Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale <al-Qāhira> [Hrsg.]; Mission Archéologique Française <al-Qāhira> [Hrsg.]: Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes: pour servir de bullletin à la Mission Française du Caire (31.1909)

182

the false R in archaic egyptian ortiiography

THE FALSE R IN ARCHAIC EGYPTIAN ORTIIOGRAPHY

BY

W. Max Mûller

Wc start the following study by examining the use, in certain words, of the

combina tion <=> (
orthographie prob

rfj, although this combination is not the essential feature of the
em which we have to face.
Erman, Gramm. Westcar, p. 14, § 4, attributed to L. Borchardt the merit first
to have noticed : "The enigmatie words (ending) in ri ... in which the combination
ri intends to express a single peculiar souncl." The same theory was repeated,
JEg. Gramm., lst éd., § 28 : "Certain sounds, lacking a sign of their own, are ex-
pressed by combinations of seyeral signs. Thus a kind of r, occuring as final letter
of many words which changes place with [ and is written <==>[." Erman seems to
have thought of the analogy of some groups used in the syllabic orthography, butas
ho lias withdrawn that theory in the second édition (p. 37, § 77, cp. also § 50) in favor
of Sethe's theory (sec below), I need not enter into an examination, how far that rule
about combinations of letters applies to earlier orthography, etc.

The correct explanation of the orthography <=>( was given by me long years
ago, although I inentioned it only accidentally and briefly : R in the oldest ortho-
graphy frequently represented a graphie variant of { //. Thcrefore <=> and ( can be
interchanged la ter, they can, "for clearness" (?) sake, be combined. I add : the com-
bination of both letters intends to say : an <=> which ought to be read as an []. This

Il v i

is a case quite analogous to the Coptic orthography $ or to the use of \ J J for t and

of ^ j J for t? in earlier Hebrew mss. Thus we have the principle which I had definecl,
AZ., XXXII, 1894, p. 33 : changes and compléments of the old orthography mostly are
placed a/ter the old form so that the latter stands unchanged at the side of the more
récent élément. This tries to satisfy the tendencies both of the historical and the
phonetic (comparatively spoken!) principle, exactly as the parallels from other lan-
guages which could easily be multiplied. I refer for this explanation of the false r to
my essay on the hieroglyph /\, Rec. de Trav., XXI, p. 6, to AZ., XXXII, 1894,
p. 28, etc. In the latter passage, I spoke of r for [ I shall use that combination r as
a provisional expression for what we best call "the false r". The above sign r con-
veys, at least, in an k subscriptum a certain idea of the true phonetic value underly-
ing that Egyptian quid pro quo and lias the advantage of not causing confusions with
any other system of transcription. True, it is typographically not idéal — but I shall
be glad to follow any more practical suggestions for the expression of the queer plur-
nomenon. At any rate, we need a spécial sign for that orthographie monstrosity, I
think.

Later, this explanation of the "false r" was treated in a somewhat différent way
by K. Sethe, Verbum, I, p. 240, etc. Ile sees in ail cases of rïj (or which admit this com-