile River) from time

immemorial. Mdw Ntr writing was used to communicate by people who spoke many different

dialects. The picture words meant the same to everyone no matter what dialect they spoke. The

vowels were not written in Medu Neter. The absence of vowels in the writing made it possible for

everyone, no matter what dialect they spoke, to understand the writing, and still use their own

unique pronunciation. There were also temporal dialects, these dialects are commonly referred to

by scholars as Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian and Coptic, which is the final stage of the language.

Coptic had several dialects of its own, namely, Sahidic, Bohairic, Fayyumic, and Achmimic. The

grammar and vocabulary differed in these stages. Coptic is the only stage of the language wherein

vowels were written, so it is by way of Coptic and other related African languages that we know

something about original pronunciation of wordsCoptic is no longer spoken although it still survives as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church. (Amen, 2010: 3-4).

While I do not discount dialects in ancient Egypt, it is my contention that these were separate languages.

When vocabulary and grammar are different, it is not a case of a dialect, but one of a different language.

They can be all related (closely or more distantly), but different languages none-the-less. The major

scripts that followed these political periods were just the language of the dominant ethnic group of the

time. As Rkhty Amen noted earlier in her essay The Unity of African Languages in Karenga and Carruthers (1986: 156), in regards to the classifications or stages of the Egyptian language, that:

These designations, however, reflect not so much stages in the development of Egyptian language

per se as, rather stages in the evolving political history of the various dynasties. What Gardiner

called Late Egyptian was the dialect of Upper Kemet, traces of which were already noticed in the Old Kingdom in Upper Kemetic sites.

3 In Dynasties VI-XI, the vernacular called Middle

1 However, in this example the vocalization is not too far off. For in the Kalenjiin (Nilo-Saharan) language, a

descendant of Egyptian, to sit (rest) is vocalized ketepi. 2 The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC)

3 Late Egyptian inscriptions in the Old Kingdom: Pierre Montent, Les Tombeaux dits de Kasr-el-Sayad, Kemi

(1936, pp. 9197, 177); Aylward M Blackman. The Rock Tombs of Meir, Parts I, III, V, Archeological Survey of

Egypt, Memoirs, 22, 24, 28, (London, 1914, 1915, 1953). First intermediate period inscriptions with late Egyptian

forms: Blackman, ibid, vols. XI, XII (Dsir-el-Gebrawl). Middle Egyptian Inscriptions with late Egyptian forms: N.

Davies and Gardiner, The Tomb of Antefoker and His Wife Senet, Theban Tomb Series, No. 2. London, 1930.

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Egyptian, was predominant in Kemet. During the First intermediate Period this dialect spread northward. By the late XIth and early XIIth Dynasties so-called Late Egyptian forms occur on all

types of monumental inscriptions. When the Nubian regime regained power in the XVIIIth

Dynasty, the vernacular of Upper Kemet spread with the establishment of the New Kingdom.

Amen Hotep II (1450) composed a letter to his viceroy in Nubia and in it he used what has come

to be called Late Egyptian: in other words, his language was that of Nubia or Upper Egypt.

Again, this would be an example of a different language, not Egyptian. The Nubians are Kushites and the

New Kingdom language would be a Kushite language (not to be confused with Cushitic, which is a

modern linguistic designation). It would be nave to think, that during the formulative and subsequent

development of Egyptian society, that they spoke a single language (given the size of Egypt and how

African societies in general are composed), especially when the archeological evidence and testimony on

the Narmer Palate state otherwise (see the next section).

Helmut Satzinger, in his book The Egyptian Connection: Egyptian and the Semitic Languages (2003:

231-232), although trying to make the case for a strong Semitic and Egyptian connection, provides these

comments that reaffirm much of what were saying here:

Egyptian has much in common with Semitic, as compared with most Cushitic (including Omotic;

cf. Lamberti 1999) and Chadic languages. But when evaluating similarities between individual

branches of Afroasiatic it is crucial to take into account (1) the factor of time, (2) the historico-

cultural factor, and (3) possible areal effects.

(The factor of time.) Egyptian and Akkadian are attested in the third millennium BC, other Semitic

languages somewhat later. The other branches of Afroasiatic are attested only recently (with the

exception of the rather meagre evidence of ancient Libyan), and often enough not to a satisfactory

extent. This means that comparisons must allow for a further development of several thousand

years on the side of the other branches.

(The historico-cultural factor.) The Afroasiatic relationship dates back to Mesolithic times. Many

important cultural achievements, such as agriculture and cattle-breeding, are later. The social

structure and the forms of rule have changed drastically. This is of particular importance for

lexical comparison. Many terms that appear basic to us cannot be expected to be part of the

inherited common vocabulary. (Characteristic examples are terms like Hsb to reckon4 and xtm to seal: the meaning is the same, the transcription is identical for Egyptian and Arabic, there is obviously a close relationship, but it must be other than genetic.)

(Areal effects.) The prehistory of the speakers of the individual branches of Afroasiatic is

controversial, as is the question of the original Afroasiatic homeland, and consequently the

reconstruction of the migrations from there to their present locations. It is usually very hard to say

who in the course of time used to be the neighbours of the individual groups. Historical Egypt is

4 I do not agree with his assessment as it pertains to this word. The word Hsb reckon, calculate, accounting, count

derives from a more basic root in Egyptian ip to reckon, count, take a census; Coptic wp (wp); ipw inventory. In Central Chadic this root is actually *l-p to reckon up; Daba nif < *lif; Kola nof. The root is possible, with semantic shift, ip < *lp to examine, investigate (Wb I, 66); W.Chadic: Angas-sura *lap to investigate, look for; Mupun yp to look for something that is missing, yp to check. These became loanwords in Caananite: p to measure

(Capacity); Hebrew Af; Greek oipi measure of corn (< Egyptian ip, ipy.t, iyp.t; Coptic eiope/oeme). In ciLuba this term is -badika "count, enumerate, to do financial (statements)"; -bala "read, count, enumerate"; mbadilu "how

to read, how to count" (meta-thesis). @sb is an expanded form of sbA "school, teach, wise, to tend, learning, to instruct, guide, direct, gate/portal." Education is learning how to read and measure (calculate). We have also in Egyptian sb measurment (for stone). The H- is a prefix. The l-(r-) is an affix mean to. In Egyptian r > i in many instances. Calculating, investigating, reading, thinking, etc., are very basic human activities and the lexemes has

survived in practically all major language families in Africa.

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constituted of two populations: that of the Delta, and that of the Nile Valley. Most probably, these

groups had different languages, and it is only one of them that is the ancestor of historical

Egyptian. At present, many assume that Proto-Egyptian is the language of the Southerners

(Naqda culture; cf. Helck 1984; Helck, 1990). We know nothing at all about the other language.

The Valley population is not indigenous. It has immigrated either from the south or from the

south-west. The implications of this question concern the languages with which Egyptian may

have had contact before it entered the light of history. In the south, we may expect Cushitic

(including Omotic) languages, and apart from Afroasiatic, various Eastern Sudanic languages (of

the Nilo-Saharan macro-phylum), and Kordofanian languages (Niger-Kordofanian macro-

phylum). In the south-west, the presumable neighbours would probably have spoken either Chadic

languages, or Saharan languages (again, Nilo-Saharan). But these assumptions are, of course,

based on the present distribution.

To comment on the later part of this citation, Satzinger is noting the various pools of cultures from which

derived pharaonic Egyptian culture. He is admitting to the fact that areal contacts shape language. He also

attests to at least one other language in the Delta region. What was this language and how did the

interaction of this language, as a result of the unifying of the two lands, effect the development of

Egyptian? Did this language remain a separate language in ancient Egypt? What about the other cultures

and languages that surrounded the Proto-Egyptian language speakers? Did they consciously stay in the Sudan area while the Proto-Egyptians moved down the Nile? If so, why would they stay? What compelled this one group of Proto-Egyptians to move down the river and dominate the indigenous people? How many languages were spoken indigenously along the Nile before the colonists from Ethiopia

took over? These are the types of questions one must ask when discussing the development of ancient

Egyptian in a contact situation.

That Egypt was a multilingual and multiethnic (African) society is also the opinion of the linguist from

Ghana, Dr. Nana Banchie Darkwah. In his book The Africans Who Wrote the Bible (2002: 149), as

concerns the limitations of modern Egyptology on the Egyptian language question, he states:

Unfortunately, Champollion's decipherment of the hieroglyphics was based upon the wrong

premise that Ancient Egypt was a monolingual nation just as most modern European nations are

today. However, that premise is false. Ancient Egypt was a multilingual nation as we see on the

African continent today. Ancient Egyptian writings were therefore not in one tribal language. As a

result, deciphering one language could not give western scholars the orthographic clues to the

numerous documents that were written in other tribal languages. This is the reason less than a

tenth of the supposed recovered papyri from Ancient Egypt have been successfully deciphered up

to date. The deciphering formula that Champollion left behind does not fit all the languages of all

the papyri Egyptologists and archaeologists have recovered from Ancient Egypt. What is worse,

most of these scholars do not even know that they are dealing with different African languages.

For these reasons, and more, I am of the opinion that the only way you can truly revitalize the Egyptian

language is to reconstruct the proto-language that gave birth to all of the dialects, if one believes they were in fact dialects and not distinct languages. I am of the opinion that this would be a daunting task as

proto-Egyptian cannot be reconstructed using the comparative method as it is a mixed language (discussed below). The initial language derived from a creolization process of Chadic, Nilo-Saharan

(Kongo-Saharan), and Cushitic languages. Therefore, one cannot reconstruct a single parent to Egyptian.

The nature of certain grammatical aspects of the language will be tackled in this essay which will help to

demonstrate a Kongo-Saharan substratum.

This essay, however, is focused on the writing script: the mdw nTr. I seek here to demonstrate that without engaging Kongo-Saharan languages, one will not be able to properly vocalize the Egyptian phonemes

associated with certain glyphs. This is because the hieroglyphs are an expansion of old Niger-Congo signs

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and symbols that initially had monosyllabic roots for terms that matched the objects being depicted. Many

of these vocalizations survived in Egyptian. One can verify the old pronunciations by examining the

Linear A script of the Minoans who borrowed the designs from the mdw nTr hieroglyphs. However, many of the Linear A signs have different vocalizations than what Egyptologists believe are the proper

vocalizations for Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, as we will see later on, some of these glyphs are the

correct pronunciation for the signs. I argue that many of the signs have gone through a renaming process

and/or sound mutation in Egyptian which forced a different vocalization of the glyph. This will be

supported by matching the lexemes for the glyphs in both Afro-Asiatic and Kongo-Saharan5 and where

possible, checking against dialectical variances of the terms. In this essay we will only focus on the 24(or 26) primary monoliteral glyphs.

6

HOW ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS SHAPED EGYPTIAN CULTURE AND LANGUAGE

Before we can tackle the phonology of the primary glyphs, we have to situate Egypt in its proper

historical and cultural context. I mentioned earlier that there was essentially a pool of cultures that came

together and became the Egyptian culture. This was the result of two major historical events: the drying of

North Africa and the unification of the two major kingdoms (the two lands) under king Menes. We will however only discuss the first point in detail here.

Dr. S.O.Y. Keita (biological anthropologist), in his article Geography and Climate informs us of the details of this climatic event which forced the inhabitants of the green Sahara to flee in many directions.

Between 50,000 and 15,000 years ago the desert area west of the Nile was inhabited sparsely, if at

all, due to the region's aridity. During this period a succession of cultures flourished on the banks

of the Nile. As rains came in from equatorial Africa in the early Holocene, the desert became less

arid, and people moved into the Sahara from all directions. Between 10,000 and 6,000 B.C.

archaeological evidence has been interpreted to suggest that the number of people living along the

Nile fell. At the same time, in the desert west of the river there is evidence of an increase in

population and of pastoral societies that built large stone megaliths and sculptures, developed

astronomical knowledge, made the earliest known pottery in Africa, and, likely, domesticated

cattle. There are rock paintings of people and animals, sometimes using themes that also appear

later in Egypt, along with other aspects of the culture. After the climate again grew more arid after

6000 B.C. there is evidence for migration back into the Nile Valley.7

There are a few things that must be highlighted from this citation. The first is that the Nile Valleyalthough one of the major corridors for early human migrations outside of Africaitself was sparsely populated. This is due to the fact that before agriculture was the primary subsistence strategy in the Nile

Valley, most human groups were hunter-gatherers and/or pastoralists which meant that they were

constantly on the move. The lower8 Nile Valley (Egypt/Sudan), during the time of the green period of North Africa, had no real advantages in terms of its living needs. What is now desert was once full of

major lakes and rivers. So the Nile was just one of many rivers for which people could live. However,

5 These labels have been shown to be arbitrary designations but will be used here as to not confuse readers who are

not familiar with the debate on the classification of African languages and their labels. 6 This essay assumes the reader has some knowledge of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic language, so little to no

space will be designated to discuss its history, development or the like. I recommend for the laymen Ankh Mi Ras work Let the Ancestors Speak: Removing the Veil of Mysticism from Medu Netcher (1995), JOM International Inc. 7 http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/geopedia/Ancient_Egypt

8 Which in our modern orientation would be upper. The Nile, however, flows up-down into the Mediterranean sea, so the upper Nile Valley would be in Uganda/Ethiopia.

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things changed as the aridity came back and forced the inhabitants of the Sahara regions to spread in all

directions. This brings us to our second point.

As a result of the forming of the desert, these Saharan groups begin to move south, east, west and north in

search of ecological refuges such as desert oases and other fertile areas to live. Those who moved south

and east found themselves finding refuge along the Nile river. Others going south settled near lake Chad.

Others going west settled near the Niger river. Others moving further south penetrated the forests and

didnt stop until they reached the Congo river. In other words, the people settled in areas where there was an abundance of water. This is when the Nile becomes really important.

With this said, every group that migrated didnt speak the same language. Over time, along the Nile, many groups speaking different but related languages settled in various points along the Nile. Some of

these Sahara migrants actually settled in Greece (Diop 1991, Campbell-Dunn 2006, 2008). This is

important to note because, as Keita mentioned above, these groups brought along with them religious

ideas, cultural motifs, and signs and symbols that later appeared in Pharaonic Egypt. As we will see

below, these signs (writing scripts) are found in West and Central Africa as well as ancient Crete.

Over time, forty-two major provinces appeared along the Nile River and the idea of a unified polity began

to shape. King Menes is credited with unifying the nomes and creating a singular polity. In the forty-two

provinces of Upper and Lower Egypt, a question of linguistic order arose concerning the choice of a

language as the official means of communication or system of communication for federal purposes (Kaya,

2010). Each province had a language or dialect and totem (tama) of its own. The early scribes and

linguists, who were multi-lingual, noted the similarities in many of the basic and major terms of these

dialects and/or languages. This prompted, in the writing script, a conscious omission of the vowel-sounds

as they noted that these were not consistent between the languages and/or dialects along the Nile.

By not writing the vowel sounds in the words, the script became accessible to many groups and it allowed

those in the future to more easily read the ancient scripts as they noted the more stable consonant roots

(Kaya 2010, Rkhty 2010). People do not vocalize the same way in every place and in every time. Vowels

change in any language, even from person to person and from place to place.

On the orders of the Pharaoh, the scribes set consonants as the basic phonemes and pictograms as both the

sign language and the symbols (Kaya 2010). Using early African languages as a frame of reference, the

scribes elaborated a voiced consonant graphic system, which was to unify the whole Egyptian nation and

which we have applied to several African languages.

The hieroglyphs can be used to write different languages and/or be understood by different African

languages that share the same or similar structure. As noted by Kaya:

It should be observed that a link of communication could be established between different African

languages that have a common pre-dialectical source. This is made possible by using identical

consonants and phonemes as a paradigm and introducing ideograms as in the rebus system for the

exceptions, and the determinative clauses as in a lexicon or phonetically complement. For

instance, a Senegalese person could write Walaf in the shape of hieroglyphics which could be read

and understood by a Malian, a Tanzanian or a Zairian without speaking Mandingo, Lingala,

Swahili or even Hausa. This is made possible when African languages and the Pharaonic graphic

system are combined.

As a result of the many groups converging along the Nile, the language that arose and developed was a

mixed language and this is why we cannot reconstruct a proto-form of the Egyptian language and why it

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was once labeled as a language isolate.9 The study of mixed languages is beyond the scope of this paper. I recommend the books Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics edited by Sarah G.

Thomason and Terrence Kaufman (1988); Language Contact and Grammatical Change by Bernd Heine

and Tania Kuteva (2005); The Dynamics of Language Contact by Michael Clyne (2003); The Ecology of

Language Evolution by Salikoko Mufwene (2001). One can also examine peer-reviewed essays in the

Journal of Language Contact: Evolution of Languages, Contact and Discourse (started in 2007).

This is important to note because linguists are beginning to realize just how important contact is to the

development and the shaping of human languages. Ideas regarding the rigidness of languages and their

resistance to outside change are eroding under the weight of new data. For instance, it was believed that

languages would not adopt whole grammar features from other languages, but this has been shown not to

be the case, for example, with the Maa language of East Africa (Thomason and Kaufman, 1988).

The Maa language cannot be classified by comparative methods because the vocabulary of the language is Cushitic, while its grammar system is Bantu. The purpose of the comparative method is the

reconstruction of the proto-language. This linguistic tool is used to establish genetic relatedness of

languages. These languages, shown to be related, relate on both a common grammar and basic

vocabulary. If these two aspects of speech are not shared in significant ways (among two or more

languages), it cannot be argued that that these languages are closely related and you cannot classify the

languages into known families. This is the case with Maa. Because the major features in Maa come from two different language families, one cannot reconstruct the mother language that gave birth to Maa. Unlike in biological systems, linguists attribute the birth of languages to a single parent, not two like in

living biological systems.

In the case of Egyptian, there are multiple donors that help to create the language. Dr. Alain Anselin, linguist and Egyptologist (Universite des Antilles-Guyane), in his article Some Notes about an Early African Pool of Cultures from which Emerged the Egyptian Civilization (2011) suggests an integration of Chadic, Cushitic and Nilo-Saharan elements. I would also add Niger-Congo for reasons to be discussed

below.

THE EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS AS NIGER-CONGO SYMBOLS

The hieroglyphic symbols are an outgrowth and expansion of old Kongo-Saharan writing symbols. These

symbols can be seen among the Vai, Mende and even the ancient Cretans. A few examples can be seen

below of shared iconographic symbols among the Egyptians and Kongo-Saharan speakers. The first few

examples is taken from Cheikh Anta Diops book Precolonial Black Africa: A Comparative Study of the Political and Social Systems of Europe and Black Africa, from Antiquity to the Formation of Modern

States (1987).

9 A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic")

relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common

with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single language. Commonly cited

examples include Basque, Korean, Ainu and Burushaski, though in each case a minority of linguists claim to have

demonstrated a relationship with other languages. Egyptian is now considered its own branch of Afro-Asiatic.

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For more info on the Mande script, visit: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mende.htm

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Nsibidi and Egyptian comparisons

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Egyptian and Mande script comparisons

The following example actually comes from Linear A in Crete and the Vai script of West Africa. The

Linear A borrowed many signs from the ancient Egyptian script, but didnt borrow the phonetics of the sign. Practically all of the signs in Linear A match Niger-Congo words for those symbols, which brings to

question whether they were borrowed necessarily from Egypt or brought with them from Africa. The first

example comes from Cambpell-Dunn (2006).

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Below are some of signs alleged to be borrowed from Egypt per Obenga.

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The comparisons below are a more extensive set of Egyptian and Linear A comparisons with their Niger-

Congo names, which I argue, informs us on alternate pronunciations of signs in Egyptian which are

attested in the Egyptian language itself.

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As we can see, the names given to the Egyptian glyphs above are actually the name of those items in

Kongo-Saharan languages. A good number of these glyphs in Linear A actually are just morphological

variations of the ones in Egypt. For instance, Linear A do eye is a variant of Egyptian iri eye (l d);

Linear A se arm is a palatalized form of Egyptian (k)a arm. We argue that the D36 glyph a "paw, claw, hand, arm" was actually pronounced ka (PWS *ka arm, hand, cut); e.g., Egyptian a region, province < PWS *ka place, home; PWS *g place, PWS *gi to be in a place; PWN KI (KYI, CI) village, settlement. Over time the k- was dropped which left us with /a/.

The Kongo-Saharan languages can tell us a lot about the Egyptian writing script. Diop reaffirms why we

should be looking at those languages from the south in regards to understanding the hieroglyphs.

Equally inadmissible are theories that take the same assumption (Capart) to explain the origin of

Egyptian writing, whose essential symbols in reality represent the flora and fauna of the African

interior, particularly Nubia, not Lower Egypt. (Diop, 1974: 125)

This is important to note because the character of the writing script is not Semitic, but Niger-Congo. The

so-called determinatives of the Egyptian script are none other than Kongo-Saharan noun-classifiers and

verbal suffixes (a few examples will be demonstrated throughout our discussion). In Kongo-Saharan

languages, the classes, for example, determine the definition of the words, unlike in Semitic where the meaning is determined by vocalic alternations (the vowels are grammatical elements). These same

characteristics can be found in Sumerian. As Mallowan (1965: 62), referenced in Campbell-Dunn (2009a:

10), noted about Sumerian, determinative signs were often added as prefixes and phonetic complements attached as suffixes to clarify the meaning of the word. I argue that Egyptian and Sumerian share these same features because they both derive from Niger-Congo languages where this approach to writing

matches the inner logic of the language being spoken.

The Nubian origin of the language and the writing script is intriguing when we juxtapose it to the thesis by Welmers for the possible Niger-Congo homeland in the Nile Valley. Wm. E. Welmers, in his 1971

article "Niger-Congo, Mande" [in T.A. Sebeok, et al. eds. Linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa (Current

Trends in Linguistics, 7), pp. 113-140 The Hague: Mouton] suggests the following:

By way of conclusion to this general overview of the Mande languages, a bit of judicious

speculation about Mande origins and migrations may not be out of order. It has already been stated

that the Mande languages clearly represent the earliest offshoot from the parent Niger-Congo

stocknot counting Kordofanian, which Greenberg considers parallel to all of the Niger-Congo, forming a Niger-Kordofanian macrofamily. An original Niger-Congo homeland in the general

vicinity of the upper Nile valley is probably as good a hypothesis as any. From such a

homeland, a westward Mande migration may have begun well over 5000 years ago. Perhaps the

earliest division within this group resulted in the isolation of what is now represented only by

Bobo-fing. Somewhat later perhaps 3500 to 4500 years ago, and possibly from a new homeland around northern Dahomey [now Benin] the ancestors of the present Northern-western Mande peoples began pushing farther west, ultimately reaching their present homeland in the grasslands

and forests of West Africa. This was followed by a gradual spread of the Southern-Eastern

division, culminating perhaps 2000 years ago in the separation of its to branches and the ultimate

movement of Southern Mande peoples southeast and westward until Mano and Kpelle, long

separated, became once more contiguous. (pp. 119-120) (emphasis mine)

We have to remember that the Greek historian informs us what the Egyptians told him directly concerning

their origins and customs. We are told by Diodorus that:

They say also that the Egyptians are colonists sent out by the Ethiopians, Osiris having been the

leader of the colonyAnd the larger part of the customs of the Egyptians are, they hold,

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Ethiopian, the colonists still preserving their ancient manners. For instance, the belief that their

kings are gods, the very special attention which they pay to their burials, and many other matters

of a similar nature are Ethiopian practices, while the shapes of their statues and the forms of their

letters are Ethiopian; for of the two kinds of writing which the Egyptians have, that which is

known as "popular" (demotic) is learned by everyone, while that which is called "sacred" is

understood only by the priests of the Egyptians, who learn it from their fathers as one of the

things which are not divulged, but among the Ethiopians everyone uses these forms of

letters. Furthermore, the orders of the priests, they maintain, have much the same position among

both peoples; for all are clean who are engaged in the service of the gods, keeping themselves

shaven, like the Ethiopian priests, and having the same dress and form of staff, which is shaped

like a plough and is carried by their kings, who wear high felt hats which end in a knob at the top

and are circled by the serpents which they call asps; and this symbol appears to carry the thought

that it will be the lot of those who shall dare to attack the king to encounter death-carrying stings.

Many other things are also told by them concerning their own antiquity and the colony which they

sent out that became the Egyptians, but about this there is no special need of our writing

anything.10

In other words, the Egyptian culture is the Kushite culture (Ethiopian) of Chad/Sudan as acknowledged

by the Egyptians themselves. Even Champollion, the decipherer of the hieroglyphs, understood this

point.11

This would explain why the Kongo-Saharan symbols, along with the words to go with them,

became the foundational symbols of the emerging Egyptian language. There are many theses concerning

the origins of the Niger-Congo language family with many having them originate west of Lake Chad. I

find many of these theories untenable for reasons beyond the scope of our current discourse. But even if

we did accept that hypothesis, one couldnt deny the fact that Niger-Congo (and Proto-Bantu) speakers were in the Nile Valley as evidenced by the Sumerian data.

The Sumerian language has been proven, by way of the comparative method, to be a Niger-Congo

language. Four principle works help to establish this fact: W. Wanger, Comparative Lexical Study of

Sumerian and Ntu (Bantu): The Sumerian Sanscrit of the African Ntu Languages (1935); Robin Walker, When We Ruled (2006); GJK Campbell-Dunn Sumerian Comparative Dictionary & Sumerian

Comparative Grammar (2009); and Hermel Hermstein Black Sumer: The African Origins of Civilization

(2012).

Hermstein (2012: 85-98) posits an eastern migration of Niger-Congo (Proto-Bantu) speakers, originating

from Lake Chad, passing through the Sudan, settling in Somalia, then working their way up to present-

day Iraq. Campbell-Dunn (2009a: 43, 151), on the other hand, posits a Congo origin with the Proto-

Sumerians traveling through East Africa into Arabia and migrating further north. Lake Chad and the

Congo are essentially the same area, only separated by forests. In both scenarios they had to travel east

and cross over the Nile to get to Arabia/Mesopotamia. In traveling they settled in Sudan where the origins

of Egyptian pharaonic culture ultimately lies (although I would add elements from the Western and

Eastern African deserts as well).

As noted by Diop (1974: 169), in regards to the beginning of the mdw nTr script:

As early as 4000 BC Egyptian documents indicate that the Merotic Sudan was a prosperous

country which maintained commercial ties with Egypt. Gold was plentiful. About that time the

Meroitic Sudan probably transmitted to Egypt the twelve hieroglyphs that were the first embryonic

alphabet.

10

Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Books II.35 - IV.58, Translated by C.H. Oldfather, Harvard University

Press, 2000 11

As noted by Champollion in his Grammaire Egyptienne (1836), Introduction: XIX.

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The idea that the hieroglyphs originated with Kongo-Saharan speakers is also one shared by Campbell-

Dunn. His commentary on the subject is very informative, not only on the development of the script

among the Egyptians, but also on how to approach the phonology of the symbols as well. He goes on to

inform us that:

Egyptian Hieroglyphics (attested from c 3250 BC) uses many (about 900) recognisable

pictographs and combines ideographic and phonetic notation, but not in the same way as

Sumerian. Determinatives and partial phonetic indications (old prefixes, suffixes ?) are

added to clarify the core word. Hieroglyphics incorporates a consonantary, however,

not a syllabary (standard interpretation). I suspect the consonantary arose through

applying a syllabic script designed for a language with few vowels to a foreign

tongue with a vowel system that did not match. The Egyptian method of writing 3

vowels by using consonantal symbols implies reduction of wu to u, yi to i etc. This kind

of change is typical of Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan. The Egyptian practice of

attaching a snake to the SUN sign shows that Hieroglyphics were once used to write

a Niger-Congo language in which the snake and the sun were denoted by the same word,

12 such as ra, da. Egyptian vowels may once have been indeterminate

however.

The rebus principle is a prominent feature, which suggests Hieroglyphics once wrote a

non-Egyptian language with numerous homophones, such as occur in Niger-Congo. The

rebus principle is based on homophony, which is not a feature of Egyptian. The same

Egyptian sign is freely used for words that are phonetically diverse. But this is true also

of Sumerian. It is explained by a pictographic (ideographic) source.

Pictographies of various kinds (ideographic, syllabic, alphabetic) occur in West Africa,

where they provide elaborate pictorial catalogues of mans (and womans) worlds (Dalby 1967). They appear to have originally been used in initiation ceremonies, and were also

employed for purposes of magic. In Africa they have a meaningful cosmic context, and

are embedded in the mythology. Africa therefore, not Egypt, is the probable source of

all these pictographies. Unfortunately however documentation from Africa is relatively

recent. But some of these scripts or their precedents must go back to antiquity. That is

Diops opinion. (Campbell-Dunn, 2009a: 11-12) (emphasis mine)

Besides the off-remark separating Egypt from Africa, Campbell-Dunn brings up many salient points that

gives context to this discourse. As I noted in my 2011 work Passion of the Christ or Passion of Osiris:

The Kongo Origins of the Jesus Myth, the Egyptians communicated through the rebus principle. This

principle is discussed by wiki as follows:

In linguistics, the rebus principle means using existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for

their sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words. Many ancient writing systems

used the rebus principle to represent abstract words, which otherwise would be hard to be

represented by pictograms. An example that illustrates the Rebus principle is the representation of

the sentence I can see you by using the pictographs of eyecanseaewe. Some linguists believe that the Chinese developed their writing system according to the rebus principle,

[5] and

Egyptian hieroglyphs sometimes used a similar system. A famous rebus statue of Ramses II uses

three hieroglyphs to compose his name: Horus (as Ra), for Ra; the child, mes; and the sedge plant

(stalk held in left hand), su; the name Ra-mes-su is then formed

12

One can see another example of this in Egyptian: itn.t "solar goddess, female sun disk" (itn "sun/sun disk); itnt "a snake."

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To see this type of communication in action, we can examine a practice among the Yoruba people of

Nigeria in regards to setting up a date (if you will) and how they communicate this non-verbally.

To name one custom, the Yoruba of Africa have always used pebbles as indexical symbols; these

could even assume homophonic value (an important component of some phonetic writing),

whereby one word sounds identical to another with a different meaning. To arrange a tryst13

, for

example, A Yoruba man would leave six pebbles for a woman to find Yoruba efa, or six, also means attracted. If the woman was willing, she left eight pebbles as an answer: Yoruba eyo, or eight, also means agreed. History of Writing by Steven Roger Fischer, Reaktion Books 2001

p2114

As noted in Imhotep (2011), the rebus principle can be seen in the image below of the God Ra of ancient Egypt. Each element of the image can be expressed in the Egyptian language using the term ra and thus the iconsbesides being used to denote spiritual conceptsare used here to reinforce the pronunciation of the deity: they are a kind of phonetic complement so-to-speak.

What we are seeing above is the name ra written four times:

Egyptian rrw snake r snake rA snake ra sun, day ra hawk15 (wn) ra high priest in Letopolis16

13

A tryst is a rendezvous or a meeting. 14

Cited in Hermstein, Hermel (2012-10-06). Black Sumer: The African Origins of Civilisation (Kindle Locations

3043-3050). Pomegranate Publishers. Kindle Edition. 15

Mangbetu ri animal or bird; Songhai kr bird 16

In Niger-Congo la means old (refers to elders, those in high rank and gods: e.g., Yorb Ol elevated status, fame, honourable estate).

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Each aspect of the image above is rendered as ra. I argue that the hawk, too, can be rendered ra. This is

because in the family of related languages, the word for bird, bird of prey is ra or some variation as we can see below:

Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *raHaw/y- bird; Semitic: *rahw- or *ra- 'crane' or 'red kite'; Western Chadic: *ray(aw)- 'bird'; East Chadic: *ry- < *raHay- 'vulture'; Low East Cushitic: *raHaw- 'large bird' ; Hebrew r 'red kite'; Arabic rahw-; Proto-WChadic: *ray(aw)- 'bird'; Bolewa: rayo, yaro [Bn:22], met. yaro [CLR]; Karekare: ra yi [ShV]; Ngamo: ra yi [ShV]; Bele: raawi [ShB]; Proto-EChadic: *ray- vulture; Migama: raaya [JMig] {Notes: cf. Dangaleat riya 'heron' [Fd]}; Proto-Low East Cushitic: *raHaw- 'large bird'; Arbore: raw.

The word ra is just a general word for bird and bird of prey among the so-called Afro-Asiatic speakers.17

However, for the Kongo-Saharan speakers who lived in the Nile Valley, they pronounced each of these

items differently and their terms have also survived in Egyptian. For the NC-speakers, each of these terms

can be pronounced with an initial k- or g- sound with an optional post-posted -la suffix article or another

agglutinated term. For instance:

SNAKE ? Sumerian a-l harmful being

LA, DA, RA snake, crawl a-

PWS la lie, sleep Sumerian alad protective spirit PWN DAD crawl PWS gu snake, Nupe e-wa snake, Bassa i-wa snake PWS gua hand, arm (snakes were thought of as arms) PWN GHWK, GHWYK snake Bantu jka snake Kongo nioka snake, Swahili nyoka snake, Lolo, Ngala, Poto, Ngombe, Kele njo snake Yoruba edjo snake Xhosa majola snake (Sambu, 2008: 223) Mande bida black snake Mangbetu tatala snake

[Snakes were both harmful beings and protective spirits].

*GW = # *A = a

17

As it regards the pronunciation of the god Ra, as the falcon god, it is my contention that the ra-form in Afro-

Asiatic is the k-r form in reverse (Hrr(H)). A clue lies in the pronunciations in related languages (cited above)

where the root for ra is either r-h, r-y or r-. Each of the sounds in the C2 position derive from /k/ (k>h, k>y, k>). See below for discussion on Hrw. Diop (1955: 117) unknowingly supports this suggestion in his commentary on African words that may have been borrowed into Greek > Latin. He suggests the following: "Ra, Re: Egyptian god,

symbolized by the sun, title of the Pharaoh; Rog: celestial Serer god whose voice is thunder; Rex: king, in Latin;

which, in the Romance languages, becomes re, rey, roi, whereas in the Anglo-Germanic we have only king or

Knig." However, the word king may be a loan from Sumerian. The Serer rog and Latin rex would verify that on the

one hand, the inherited term in Serer substantiates the r-k root. One should know that in African languages, the word

for sky and sun are often the same (Campbell-Dunn 2009a, 2009b). The borrowing into Latin would have to be at a time where ra was pronounced raH where the H was later dropped in the other Romance languages. It should be noted that la in Kongo-Saharan can mean great, big and is seen in the Yorb word Ol elevated status, fame, honourable estate. It can be seen in such names as Olsen fame is not unachievable, Oladnni high status is sweet to have, Olnrewj status is progressing forward, Olitn honour never gets used up. In Bantu this becomes kala, kulu, kale, etc.

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The word Dt cobra in Egyptian derived from an old Kongo-Saharan word *gua snake. Here g > D which is common in African languages and can be seen in Egyptian iqr snake (Xhosa-Bantu ma-jola snake). A similar sounding root is given for the word sun in Kongo-Saharan. A few examples can be seen below:

*GHW = Q

SUN (G. N7)

QE (Linear A) = *guia sun; I Tschi a-wia day, o-wia sun, Agni wa sun < wia, Guang o-wi, o-wu sun, Abure e-yue sun, IV Yula we sun, Tem we-re, we sun, Tshala we-ta sun. PWN GHWIN sun. Bantu uva sun, Bantu (Meeussen) guba sun. A. (B-C) Ogoni gbei, Ufi a rigwe sun, Ewe ghe,Fon hue sun. (V) Fula nange sun, Gola egwe sun. Language Gbe (Kru, Kwa, Benue-Congo, Cross River), Kwe (Benue-Congo). Probably Q = gb, as in II Ogoni.

(Campbell-Dunn, 2006:1-2)

The word for bird also shares this root in Kongo-Saharan.

BIRD Sumerian hu bird, ( u5 cock)

KU bird

PNC *ku bird, Igbo o-ku parrot, kuku pigeon PWN KUKI fowl Bantu kumbi hawk, kucu parrot, kunda, kuti pigeon Holoholo kok hen Mangbetu kua parrot Proto-Mande *kuni bird Songhai kr bird

*K = h *U = u *K = # *U = u

In Egyptian these words have varying morphologies: SNAKE Dt/ADyt/wADyt "cobra, cobra (as amulet) (< kt "uraeus snake, black necked cobra"); SUN xai "be shining (of kings)," xAy "shine (of sun), enlighten (of land)," Hrw "sun, day, daytime" (x > H)18; HAWK Hrw/Hr Heru (hawk god) (Proto-Bantu *-kodi- falcon, hawk, bird of prey), HAi "screech (of falcon) [(PNC *ku bird, bird cry)], dance (at funeral)

19"; siAt "falcon amulet" (k>s ?).

Even the body of the person in the image of Ra above can be said to have this -k- root, as a word for

person, living being in Egyptian is anx (Linear A qa man; Khoi-san khoi man; Dinka koi man; Akan nkwa life; Kikongo nkwa life, man; I Tschi a-kwa a male, a male slave; Tschala o-kpa person. There is also the general word for body xt. It should be noted that in Linear A the anx Dsymbol is pronounced za life (PCS za flesh) which in Niger-Congo is also associated with blood (the life-source): e.g., Yoruba ede blood, Nupe eda blood, Lefana ubudza blood, Guang obuza blood, Ewe kadze blood, Ahlo obidza blood (Eg. Df drop of blood; < fD ?). Again, this derives from an original k-form: e.g., PWN *GHIA blood, Tchi boga blood, Nupe egia blood, Bantu (Meeussen) gida, gadi blood (Eg. Tr red liquid/blood; ti.t amulet, Isis blood), Gbe aga, agya

18

It should be noted that in Niger-Congo the g/k sound is often palatalized and the word *gua for sun can be seen in its NC variants: Yoruba o-do sun, Mbe a-dui sun. This would match closely to the Egyptian Dt cobra (Yoruba edjo). 19

It should be noted that many indigenous ceremonial dances imitate animal movements and this may be the case

here: a kind of falcon dance. The author recalls seeing something like this among the Papua New Guineans who do a

mating dance that is imitative of an exotic bird that lives in the area. One can see such a display here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/humanplanetexplorer/events_and_festivals/sing_sing.

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blood. The b- prefix on some of the roots may derive from m- (m>b), a Kongo-Saharan prefix for mass liquid nouns.

As we see in Egyptian, two different pronunciations exist (ra, Hrw) in the same language for the exact same symbols, as the same symbols for the god Ra are the same symbols (exactly) used for the god @rw. I attribute this to at least two different language families living in Egypt at the time of these religious

formulations who gave these signs pronunciations in their own language. It is very common for Africans

to mix religious ideas from various groups into their own tradition. The Yoruba system of Ifa immediately

comes to mind.

Section Summary

We have set out to set out the context by which the ancient Egyptian writing script developed. We noted

that the Egyptian state is a pool of various African groups and the Egyptian language emerged out of a

need to communicate all throughout the Nile River. Egyptian became a creolized lingua-franca (like

Lingala in Congo) and emerged from Chadic, Kushitic and Kongo-Saharan languages in the area. We

argue that the glyphs originally were Kongo-Saharan signs that were significantly expanded on by scribes

of the Egyptian state. Clues to their earlier pronunciation lie in studying the Vai and Linear A writing

scripts. Diodorus informs us that the major manners and customs of the Egyptians derive from the

Ethiopians. These were the various groups, generically called Kushites, who resided in modern-day Sudan. If the Egyptians note that their customs and script derive from the South, then we cannot look to

Semitic for the proper phonology of the Egyptian writing script: it is not a Semitic language. This is why

our method here is to look into Kongo-Saharan as our starting point for clues to the pronunciation of

words, word-formation, and of grammar hidden in the glyphs. This is the focus of our next section.

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THE PHONOLOGY OF THE WRITING SCRIPT

As noted previously, the focus of this paper is a preliminary look at the basic monoliteral signs that are

the foundation of the Egyptian alphabet. Below are the glyphs and their pronunciations as they are

understood today.

The objective is to verify that the phonemes assigned to each glyph are the correct ones given the

historical development of the script. There are several reasons why we of the African school would want

to revisit this research question. The main reason is to accurately compare ancient Egyptian lexemes with

modern African lexes to evaluate the rate of change of paleo-African words. As Egyptian is our oldest

known full script on the continent (and the world for that matter), it serves as a fertile ground for

comparisons for all other related languages; especially in the areas of grammar and word formation.

As noted earlier, the method so far has been to compare Egyptian with the Semitic languages. This stems

from earlier notions in Egyptology which believed that the Egyptian language and culture stemmed from

migrants coming from Western Asia. Since this area is dominated by Semitic languages, they assumed

that Egyptian would thus be an offshoot of Semitic. This has proven not to be the case and it has been

known that Egyptian and Semitic were not closely related since the time of E. Wallis Budge. But cultural

bias ensued and we still have, to this date, a strong belief that Semitic will reveal a lot about the Egyptian

language when it cannot. As noted by Diop (1974: 124):

To attempt to explain the Negro Egyptian world by the so-called Semitic world should be

impossible on the basis of no more than a few grammatical similarities such as the suffixal

conjugations, pronoun suffixes, and t for the feminine. The Semitic world, as we conceive of it

today, is too recent to explain Egypt.

Another problem is researchers have stricktly looked to the Coptic language, which is believed to be the

last stage of the Egyptian language, for the proper pronunciation of Egyptian words. This is problematic

on several fronts. The first is that Coptic is approx 3000 years after the development of the Egyptian

language. The language has gone through too many changes to accurately be able to pronounce old or

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middle Egyptian (if one believes that these are stages and not dialects and/or different languages).

Secondly, it is my personal opinion that the Copts were not, wholly, indigenous Africans, but Europeans.

One can go to Egypt today and see the Copts are not the Africans depicted on ancient Egyptian reliefs. As

noted previously, Champollion even mentioned this in his Grammaire Egyptiene:

The ancient Egyptiansbelonged to a race of humans who resembled in every way the Kenuz or Barabras, the current inhabitants of Nubia. The Copts found in Egypt today have none of the characteristic traits of the ancient Egyptian population. The Copts are the result of the anarchic

metissage of all the different peoples that had successively dominated Egypt. It is wrong headed to

try to find in these people the physical traits of the ancient race.20

I agree and I extend this notion even to the language. One question one has to ask is why would the

indigenous Africans need to borrow Greek letters to write their native language? The Egyptians have

created over 900 signs for their language and for 3000 years didnt feel the need for vowels. Why all of a sudden is there a need for vowels in this era? I can understand the need for better communication across

languages in regards to a need to write out vowels, but one is confused on why the Egyptians even

adopted the consonants from the Greeks as well. Again, the Egyptians were more than capable of utilizing

the consonants they already had.

My contention is that the Copts were Greeks and Coptic is the result of the interaction between Greek and

Egyptian speakers. The Greek Copts needed a way to write the African terms but with sounds that more

closely resembled the Greek language they were used to. Therefore, they employed the Greek script and

adopted the Demotic signs for sounds not present in the Greek language. There would have been no reason for the Egyptians to adopt their own script they have been writing with for centuries. Coptic, as a script, developed in the 3

rd century BCE after the Greek takeover of Egypt and the subsequent spread of

Christianity.21

The existence of the script, and thus the pronunciation of words, are birthed in a Greek

(foreign) environment and cannot be used to wholly understand Old and Middle Egyptian. The

pidginization of terms must be considered.

There is now even some controversy about the pronunciation of Coptic. The reason is Coptic died out as a

primary spoken language in the 15th century. Most classical Coptic literature was written in the Sahidic

dialect, and when that is taught today (e.g. Thomas O. Lambdin, Introduction to Sahidic Coptic, Mercer

University Press, 1983, 1988), a sort of compromise "academic" pronunciation, partially based on the

academic pronunciation of Greek, is used. This is the same with middle Egyptian in modern Egyptology.

The Coptic spoken today is the result of a revitalization project just like with Hebrew.22

Therefore, we

must understand Coptic in its Greek context. The issues of language contact, in an era where Egyptians

are no longer sovereign, have to be considered. In other words, How did the Greek invasion and hegemony affect the development of the Egyptian language during Greek occupation? How did the previous occupation affect the known Egyptian dialects? How did Egyptian words change under foreign

tongues? Who was writing during these periods: the indigenous or the new foreign ruling class? While

Coptic is helpful in pronunciation of Egyptian, it cannot ultimately be the barometer by which we attempt

to vocalize Old, Middle and New Kingdom Egyptian.

Lastly, many who are involved in the revitalization of Egyptian have not even bothered to step outside of

the modern Egyptian literature to verify that the modern scholars got the vocalization, and subsequently

our modern transcriptions correct. The problem is method. There are those who will attempt to justify

their associations by looking into modern dictionaries of Egyptian. The problem lies in the fact that one

20

Cited in Fluehr-Lobban and Rhodes (2004: 90), translated by Antenor Firmin (1885) from the French. 21

See http://www.omniglot.com/writing/coptic.htm 22

Read more here: http://www.stshenouda.com/coptlang/copthist.htm

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cannot ask native Egyptians, who speak the ancient Egyptian language (and write with the ancestral

signs), if one is saying the phonemes correctly. We have to rely on other methods to verify that the

phonetic associations with glyphs in current dictionaries are accurate or not.

Trying to verify the pronunciation of hieroglyphic sounds by way of a modern Egyptian dictionary is like

trying to prove the Bible by referencing the Bible. We cannot rely solely on the word of researchers

whose aim was to connect the Egyptian language to Semitic (thinking Semitic was Asian). In attempting to link ancient Egyptian with Semitic, researches have also attempted to attach Semitic

phonology on the Egyptian glyphs. They did this without doing the comparative method23

to verify the

sounds by reconstructing the proto-Egyptian sound system so that we may account for sound changes in

later periods.

The approach to solving this problem has to be radically different than the approaches used in previous

decades. This is the objective of our discourse. Here are a few notes of mine before we get started

tackling the phonetics of Egyptian:

1. The hieroglyphs represent consonants, not vowels. So any vowel-like associations given in the text would have to be the result of consonant degradation.

2. For phonetic monoliteral signs, the first consonant for the name of the object depicted is the phoneme that was chosen to represent the hieroglyph: e.g., nw = water; water sign = /n/

value.

3. Consonants morph over time and old signs get new sound values: e.g., H < k. 4. Egypt housed many language groups and dialects. As a result, some signs have totally different

pronunciations as a result of multiple groups assigning value to a single sign: e.g., fx, Sfdw and arq.

Also, when understanding dialects and change over time, one has to be familiar with the common

morphology of phonemes. For this study I have adopted the Table of Equivalent Consonants created by

Alexander Aberfeldy.24

As noted by the author:

Before we can understand the wordlist we need to understand something about consonants. The

new approach has one tool, the Table of Equivalent Consonants or TEC, and the TEC has one

application, the wordlist. The TEC was inspired by Soundex, a phonetic indexing system devised

early in the twentieth century by Robert C. Russell and Margaret K. Odell. They called their

invention the Soundex system and patented it in 1918 and 1922. It has been used, successfully,

ever since to bring order to the spellings inflicted on immigrant surnames by English-speaking

clerks and, often, by the owners of the names. In a similar way, the TEC has brought order to

several million everyday words. The main feature of both systems is a reduction in the number of

effective consonants from the dozens used in European languages to six effective consonants.

Vowels are ignored. Both systems are effective because these variant spellings are not the result of

sloppy speech, imperfect education, or laziness: they represent what actually happens to sounds

when they are passed, many times, from mouth to ear and then written down, usually by a clerk

who does not speak the same language. Every word in our dictionaries was transmitted orally for

most of its existence and then transcribed in a similar way.

Here is the table below:

23

See this link for details of the comparative method, how it is done and what it is used for:

http://people.du.ac.in/~pkdas/hls/cmd.pdf 24

http://lochearnhead.wikidot.com/

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Fig.1.1 The TEC

1 B Mb P F V W

2 M N Ng Gn F V

3 C G J K Q S X Y Ch Sh H

4 D T Th Z

5 L LL

6 R RR

Fig.1.2 The 36 disyllabic roots

1 BB,BM ,BC ,BD ,BL, BR

2 MB,MM,MC,MD,ML,MR

3 CB,CM ,CC ,CD ,CL,CR

4 DB,DM ,DC ,DD ,DL,DR

5 LB,LM,LC,LD,LL,LR

6 RR,RB,RM,RC ,RD ,RL,RR

One can visit the material for more details on how it is organized. For now, the table above shows certain

primary consonants and their known dialectical variations; the results of internal and external agents of

morphological change over time. It helps us to anticipate the different spelling of words across space and

time and can be applied to African languages. Since we are doing a lot of comparisons with the ciLuba-

Bantu language, it should be noted the different sound interchanges in that language. It may be helpful in

the Egyptian language.

Sound interchanges in CiLuba-Bantu

n m np mp p f v r l d sh/ s z

m b w b p h rn nl nd d f v pf

m mb s z j p b d t t/ t

To begin an exercise, a word for bird in Egyptian is written pr. History has shown us that the sounds /b/ and /f/ are often variants of /p/ (and vice versa). Also /l/ and /r/ interchange. With this knowledge I can

anticipate another form in Egyptian, something like b-r and that is exactly what we find: bA bird [Wb I S 410] (A = l). We note that often b > m, so we should check for a m-r variation as well. We find it, but the phonemes are reversed. In Egyptian there is a phenomenon where the /A/ and /r/ sound are often switched to the C1 position in Egyptian if originally in C2. So instead of mr or mA we find Ama bird [Wb I S 10]. If we notice on row 1 of the TEC that the /b/ sound also morphs into /w/, then we can anticipate a form w-r

in Egyptian given that /w/ in Egyptian derives from /b/ (b>w). In Egyptian we find wr young bird [Cerny: CED S 98]. This word has a slight semantic evolution. However, the /r/ consonant is also known

to morph into /n/, so it is no surprise that we find in Egyptian wn bird [Wb I S 307]. As a check on the last pronunciation, we should note the word bn bird [Wb I S 457] > bnw Heron, Phoenix. Here the general word for bird was given a slightly different pronunciation to give association to a specific type of

bird. But as we see here, all of these are variants of the same word: pr = bA = Ama = wr = wn = bn = bnw. We can check into Negro-African languages against our Egyptian data:

BIRD Sumerian buru5 bird

BU bird

RU demonstrative/plural

Ngombe mbulu bird Mande b, b bird of prey

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Mangbetu pupu big bird

Bantu (Johnston 1922: 255) bun bird (Kwango-Kasai Group), also buru, bulu, mburu, puru etc.as in Ruwenzori-Semliki languages (p. 256)

[Malay has burung bird, prefixed to bird names as a classifier]. [Mangbetu bulu man, speech]

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Table1: Basic Egyptian Signs and their Phonemes

Gardiner

Sign Coda

Symbol Description Proposed

Sound Value

ciLuba25

Other possible

vocalizations

G1

vulture A a r/l

M17

Reed leaf e/i/j i gi, bi, ci

Double reeds e/y y g>y

D36 Arm a a, e(n) ka, ba G43,

Quail chick/

rope u/w u b, swa

D58

Lower leg/foot b b p, k

Q3 seat26

p p b I9 Horned viper f f b G17

Owl/carpenters level

m m b, p

N35,

Water/white

crown n n m, mb; ng, nk > ny

D21 mouth r l O4

courtyard h h, k

V28

Twisted flax H ng, nk, sh

s

Aa1 sieve x ng, sh

F32 Belly & udder X sh, nk, h x O34 Bolt/lock s/z s, sh, z t, j, k S29

Folded shawl s s, sh, z

N37 Pool of water S sh N29 Hill slope q k, q V31 basket k k, g t W11

Jar stand or stool g g, ng, nk

X1 Bread loaf t t d V13 Tethering rope T tsh, ci t D46 hand d d, t, ci I10

cobra D dj, nd d, j, k

25

Bilolo (2011: 236)

26 Some argue that this is a sign for a mat. See p "mat" (as covering for furniture), (statue) base, throne" .

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To justify the sounds associated with each glyph, the following table provides the names for the glyph

where the first consonant was taken to represent that sound in the hieroglyphs. Keep in mind that this is a

work in progress, so not all associatios are completed here.27

Table 2: Basic Egyptian Signs and their Equivalents in Negro-African Languages

Gardiner

Sign

Symbol Description Negro-African

G1

= A

vulture Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *raHaw/y- bird; Semitic: *rahw- or *ra- 'crane' or 'red kite'; Western Chadic: *ray(aw)- 'bird'; East Chadic:

*ry- < *raHay- 'vulture'; Low East Cushitic: *raHaw- 'large bird' ; Hebrew r 'red kite'; Arabic rahw-; Proto-Semitic: *rahw- or *ra-; Proto-WChadic: *ray(aw)- 'bird'; Bolewa: rayo, yaro [Bn:22], met. yaro [CLR]; Karekare: ra yi [ShV]; Ngamo: ra yi [ShV]; Bele: raawi [ShB]; Proto-EChadic: *ray- vulture; Migama: raya [JMig] {Notes: cf. Dangaleat riya 'heron' [Fd]}; Proto-Low East Cushitic: *raHaw- 'large bird'; Arbore: raw.

M17

= i/j

Reed leaf REED

GI reed

Sumerian gi reed PWS g, gl, (git) tree, PWS ti tree PWS gi root, vein PWN GHI, (GHIM) be alive, PWN T tree Bantu cimb plant (dig) Ngombe gbie plantation Mande yiri, B dyiri tree Mangbetu gi clothing (made from reeds) Mangbetu gi riverbank Mangbetu gilinda brushwood that wont burn Mangbetu kese grass Mangbetu ki wood for heating, aki to break PCS ki to break

*G = g *I = i

Egyptian qqi leaf PB *jn leaf, grass

= y

Double reeds Mangbetu bi leaf PWN BI seed Mande bi grass ciLuba diBeji "leaf, paper"; ciBeji "large leaf"; lubeji "grass";

dyanyi "leaf"; lwanyi "high grass"

Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *abVl- Meaning: leaf, grass

Borean etymology: Borean etymology

Semitic: *Vbil- 'fall (of leafs)' Western Chadic: *bul-

Central Chadic: *HVbul-

27

The entries for the Negro-African column are taken from Campbell-Dunn (2009b) (one can check his sources) for

Kongo-Saharan; the online Nostratic database for Afro-Asiatic; the online ciLuba database for the Tshiluba

language; and the BLR3 Bantu database.

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East Chadic: *bil-

Low East Cushitic: *baHal- 'leaf'

D36 = a Arm ARM

KA arm, strength

Sumerian arm, strength PWS ka, bua (ba) arm [BU = ] Sumerian kalag strong C-loss [k > h or b > v]

Sumerian a5, aka make PWN BUAK, GWAL, KA (KYA), KWN arm Sumerian -KAL strength Bantu gado arm, bko arm Sumerian h, ahi arm strength Holoholo bok arm, kal to cut Mande bolo, bolo-kala, kmba-kala arm, wa arm, strength ES Didinga kalkic armpit, kom be strong

G43

= w

Quail chick Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *wacV- bird; Egyptian: wd_ 'grey crane' (OK); Proto-Semitic: *was- 'little bird'; Arabic: was-, was-;

Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *waw/y/- k. of bird; Semitic: *waw-at- 'kind of bird'; Egyptian: wy.t (med) 'kind of bird'; High East

Cushitic: *wayy- 'dove'; Proto-Semitic: *waw-at- kind of bird; Judaic Aramaic: wwt 'stork' [Ja. 376] (wt according to [Levy WTM III 505]); Gurage: Gog. Sod. Muh. Msq. wawat 'crow'

[LGur. 673].; {Notes: Tentative as the semantic difference

between the terms under comparison is substantial}; Proto-High

East Cushitic: *wayy- dove; Burji (Bambala, Dashe): wayya;

Kongo-Saharan: Bulom i-we (plural) birds, i-we bird (singular), Biafada a-tsua fowl, Kissi s fowl, Bulom e-sok fowl, Temne a-toko, a-tsogo fowl. Evidence that Minoan is Atlantic. Mande sise fowl. The Egyptian phonetic for quail chick is w (unexplained).

D58

= b

Lower

leg/foot28

Proto-Bantu *pnd "shin, leg, calf, bone"

Proto-Bantu *bt "lie flat, be flat or leveled, walk flatfooted"

Proto-Bantu *pd "foot"

Amarigna bat calf of leg Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *Pail- ~ *laP- Meaning: bone or muscle of the leg

Semitic: *pil- 'muscle of the thigh' Western Chadic: *falal- 'middle bone of an animal's foreleg'

Central Chadic: *fVl- 'foot'

Bedauye (Beja): fil-ik 'top of the shin-bone' Saho-Afar: *laf- 'bone' (met.)

Low East Cushitic: *lafi 'bone' (met.)

Notes: Ch f- in Hs and Bud may reflect both *p- and *f-. Cf.

Cush.-Om. *lap- 'bone' SIFKJa 167; Sasse PEC 21.

Q3 = p seat ciLuba ciBsa "bench, table, board, slate, seat, stand" PB pn stool

28

Note that the /b/ sound also became /w/ in Afro-Asiatic, so we find in Egyptian iwa leg; iwaw "thigh" (of a man), "leg" (of beef).

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Egyptian bn seat I9 = f Horned viper Proto-Bantu *bmb "poisonous snake"

Proto-Bantu *bma "snake, python"

PAA *biVy- "snake" (Egyptian /by/ "holy serpent"; Central Chadic Kapsiki=Higi Kamale: m bya, Fali Gili: biya; Higi Ghye: biya; Higi Nkafa: bg'y; Higi Baza: wg'y "python"). Egyptian bTw "poisonous snake."29

G17

= m

Owl pChadic *mun "a bird"

pChadic *minin "kind of bird"

Warji munwai "bird"

Kariya munu "bird"

ciLuba ciMini; ciMinyi "eagle, vulture, swallower"

Egyptian imnt "vulture goddess, a vulture (as amulet) Egyptian mnwt "swallow, pigeon, ringed turtle dove" mwt (vulture glyph) mnwt "swallow, pigeon, ringed turtle dove" mAS "a duck" im "a bird" [M17 - G17 - D38] imw "goose, duck" imtr "a bird" mst "marsh bird, breeding fowl, geese" msyt "waterfowl"; poulty? msrt "a bird"

Mande mb owl Bed. milike "owl"

Afar milliko "bird of prey"

ECh: WDng mukuku "chouette"

Hausa my "owl" CCh: Daba mimbizimbizim "owl"

CCh: mww "owl sp." (www "owl")

NBrb: Zayan & Sgugu muka "chouette"

pr [Vogel] Wb I S 531 (vogel = bird) bA [Vogel] Wb I S 410 abA "bird, turtle dove" (Yoruba abiye "bird") ab(A) [Vogel] (= {abw}?)] Meeks: AL 780686 abw [Vogel] (= {ab(A)}?)] Meeks: AL 780686 Abjjt [Vogel] Meeks: AL 780026 (j)Abt [Vogel] RdE 30 (1978) S 10 Abd [Vogel] RdE 30 (1978) S 10 Ama [Vogel] Wb I S 10 amaAt [Wurfholz zur Vogeljagd] Wb I S 186 (throwing stick for bird hunting)

N35 = n Water NU = *nu drink; I Anecho nu drink, Dahome nu drink, Ga nu drink, Guang nu drink, Edo nwo drink, III Lefana ni drink, Santrokofi ni drink, Kposso nua drink. Songhai numai to take a bath. PWN NGU to drink. Bantu nua mouth. Kongo, Bangi nua to drink, Soko noa to drink, Kele, Ngombe mwa to drink, Swahili nwa to drink.

29

This term may be a variant of this word in Egyptian, mtw poison, malevolence, resentment; mtwt semen, seed, progeny, poison, ill will. [b>m]

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Niger-Congo ma liquid prefix. Bangi, Ngala,

Poto mai water, Swahili maji water, Kele balia water, Kongo maza water Mande b, (b-n), bg.a muddy water, gyi su-ma fresh water Afro-Asiatic : Chad : Angas (1) am, Ngala (2) am, Sukur (3) yiam,

Musgu yem water (Greenberg),

WATER Sumerian a, e4 water

GI, GIA water RA water, go (see previous)

Niger-Congo ma liquid prefix. PWS gi, gia water, Kpelle ya water, Mampa yi water, Mende yia water > ye. PWS b, bt swamp, Efik m-bat swamp PWS pat swamp Bangi, Ngala, Poto mai water, Swahili maji water, Kele balia water, Kongo maza water Mande b, (b-n), bg.a muddy water, gyi su-ma fresh water Mangbetu kuma rain (suffix ?) Afro-Asiatic : Chad : Angas (1) am, Ngala (2) am, Sukur (3) yiam,

Musgu yem water (Greenberg), presumably from *ya go, flow

[In Sumerian y > #]

D21 = r mouth Kongo-Saharan Isekiri (Nigeria): ar Bozo: lo

Kpele: la

Sarakolle (Mali): la

Busa: le

Guro (Ivory Coast): le

Ndemli (B.Congo): lu

ciLuba: eela utterance, command, word Yoruba: or roar, noise; r word, speech, sound ; ro to tell, to give sound with mouth, to relate (as

in to relate a story); aru (Isekeri Nigeria) mouth

Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *rV-/*rVw- Old Egyptian: r (pyr); rA, rw Meaning: 'mouth'? 'redende Person', 'sentence, speech, language'

Fayumic: la 'mouth'

Akhmimic: ro

Bohairic: ro

Sahidic: ro

Proto-WChadic: *ruru- Meaning: 'shout' (n.)

Hausa: ruri

Sura: ruruu

Karekare: ruru Proto-CChadic: *ray- Meaning: 'speak'

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Zime-Batna: re [Sa] Notes: Cp. CCh *ri- 'to laugh'

O4 = h

courtyard SU = *k house; I Ewe o house, Dahome uo house, Kyama n-ku house, Edo i-ku room in a house, III Kebu ku hut, house, VI Vai ku house, Gbi ku house. (K) Hwida, Dahome ho, Mahi huo, ho house. Songhai has fu house. Bantu (Meeussen) daku house. Language Su (Benue-Congo)

HOUSE Sumerian e2 , () house

KA house, fire

PWS k, kl to remain PWS ka charcoal PWN KA home Bantu ji home Poto mbuka home, Bangi, Ngala mboka home Mande M su-kala habitation Mangbetu kago fire Mangbetu eka to light fire ES Kenuzi, Dongola ka house, Nandi ka house NS Kunama ka house *K = # *A = e *A = a

Proto-Mashariki *-ky "home village"; PRuvu *-kaya "home";

Tsonga kaya, ma- "home," kaya, adv. "home"; Zigua "a village,

abode." Nurse and Hinnebusch, 626; Schoenbrun, The Historical

Reconstruction of Great Lakes Bantu Cultural Vocabulary, 89, 91.

V28

= H

Twisted flax PWS ta hand, Stewart has Proto-Akanic *-s tie up (< *ta). Ewe (Rongier) s tie a knot. The sign is simplified from cord, wick of flax. There may be a reference to tying bales.

Egyptian Styw/Stw "to tie, bind"; hi "secure a rope, tie up (boat); s rope.

Aa1 = x Sieve/placenta? Proto-Bantu *kd filter, strain Proto-Bantu *gb placenta

F32 = X Belly & udder Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *VwVy- "stomach" Egyptian: -t 'belly' Central Chadic: *way- 'stomach' 1, 'belly' 2, 'intestines' 3 Proto-CChadic: *way- Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: 'stomach' 1, 'belly' 2, 'intestines' 3

Chibak: y 3 [Kr:62] Margi: WM xay 3 [Kr: 72]

Wamdiu: ay 1 Higi Futu: xwi 1 {Kr: 171]

Higi Baza: xu 1 [Kr: 141]

Higi Nkafa: xwi 1 [Kr: 131]

Higi Ghye: xwi 1 [Kr: 161]

Kapsiki=Higi Kamale: xwu 1 {Kr:151]

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Zime-Batna: y 2 [Sa] Masa: haya 2 [Mo] Notes: contraction in ZBt; cp. also Mnj hoho 'spleen' [TMnj]

Sumerian ag4 belly Bantu (Johnston) sakasaka* belly (103), seke* belly (28), tsatsa* (175), aka* (189), sag belly (155)

O34 = s/z Bolt/lock ciLuba jiba close; jibala "be securely closed"; jibakana "be plugged, be closed tightly, be too tight"; jibika "close, obstruct";

njila "close"

Egyptian Sri stop up, block up, fill in, obstruct30

t > s

PWS t to close, to open, to take off hat (actions of hand or arm).

31

Proto-Bantu *db shut, shut eyes; *tb stop up, shut Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *tab- Meaning: plug, bolt

Semitic: *tabb- 'plug' Berber: *tab- 'lock, bolt' Notes: Scarce data. Cf. Eg dbb (ME) 'stop up'. Cf. WCh *tVb- < *tVb- 'close, cover': Kry tb, Jmb duba

S29

= s

Folded shawl PB *-kny- fold, bend, twist (k > s) Egyptian qah bend, fold (in cloth) Egyptian Ak bend Egyptian xAb bowed, bent (of arms in reverence), to bend, to bow Egyptian ksks "to bend" Egyptian gsA "to bend, to make crooked, to ruin"

N37 = S Pool of water Bantu anza river, lake < sa, siwa, ziwa water, lake, pond, river PB *-jnj lake PB *-diba- / *-jiba- water, pool, pond, well, deep water

N29 = q Hill slope ciLuba mu-kuna hill, mountain Yoruba eke hill Egyptian qAA hill

V31 = k basket32 Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *kalVb- Meaning: container

Semitic: *kVlb- 'basket' Egyptian: t_rb 'vessel' (n), t_b (XVIII)

33

Western Chadic: *kwalab- 'bottle'

30

It should be noted that in ciLuba l and b interchange. This may be the case in ciKam as well. 31

I argue that the s-form in Egyptian ultimately derives from a *ka form given in PWN as KA home (with door or gate), Bangi ekuki gate, Ngala engambi gate, but PWS ka open, close, also PWS gu gate (mouth) (Campbell-Dunn, 2009b: 16). The morphological order became k>t> s. A possible t-form of the word in Egyptian

could be tA gate, door, screen. Alternate forms of the same root may be isn "bolt, lock (door)"; isnyt "wooden bar, lock"; xtm "lock, seal"; qArt/qAwt "door bolt"; qri "door bolt"; aD "spool, reel, weaving shuttle, (part of a door -bolt?)." These would be an example of a doublet in the Egyptian language. 32

This is probably the origin of the word cup in English. 33

The Nostratic dictionary also informs us that the /k/ sound was palatalized and became /t/ in Egyptian.

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Central Chadic: *xwalub- 'pot'

Low East Cushitic: *kolVb- 'horn-cup' FILL

Notes: Derived from *kol- 'gourd, calabash'34

Proto-Bantu *cp "calabash"

Sumerian dug

ku-kur-du jar PWS kua calabash, bowl, PWS kua, kual bag PWS ()-gua, ()-guan- calabash, pot PWS ku belly PCS *kur, *kul gourd, pot

A.Egyptian: qby "calabash/pitcher" Coptic: kaap "pitcher"

Cushitic: cape (Bari)

Cushitic: gabo (Saho)

Cushitic: okra (Oromo)

Cushitic: *gwib "gourd"; *gwabo "gourd" (C.Ehret 1995)

Omotic: k'ibbo "spatula"

Nilo-Saharan: kebewa "calabash" (Teda)

Nilo-Saharan: sepe.t "calabash" (Nandi)

Nilo-Saharan: kebe "calabash", e-kub "water jar", e-gub "bowl"

(Nubian)

Niger-Kordofanien: gamb bi "calabash gourd" (Wolof)

Niger-Kordofanien: kombi.r "calabash spoon" (Dagara)

Niger-Kordofanien: igba "calabash" (Yoruba)

Niger-Kordofanien: ci-bungu "calabash" [metathesis] (ciLuba)

Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *kakul-

Meaning: basket

Semitic: *kukkul- (w; q>H; r>A]. Another variation of aqrf would be gAb(w) basket.

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Mangbetu ku to come Khoisan : Hatsa //ka to stand PCS *co, *ko motion

X1 = t Bread loaf Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *ti- bread, flour Egyptian: t (pyr) 'bread'

Western Chadic: *tuw- < *tiw- 'food made of flour, tuwo'

East Chadic: *ti-

Proto-Bantu *duba flour

V13 = T Tethering rope ciLuba tenga- tie, bind

D46 = d hand ciLuba cyanza hand (PWS *ka hand > sa hand > n+sa > nza hand) PWS ta hand= give

I10

= D

cobra Coptic adjo, edja "viper

Yoruba ejo, edjo "snake"

Igbo agwo "snake"

PB *joka "snake"

ciLuba nyoka "snake"

PWS gu snake, Nupe e-wa snake, Bassa i-wa snake PWS gua hand, arm (snakes were thought of as arms) PWN GHWK, GHWYK snake Bantu jka snake Kongo nioka snake, Swahili nyoka snake, Lolo, Ngala, Poto, Ngombe, Kele njo snake, Xhosa majola snake Egyptian iqrw snake

A REEVALUATION FOR SOME OF THE EGYPTIAN SIGNS

Space will not allow me to go through each entry above as this is just a preliminary essay. This will be

reserved for a larger volume. For now I will tackle a few of the signs that I feel have alternate

vocalizations than what is given in the Esperanto Egyptological works.

PREFIXES OR SUFFIXES?

The conventional way of reading the mdw nTr script is threatened under the weight of new data coming from the African school of scholars who live African cultures and natively speak African languages. A

pioneer in the approach to the study of Egyptian hieroglyphs is the renowned philosopher, linguist,

theologian and Egyptologist Dr. Mubabinge Bilolo of Congo. He has written several publications over the

past 40 years on various aspects of Egyptian thought. One text that informs our study here is his article

titled Du nom Imn a Bi-Bweni: Exemple de la vitalite de ciKam et de Saintes doctrines philosophiques pharaoniques dans le Cyena-Ntu (The name Imn in Bi-Bweni: An example of the vitality of ciKam and the Pharaohs "Holy Philosophical Doctrines in the Cyena-Ntu (Bantu Family)).35

35

In the book edited by Kalamba Nsapo and Mubabinge Bilolo, Renaissance de la Theologie Negro-Africaine:

Melanges en lhonneur du Prof. Binwenyi-Kweshi. (2010).

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It is thought that the -y ending of words in Egyptian is just an ending, or the so-called nsbe suffix on

nouns to form adjectives. But there may be another function to them as compared to a similar feature in

Bantu. In Table 1 above I mentioned that the glyph, with the sound value of /y/, derives from a /g/

sound: g>y. The singular form of this glyph is given the sound value of /i/ and I also suggested that it

could be gi, bi, or ci. For the bV-form

Egyptian bai palm frond, rib of palm leaf (used as flooring) Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *bawV- grass Berber: *buH- 'grass'

Western Chadic: *bway- < *bwai- 'kind of wild grass' Central Chadic: *ba- 'leaf, annual plant, weed' 1, kind of grass' 2 East Chadic: *bwa/yi- 'k of grass' 1, 'k of plant harmful to crops' 2 ciLuba bilu "grass:

ciLuba lu-beji "bush, grass"; di-beji "leaf, paper"

ciLuba bi-soosa "grass, legumes"; bi-seki "legumes"

The suggestion is that the double reed glyph can also act as a prefix on the noun and when it does it

carries the bi-, ci-, or gi- prefix sounds. A case involving bi- will be made below in the following table as

it pertains to root m-n in Egyptian:

Table 3: Bi-Menyi in ciKam36

(

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PAYING ATTENTION TO THE GLYPHS

The glyphs are going to tell you everything you need to know. However, one must be acculturated into an

African mind-frame to discover how the glyphs are communicating with us. The following excerpt is

from Ernst Cassirers book Language and Myth. In this work he describes a way of conceptual associations that would inform our interpretation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs directly.

Here we may adduce a further striking example of this teleological construction of language, which I owe to a verbal communication form my colleague Professor Otto Dempwoldff. In the

Kate language, which is current in New Guinea, there is a word bilin, which denotes a certain kind

of grass with tough stems and roots that are wedged firmly in the soil; the latter are said to hold

the earth together during earthquakes, so that it does not break apart. When nails were first

introduced by Europeans, and when their use became popularly known, the natives applied this

word to themas also to wire and to iron rods, in short, to everything that served the purpose of holding things together. Similarly, one may often observe in nursery language the creation of such

teleological identities, which do not meet our class concepts at all, and seem to defy them.

(Cassirer, 1946: 41n17)

This same philosophy is responsible for the meaning of the very mn glyph itself. When we look at

the glyph, we notice a base with vertical bars sticking out of it. A Bantu perspective interprets this as a comb or kind of brush. It represents anything with objects that are spread out in a row whith vertical

projectiles stemming from the base. Such as in ciLuba:

mana "Toes"

menu "Teeth"

minu / munu "Fingers"

mwana / mwanya Gap between teeth (lu) mona = dart, sting (think of a stingray. Its sting is that which extends from its body, the tail) bwIminyi comb, comb hair

The idea of being fixed has been transferred to items which are fixed inside a base. The Egyptian writing script provides images for the projectors, but it doesnt appear to provide a name for them. This may be resolved by exploring some possible terms in ciLuba.

Table 4

Imana, imanika, mwimane, dimanin Erect (cimana = wall, partition). Remain standing in

a fixed position. Stable

munwe, nyomwe, umwa ||

munana; dimonu; mulala, muladika Obesity, swollen (derived from nana meaning stretch, extend). Mulala = palm branch, palm frond.

ala, alolola, shinda, shama ololoka, nema Bend, bow, spring, bulging belly

shalama, zalama/ jaalama : shindamana, shindika, shadika ; shikamina ; shikama, shikamina ;

shika/zika/jiika, asa, dishikamina

Grow, stand up, stay, dwell, place, to complete, be

finished, to be fixed on a base. Support (of

existence).

fufuma, andamuna, talamuna, Out of isolation, to be noticed, to stand out.

Every aspect of the symbol

egypt in its african context note 3

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