DOI Artikel:
Gunn, Battiscombe G.: The egyptian for "short"
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12742#0105
THE EGYPTIAN FOR "SHORT
RY
BATTISCOMBE GUNN.
One of the little things vvhicli shoulcl inspire Egyptian philologists with a vvholesome
humility as to their attainments is the fact that a large number of the commonest
and most elementary ideas, which fmd expression in ail languages, h ave yet to be
identified in Egyptian. The state of our lexical knowledge (not to speak of syntax) is
at présent such that probably no ten consécutive verses of the wisdom-books of the
Bible could be put into good Egyptian by any living student. How many of the fol-
lowing words (a mere handful of the desiderata in my notes) can be provided with
their hieroglyphic équivalents? — nearly, of course, provided that; part, cause, kind,
virgin, comb, bridge; ugly, mad, cruel, thin, rough, impossible; to suffice, lencl,
mend, push, kick, knock, compel, attempt, visit, warn, promise, doubt, repent,
confess, forgive, tempt, sigh, frown, cough, yawn, sneeze? And yet they must have
been in daily use, and many of them certainly exist, as yet unrecognised, in the docu-
ments which have corne down to us.
One such common idea is "short", the word for which lias, as far as I know, not
yet been pointed out — at ail events in Old or Middle Egyptian W. I believe that
perusal of the following excerpts will make it clear that f^^, to which other
meanings have been assigned hitherto, is the word in question. Its significance émer-
ges, indeed, with spécial précision once it is seen that in several places it is used as
tho corrélative of "long".
jU'^-St-1™''*^©* "0 thou deformed-dwarf of heaven (bis)! thou deformed-
dwarf whose face is big, Avhose back is long, (lit. : 'tall'), and whose legs are short
Sellie gives "kurz sein" as the meaning of llie verb P J J ^ in llie Index (p. 35) of his Verhum, but
gives no références. I know of no case where sbk could have Ibis meaning, which Sethe probably inferred
from cbok.
RY
BATTISCOMBE GUNN.
One of the little things vvhicli shoulcl inspire Egyptian philologists with a vvholesome
humility as to their attainments is the fact that a large number of the commonest
and most elementary ideas, which fmd expression in ail languages, h ave yet to be
identified in Egyptian. The state of our lexical knowledge (not to speak of syntax) is
at présent such that probably no ten consécutive verses of the wisdom-books of the
Bible could be put into good Egyptian by any living student. How many of the fol-
lowing words (a mere handful of the desiderata in my notes) can be provided with
their hieroglyphic équivalents? — nearly, of course, provided that; part, cause, kind,
virgin, comb, bridge; ugly, mad, cruel, thin, rough, impossible; to suffice, lencl,
mend, push, kick, knock, compel, attempt, visit, warn, promise, doubt, repent,
confess, forgive, tempt, sigh, frown, cough, yawn, sneeze? And yet they must have
been in daily use, and many of them certainly exist, as yet unrecognised, in the docu-
ments which have corne down to us.
One such common idea is "short", the word for which lias, as far as I know, not
yet been pointed out — at ail events in Old or Middle Egyptian W. I believe that
perusal of the following excerpts will make it clear that f^^, to which other
meanings have been assigned hitherto, is the word in question. Its significance émer-
ges, indeed, with spécial précision once it is seen that in several places it is used as
tho corrélative of "long".
jU'^-St-1™''*^©* "0 thou deformed-dwarf of heaven (bis)! thou deformed-
dwarf whose face is big, Avhose back is long, (lit. : 'tall'), and whose legs are short
Sellie gives "kurz sein" as the meaning of llie verb P J J ^ in llie Index (p. 35) of his Verhum, but
gives no références. I know of no case where sbk could have Ibis meaning, which Sethe probably inferred
from cbok.