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nꜣ
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Egyptian
Pronunciation
- (reconstructed) IPA(key): /niʀ/ → /niʀ/ → /nə/ → /nə/
- (modern Egyptological) IPA(key): /nɑ/
- Conventional anglicization: na
Pronoun
anaphoric demonstrative pronoun
- (Old and Late Egyptian) Used for vocative reference
- (Middle Egyptian) the aforementioned ones, the said ones (see usage notes)
- (Late Egyptian) the plural definite article; the
- (Late Egyptian, with following noun) those of, these of
Usage notes
This demonstrative was originally a pronoun, and so did not directly modify nouns. In Middle Egyptian it becomes used as a demonstrative modifying plural nouns. When used in this way, it precedes the noun, with the genitival adjective n(j) in between, e.g. "said feet" is nꜣ n(j) rdw (literally "the aforementioned one of feet").
In Middle Egyptian, this pronoun is somewhat colloquial; in Late Egyptian its force has weakened to that of a definite article.
Inflection
1 Unmarked for number and gender, but treated syntactically as masculine plurals when used with participles and relative forms, and as feminine singulars when referred to by resumptive pronouns.
1 Joined by n(j) to nouns they modify.
1 Used with suffix pronouns.
2 Originally joined by n(j) to nouns they modify; later without it.
Descendants
References
- James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 54–56.
- Junge, Friedrich (2005) Late Egyptian Grammar: An Introduction, second English edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, page 53
- Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN
- Loprieno, Antonio (1995) Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN
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