Cognates between Ancient Egyptian and Semitic Languages

[Rubiks]

In case you didn't know, both ancient Egyptian and the Semitic languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, both were descended from the same mother tongue from 15000 ~ 20000 years ago, making it the world's oldest (demonstrated) language family, even predating the arrival of human beings to the Americas.

Both Egyptian and Semitic languages have grammatical features in common, such as:

• masculine and feminine grammatical genders, with feminine marked with -t
• Verb-Subject-Object word order
• Verb and noun derivation by altering vowels
• s- prefix deriving causative verbs from other verbs
• m- prefix deriving nouns from verbs or other nouns
• -i suffix deriving adjectives from nouns
• inflected prepositions
• verbs conjugate for gender in the 2nd and 3rd person

The pronouns in both branches are similar

The first person pronoun in Egyptian is ynk (note that Egyptian wasn't written with vowels), corresponding to Akkadian anâku, Arabic anâ, and Hebrew anoki. The suffix form of the Eg. pronoun is -y, whereas it is -i in Ak. and Ar.

The second person pronoun in Eg. was ntk in the masculine and ntț in the feminine. This corresponds to Ar. anta (m) and anti (f). In Ak. and He. , the -nt- assimilated into -tt-. The suffixed form of the pronoun is -k (m) and -ț (f), which is cognate with Ar. and Ak. -ka and -ki.

The third person pronoun was sw (m) and sy (f). In Akkadian, it was šu (m) and ši (f). In Arabic, this was glottalized to huwa and hiya, respectively.

The plural forms of the pronouns are both formed with -n (or -m).

The numbers in Egyptian were also pretty similar, but only five of the base ten numbers have obvious cognates in Semitic.

Eg. wꜥ "one" is remarkably similar to Ar. wâħid.

snwy "two" relates to Ar. iθnân and He. šnayim.

srsw "six" is cognate with Ak. šediš and He. šitta.

sfḫw "seven" is cognate with He. šibʕa and Ar. sabʕa

ḫmnw "eight" is cognate with He. šmôna and Ar. θamâniya

Other cognates include:

ymn "right (side)" - Hebrew yamin
šm "hot" - He. ḥam
mw "water" - Arabic ma'
pꜣ "to fly" - Aramaic peraħ (medial -r- becomes ꜣ in Eg.)
mꜣ "to see" - Ak. amaru
mwt "to die" - He. met
nfy "to blow" - Ar. nafax

If I have made any errors in this post, please inform me.

 

[dzheremi]

In Coptic, the final stage of Egyptian before the coming of the Arabs, the independent 1p pronoun is anok. Pretty close to Hebrew, apparently.

I'd have to double check, but I'm pretty sure Coptic Egyptian (not sure about other stages) doesn't have a class known as adjectives. What we would think of as adjectives in English are really just nouns with attributive markers (e.g., n-) stuck onto them.

Cool thread!

 

[Occams Barber]

In case you didn't know, both ancient Egyptian and the Semitic languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, both were descended from the same mother tongue from 15000 ~ 20000 years ago, making it the world's oldest (demonstrated) language family, even predating the arrival of human beings to the Americas.

Both Egyptian and Semitic languages have grammatical features in common, such as:

• masculine and feminine grammatical genders, with feminine marked with -t
• Verb-Subject-Object word order
• Verb and noun derivation by altering vowels
• s- prefix deriving causative verbs from other verbs
• m- prefix deriving nouns from verbs or other nouns
• -i suffix deriving adjectives from nouns
• inflected prepositions
• verbs conjugate for gender in the 2nd and 3rd person

The pronouns in both branches are similar

The first person pronoun in Egyptian is ynk (note that Egyptian wasn't written with vowels), corresponding to Akkadian anâku, Arabic anâ, and Hebrew anoki. The suffix form of the Eg. pronoun is -y, whereas it is -i in Ak. and Ar.

The second person pronoun in Eg. was ntk in the masculine and ntț in the feminine. This corresponds to Ar. anta (m) and anti (f). In Ak. and He. , the -nt- assimilated into -tt-. The suffixed form of the pronoun is -k (m) and -ț (f), which is cognate with Ar. and Ak. -ka and -ki.

The third person pronoun was sw (m) and sy (f). In Akkadian, it was šu (m) and ši (f). In Arabic, this was glottalized to huwa and hiya, respectively.

The plural forms of the pronouns are both formed with -n (or -m).

The numbers in Egyptian were also pretty similar, but only five of the base ten numbers have obvious cognates in Semitic.

Eg. wꜥ "one" is remarkably similar to Ar. wâħid.

snwy "two" relates to Ar. iθnân and He. šnayim.

srsw "six" is cognate with Ak. šediš and He. šitta.

sfḫw "seven" is cognate with He. šibʕa and Ar. sabʕa

ḫmnw "eight" is cognate with He. šmôna and Ar. θamâniya

Other cognates include:

ymn "right (side)" - Hebrew yamin
šm "hot" - He. ḥam
mw "water" - Arabic ma'
pꜣ "to fly" - Aramaic peraħ (medial -r- becomes ꜣ in Eg.)
mꜣ "to see" - Ak. amaru
mwt "to die" - He. met
nfy "to blow" - Ar. nafax

If I have made any errors in this post, please inform me.

Thanks @Rubiks.

Like you, I'm a bit of a linguistics nerd although I tend to focus more on the origins and development of English.

The Egyptian/Semitic connection through Afro-Asiatic seems to match the development of the Semitic alphabet which, eventually, formed the basis of our English alphabet. Since Semitic and Egyptian have a lot in common grammatically it suggests the possibility that the Semitic alphabet may have, in part, derived from stylised Egyptian hieroglyphs.

I hope to learn more - my Christmas list includes a text outlining the history of the alphabet.
OB

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

Thanks @Rubiks.

Like you, I'm a bit of a linguistics nerd although I tend to focus more on the origins and development of English.

The Egyptian/Semitic connection through Afro-Asiatic seems to match the development of the Semitic alphabet which, eventually, formed the basis of our English alphabet. Since Semitic and Egyptian have a lot in common grammatically it suggests the possibility that the Semitic alphabet may have, in part, derived from stylised Egyptian hieroglyphs.

I hope to learn more - my Christmas list includes a text outlining the history of the alphabet.
OB

The current hypothesis is that the first Abjad alphabet was proto-Sinaitic, which seems to be derived from sound-based Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Serabit el Khadim inscriptions are thought to be the earliest.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

A related idea, is the prevalence of Scarabs in 8th century BC Juda. It is thought to be because the Egyptian Kheper for 'bringing to be' was often associated with the Scarab Khepri (a creator god accordingly); and Scarabs were therefore used to reference YHWH, which can be read to be a form of 'to be'.