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Aug. 6th, 2012 09:52 pmI think I'm actually getting better at Middle Egyptian this time, maybe because I remember some of the lines and translations, so when I get to them I'm able to think more clearly about why the grammar works that way rather than trying to make it follow rules. I learn from that better than the lesson text.
One of the things that I'm always struck by when I do Egyptian stuff, though, is the way it's kind of like the Golden Compass? Stay with me. Many of the words have determinatives, heiroglyphs that don't stand for any sounds but affect the meaning of the word. For example, you can have "h3w" (look, that's how it's transliterated, it's pronounced "ha-oo") with a scroll of papyrus, which generally means that it's an abstract concept, and the three strokes that indicate a plural or collective noun, and it means "time"; with a man and a woman and the plural strokes it means "kindred"; with a bird it means a type of bird. Similarly, "sin" with an arm means "rub" (rub out or rub together), with a knife means "cut", with legs means "wait" or "run" depending on how it's spelled. At the same time, a double stairway can be a determinative indicating "stairs" or "going up" sort of meanings, and a sun can indicate "sun", "day", or "time". The two things depend on each other for the words to have meaning, and you have connections like stairs and going up, and suns and time, and maybe it's a bit dorky to connect this to the Golden Compass but oh well.
One of the things that I'm always struck by when I do Egyptian stuff, though, is the way it's kind of like the Golden Compass? Stay with me. Many of the words have determinatives, heiroglyphs that don't stand for any sounds but affect the meaning of the word. For example, you can have "h3w" (look, that's how it's transliterated, it's pronounced "ha-oo") with a scroll of papyrus, which generally means that it's an abstract concept, and the three strokes that indicate a plural or collective noun, and it means "time"; with a man and a woman and the plural strokes it means "kindred"; with a bird it means a type of bird. Similarly, "sin" with an arm means "rub" (rub out or rub together), with a knife means "cut", with legs means "wait" or "run" depending on how it's spelled. At the same time, a double stairway can be a determinative indicating "stairs" or "going up" sort of meanings, and a sun can indicate "sun", "day", or "time". The two things depend on each other for the words to have meaning, and you have connections like stairs and going up, and suns and time, and maybe it's a bit dorky to connect this to the Golden Compass but oh well.
