Peust, Carsten: Egyptian phonology: an introduction to the phonology of a dead language (Göttingen, 1999)

• mhw.t (mfVJ'huwtV) "north wind" (Old Kingdom) > (since Middle Egyptian) mhy.t
> !^2H /'rahe/ (or /m'he/)

• zwt (zawrV) "to drink" > *zvrl86 > s.bCCt)/'so/

• sndw.t (sVn'dawtV) "loincloth" (Old Kingdom) > (since Middle Egyptian) "sndy.t >
sUINTffl /Jn'to/, tyjJCNTW. This word is transcribed in an Aramaic text from Elephan-
tine (southern Egypt) as NCOJffi <snt?> (Couroyer 1954: 559) and also seems to have
been borrowed into Greek as aivSmv "linen; fine cloth" (cf. Fournet 1989: 73f.).

There are exceptional cases in which <w> is retained, probably by analogical levelling:

• hw.t ('hiwtV) "to strike" > s2,fOtfe, bglCffl (probably influenced by other verbal
forms with a different stress pattern)

• bw.t ('buwtV) "abomination" > 1BH'8\ This is probably a nominal derivation (passive
participle?) of the verb bwi "to abominate" (cf. Allen 1984: 569)

3.14.2.6 Glide at a distance from the stressed vowel: pretonic

<j> / <>> is always lost in pretonic position:

• ink (ia'nakV) independent personal pronoun 1st pers. sg. > s'b&NOK /a'nok/

• inm "skin" > b&.NOA /a'nam/

• ibdw "Abydos (a town)" > ^BOOT /a'Bot/

Exception: If in late compounds a stressed syllable loses stress secondarily, /j/ can move
into an atonic syllable: itrw-" "big river" > sGI€pO /pro/, bf&pO "Nile", a compound of
1) itrw "river, Nile" > ^lOOp fp:r/, bIOp "canal" and 2) 'i "big" > s>b-0 hi

<w> can be preserved or lost in pretonic position. The conditions are not clear. Sometimes
there is dialectal variation in Coptic. Cf. also § 5.8.4. Examples:

• wmt (w[V]'matV) "to be thick" > ^bOTTAOT /'wnwt/

• wnw.t (w[V]'nawtV) "hour" > s-bOTS'rtO,ir Amu/

• ti-wnw.t (tVJV-wfV]'nawtV) "this hour = now" > sTGNOtf, bfNOff

• wdh (w[V]'tVhV) "fruit" (late only) > ^OTTTd^, aeT&2 (on this word US' also
§5-9-3)

• r-iwd- "between" (since NK) > s-kraTO)-

• di.t-wd'- "to rescue" (with following pronominal suffix) > sT01S'2S.O- /tuW, bTO'S"£0-

• di.t-w'b- "to cleanse" (with following pronominal suffix) > sTBfiO- /tB'o/, bTO'S'60-
/tu'Po/

• di.t-w(n)m- "to feed" (with following pronominal suffix) > sTAAO- /tmV, bT6AAO-

186 Until the New Kingdom, this verb is never written with a monoconsonantal sign <w>
or <y>; rather a biconsonantal sign <wr> is employed which was not abandoned to
match the new pronunciation. The writing with <wr> is maintained even in Demotic.
In Late Period hieroglyphic texts, writings with monoconsonantal signs such as <z>-
<i> or <z>-<i>-<w> are attested, but none with <y> (Wilson 1997: 811).

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