Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Lesson 1 Language and Writing
- Lesson 2 Unliteral Signs
- Lesson 3 Multiliteral Signs
- Lesson 4 Nouns
- Lesson 5 Pronouns
- Lesson 6 Adjectives
- Lesson 7 Adjectival and Nominal Sentences
- Lesson 8 Prepositions and Adverbs
- Lesson 9 Numbers
- Lesson 10 Adverbial Sentences
- Lesson 11 Non-verbal Sentences
- Lesson 12 Verbs
- Lesson 13 The Infinitival Forms
- Lesson 14 The Pseudo-verbal Construction
- Lesson 15 The Imperative and Particles
- Lesson 16 The Stative
- Lesson 17 The sdm.n.f
- Lesson 18 The sdm.f
- Lesson 19 The Other Forms of the Suffix Conjugation
- Lesson 20 Adverb Clauses
- Lesson 21 Noun Clauses
- Lesson 22 Relative Clauses
- Lesson 23 The Active Participle
- Lesson 24 The Passive Participle
- Lesson 25 Emphatic Sentences
- Lesson 26 Middle Egyptian Grammar
- Sign List
- Dictionary
- Text References
- Answers to the Exercises
- Index
Lesson 26 - Middle Egyptian Grammar
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Lesson 1 Language and Writing
- Lesson 2 Unliteral Signs
- Lesson 3 Multiliteral Signs
- Lesson 4 Nouns
- Lesson 5 Pronouns
- Lesson 6 Adjectives
- Lesson 7 Adjectival and Nominal Sentences
- Lesson 8 Prepositions and Adverbs
- Lesson 9 Numbers
- Lesson 10 Adverbial Sentences
- Lesson 11 Non-verbal Sentences
- Lesson 12 Verbs
- Lesson 13 The Infinitival Forms
- Lesson 14 The Pseudo-verbal Construction
- Lesson 15 The Imperative and Particles
- Lesson 16 The Stative
- Lesson 17 The sdm.n.f
- Lesson 18 The sdm.f
- Lesson 19 The Other Forms of the Suffix Conjugation
- Lesson 20 Adverb Clauses
- Lesson 21 Noun Clauses
- Lesson 22 Relative Clauses
- Lesson 23 The Active Participle
- Lesson 24 The Passive Participle
- Lesson 25 Emphatic Sentences
- Lesson 26 Middle Egyptian Grammar
- Sign List
- Dictionary
- Text References
- Answers to the Exercises
- Index
Summary
26.1 Rules and exceptions
In order to read and understand texts in any foreign language you need two basic tools, a dictionary and a grammar. A dictionary tells you what the words of a language mean and something about how they are used, and a grammar shows you how the words are put together into actual sentences. The purpose of this book has been to give you a solid grounding in the grammar of Middle Egyptian.
Human languages defy neat and orderly classification. Although all languages obey fundamental rules for the formation of words and sentences, they are also notoriously fluid about how those rules are applied. To appreciate this in English, you have only to look at the works of Lewis Carroll, James Joyce, or Dr. Seuss. Middle Egyptian is no different in this respect than any other language. Although we can approach its grammar in an orderly fashion—as the content and arrangement of the lessons in this book have tried to do—we are often puzzled and even frustrated by the continual appearance of what seem to be exceptions to the rules. Middle Egyptian can be especially difficult in this regard, as you have seen throughout the course of these lessons. There are a number of reasons why this is so.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Middle EgyptianAn Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, pp. 439 - 466Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014