Modern Egyptian

Modern Egyptian
Type
Alignment
Head direction
Tonal	No
Declensions	No
Conjugations	No
Genders	yes
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect
Meta-information
Statistics Nouns % Verbs % Adjectives % Syntax 0% Words of 1500
Creator	[[User:|]]

Phonology

Consonants

Modern Egyptian has twenty four consonants: ʿ b d ḏ f g h ḥ ḫ ẖ k l m n p q r s š t ṯ w y z.

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		/m/		/n/
Plosive	voiceless	/p/		/t/		/c/	/k/	/q/
	voiced	/b/		/d/			/g/
Fricative	voiceless	/f/	/s/		/ʃ/	/ç/		/x/	/ħ/	/h/
	voiced		/z/		/ʒ/				/ʕ/
Approximant		/w/	/l/*			/j/
Trill			/r/

*corresponds to Egyptian ⟨ꜣ⟩.

Vowels

Modern Egyptian has six vowels: three short vowel: a i u; and three long vowels: ā ī ū.

	Short		long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	/a/	/i/	/aː/	/iː/
Open	/u/		/uː/

Writing System

Letter	a	ā	ʿ	b	d	ḏ	f	g	h	ḥ	ḫ	ẖ
Sound	a	aː	ʕ	b	d	ʒ	f	g	h	ħ	x	ç
Letter	i	ī	k	l	m	n	p	q	r	s	š	t
Sound	i	iː	k	l	m	n	p	q	r	s	ʃ	t
Letter	ṯ	u	ū	w	y	z
Sound	c	u	uː	w	j	z

Grammar

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Modern Egyptian has three kinds of personal pronouns: independent, dependant, suffix.

Independent pronouns

The independent pronouns are separate words and do not have to depend on some other word in a sentence. The independent pronouns have the following forms in Modern Egyptian:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1c	anak "I"	ananā "we"	anan "we"
2m	antak "you"	antakā "you"	antāṯun "you"
2f	antaṯ "you"	antaṯā "you"	antāṯin "you"
3m	antaf "he"	antafā "they"	antasun "they"
3f	antas "she"	antasā "they"	antasin "they"

Dependent pronouns

The dependent pronouns are separate words, but unlike independent pronouns they are used after some other word. The forms of the dependent pronoun in Modern Egyptian are the following:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1c	wā "me"	nā "us"	nī "us"
2m	ṯuw "you"	ṯunā "you"	ṯun "them"
2f	ṯim "you"	ṯinā "you"	ṯin "you"
3m	suwa "him"	sunā "them"	sun "them"
3f	siya "her"	sinā "them"	sin "them"
3n	sit "it"

Suffix pronouns

The suffix pronouns are added to the end of a word and cannot stand by themselves as separate words. Of all the various things that can be added to the end of an Egyptian word the suffix pronouns are always the last:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1c	...i "my"	...inā "our"	...in "our"
2m	...ik "your"	...ikā "your"	...iṯun "your"
2f	...iṯ "your"	...iṯā "your"	...iṯin "your"
3m	...if "his"	...ifā "their"	...isun "their"
3f	...is "her"	...isā "their"	...isin "their"

Demonstrative pronouns

Modern Egyptian has five set of demonstrative pronouns: the –an demonstratives are the most common and mean “this, these”; the –af and –afal demonstratives are used to contrast with the -an demonstratives and mean “that, those"; the –aw demonstratives are an older equivalent of the –an demonstratives but they are now mainly used as vocatives; the –al demonstratives are of the –an demonstratives, but they are now mainly used as articles. Each demonstratives each appears in seven different forms:

		Singular	Dual	Plural	Neuter
-af	Masculine	paf "that"	ipafā "those"	ipaf "those"	naf "that, those"
	Feminine	taf "that"	iptafā "those"	iptaf "those"
-afal	Masculine	pafal "that"	ipafalā "those"	ipafal "those"	nafal "that, those"
	Feminine	tafal "that"	iptafalā "those"	iptafal "those"
-an	Masculine	pan "this"	ipanā "those"	ipaf "those"	nan "this, these"
	Feminine	tan "this"	iptanā "those"	iptaf "those"
-al	Masculine	pal "the"	ipalā "the"	ipal "the"	nal "the"
	Feminine	tal "the"	iptalā "the"	iptal "the"
-aw	Masculine	paw "O"	ipawā "O"	ipaw "O"	naw "O"
	Feminine	taw "O"	iptawā "O"	iptaw "O"

Interrogative pronouns

The interrogative pronouns are always used in questions. Unlike the other pronouns, they have only one form. There are six common interrogative pronouns in Egyptian.

mī “who? which?”

This word is used when the question is about people or gods rather than things.

mā “what?”

This word is used when the question is about things rather than people or gods.

pawtar “who? what?”

This interrogative corresponds to the independent pronouns; it usually stands first in the sentence. The word pawtar is actually a contraction of two words, the demonstrative paw and the interrogative particle tar which is often found in questions.

aḫ “what?”

This word is occasionally used instead of mī.

ašsit “what?”

This is a more common form of aḫ , and actually consists of two words: aš, a variant form of aḫ, and the third-person neutral dependent pronoun sit. Like aḫ , it is used only when the question is about things; but like pawtar, it can stand at the beginning of a sentence.

zay, zī “which? which one?”

This pronoun can be used by itself or with a noun. In the latter case, zay always stands first and is actually the first noun of a direct genitive.

Nouns

Root

The root is consonnantal sequences that all related nouns share in common. In the words sāḏam “to hear,” sāḏim “hearer,” saḏūm “heard,” and saḏam “trial,” for example, the root is s-ḏ-m and the other parts are endings added to the root. Most Egyptian roots consist of two or three consonants, but some have as many as six consonants.

Gender

Egyptian has two genders: masculine and feminine. All Egyptian nouns must be one or the other. Masculine nouns are used for things that are naturally male, such as yāt “father,” but also for things that have no inherent gender, such as ran “name.” Similarly feminine nouns are used for things that are naturally female but also for things that have no inherent gender: mawt “mother” and ḥatpat “peace, contenment.”

Masculine nouns often have no special ending while feminine nouns, with very few exceptions, are formed by adding the ending -at added to masculine nouns: for example, naṯar “god,” and naṯarat “goddess.” It is important to keep in mind that the feminine ending -at is not part of the root. A few masculine nouns, however, have t as their last consonant; the most common example is mūt “death.” In this case, t is a part of the root, not an ending.

Number

Egyptian has three numbers: singular, dual and plural. Egyptian nouns normally are singular unless they are marked otherwise. The dual is used to indicate just two things, masculine dual nouns are marked by the ending -awā added to the noun and feminine plural nouns are marked by the ending -atā in place of the feminine singular ending -at. The plural is used to indicate just more than two things, masculine plural nouns are marked by the ending -aw added to the noun and feminine plural nouns are marked by the ending -awat in place of the feminine singular ending -at.

Summary

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Masculine	naṯar “god”	naṯarawā “two gods”	naṯaraw “gods”
Feminine	naṯarat "goddess"	naṯaratā "two goddesses"	naṯarawat "goddesses"

Adjectives

There are three kinds of adjectives in Modern Egyptian: primary, secondary, and derived. Primary adjectives do not derive from verbs, nouns or prepositions unlike secondary and derived adjectives. Egyptian has only one primary adjective: nib “all, every.” Secondary adjectives derive from verbs: for example, the adjective manūḫ “beneficient,” which comes from the verb mānaḫ “to be beneficient.” Derived adjectives are made from nouns or prepositions, for example ḫaftī “opposing,” formed from ḫaft “across from, opposite, facing, before.” In Modern Egyptian, adjectives have six basic forms: masculine singular, masculine dual, masculine plural, feminine singular, feminine dual and feminine plural:

		Singular	Dual	Plural
Primary	Masculine	nib “all”	nibawā “all”	nibaw “all”
	Feminine	nibat “all”	nibatā “all”	nibawat “all”
Secondary	Masculine	manūḫ "beneficient"	manūḫawā "beneficient"	manūḫaw "beneficient"
	Feminine	manūḫat "beneficient"	manūḫat "beneficient"	manūḫawat "beneficient"
Derived	Masculine	ḫaftī "opposing"	ḫaftīwā "opposing"	ḫaftīw "opposing"
	Feminine	ḫaftīt "opposing"	ḫaftītā "opposing"	ḫaftīwat "opposing"

Numerals

Cardinals

The units 1 to 9 and the tens from 10 to 30 have masculine and feminine forms; the rest of the cardinal numbers are masculine, except for 100 and 200, which are feminine:

	Masculine	Feminine
1	waʿ	waʿat
2	sinaw	sinta
3	ḫamtaw	ḫamtat
4	afidaw	afidat
5	diyaw	diyat
6	saysaw	saysat
7	safḫaw	safḫat
8	ḫamānaw	ḫamānat
9	pisīḏaw	pisīḏat
10	mūḏaw	mūḏat
20	mūḏawātā	mūḏawātat
30	maʿabal	maʿablat
40	ḥamaw
50	dayīw
60	saysīw
70	safḫīw
80	ḫamānīw
90	pisīḏīw
100	šat
200	šatā
1000	ḫal
10000	ḏibaʿ
100000	ḥafan
1000000	ḥaḥ

All the numbers behave like singular nouns. The cardinal numbers not on this list were formed by combining two or more cardinals, for example, ḥaḥ safḫaw ḥafan safḫaw ḏibaʿ safḫaw ḫal safḫaw šat safḫaw safḫīw safḫaw “7777777.”

Ordinals

There are special words only for 1st, tapī (masculine) and tapīt (feminine). The ordinals from 2nd to 9th are formed by adding the endings –naw (masculine) and –nawat (feminine) to the cardinal numbers, from 10th upwards, are formed by adding the words maḥ (masculine) and maḥat (feminine) before the cardinal number:

	Masculine	Feminine
1st	tapī	tapīt
2nd	sinanaw	sinanawat
3rd	ḫamtanaw	ḫamtanawat
4th	afidnaw	afidnawat
5th	diyanaw	diyanawat
6th	saysnaw	saysnawat
7th	safḫanaw	safḫanawat
8th	ḫamānanaw	ḫamānanawat
9th	pisīḏnaw	pisīḏnawat
10th	maḥmūḏaw	maḥmūḏat
20th	maḥmūḏawātā	maḥatmūḏawātat
30th	maḥmaʿabal	maḥatmaʿablat
40th	maḥḥamaw
50th	maḥdayīw
60th	maḥsaysīw
70th	maḥsafḫīw
80th	maḥḫamānīw
90th	maḥpisīḏīw
100th	maḥatšat
200th	maḥatšatā
1000th	maḥḫal
10000th	maḥḏibaʿ
100000th	maḥḥafan
1000000th	maḥḥaḥ