Journal issue

This article re-examines the Old Kingdom letter P. Boulaq 8 using the methodology of Facework and Discernment Politeness. It will be demonstrated that Facework, namely the analysis of communicative strategies used to redress face-threatening-acts, such as requests, can be successfully applied to the study of Old Kingdom letters and it is a suitable framework of explanation for unclear linguistic and content-related questions. The results show that the language of P. Boulaq 8 contains a high degree of community emphasis and solidary appeals to kin help. Discernment, or socially and culturally imposed communicative rules, regulates the choice of honorifics as replacement of address terms, and indexes expectations of reciprocal social service. Language is an unexplored tool for approaching the social study of the Old Kingdom, and it is argued that it can be used to confirm and enhance the current understanding of the individual and their role within the community in ancient Egypt.

“Perfective and Imperfective Participle”
This article deals with the basic semantic opposition of the two types of Egyptian participles, jri̯ and jrr. After an extended overview of the history of research presenting the classical approaches of K. Sethe and A. H. Gardiner, who both used established terms of models of tense and aspect, and also the advanced approaches of W. Schenkel, J. P. Allen, K. Jansen-Winkeln and E. Oreál, who introduced new concepts and terminolgy and so tried to overcome the classical approaches, it is nevertheless shown that the classification of the opposition as “perfective–imperfective”, with modernized definitions in contrast to Gardiner’s, suffices to explain the entire functional range of the two types and that the advanced approaches are not necessary.

“Multimodal graphic communication in Ancient Egypt: A method for analysis”
This article presents a method to analyse Hieroglyphic-Egyptian artefacts based on the semiotic approach of multimodality. In a first step, the theoretical background of multimodality research is given and its methodological application to Hieroglyphic-Egyptian text-image-compositions is discussed. In a second step, the method is illustrated analysing a relief from an Old Kingdom mastaba in Giza – the will of Wep-em-nefert (G8882). In a third step, some graphic techniques for information structuring are compared to similar techniques that can be found in Franco-Belgian comics. In indenting semiotic methods of multimodality research with Egyptology, this article presents a new perspective for the investigation of Hieroglyphic-Egyptian artefacts, which opens new grounds for both research areas and for interdisciplinary dialog.

“An attractive unloading scene? An interpretation of the love song pChester Beatty I, recto 17,4–17,6”
Among the texts preserved on Papyrus Chester Beatty I is a group of seven love songs. This paper proposes a new interpretation of the fifth of them (recto 17,4–17,6). First, its lexicographical and syntactic difficulties are examined, and a translation is given. Then, its interpretations to date, which focus on its ritual context and its supposed obscenity, are discussed. Lastly, it is argued that the backdrop of this love song is the unloading of beer-jars by the “brother”, and that the poem is essentially erotic, as this physical action of him allows the “sister” to gaze at his muscular torso with awe and desire.

“(Pseudo)-Interrogative Sentences and Associated Phrases in Speech Captions in Private Tombs”
In this paper, I discuss the (pseudo)-interrogative phrases, both those that are introduced by an interrogative word as well as those that are not. My aim is to provide a synchronic and diachronic study of such sentences and to illustrate a few of their uses in the Reden und Rufe corpus. After a short introduction (section 1), the predicate questions (jn and jn-jw) are considered in section 2 and adjunct questions built with the interrogative pronouns jSs.t, zy, m and the interrogative adverb Tn(y) in section 3. Section 3 will further discuss a couple of affirmative and exclamative sentences, which have to be linked with the rhetorical question jSs.t pw A. The fourth and last section before conclusions is devoted to three cases studies relevant for this investigation, i.e. the proclitic particle js, which allows the speaker to distance himself from his words through an ironic statement (4.1), interrogative phrases without interrogative words (4.2), and the particle xy hitherto known from letters only (4.3). As a result 50 examples from Old Kingdom mastabas to Late Period tombs have been considered. Even if real (or ordinary) questions (OQs) arose in a few cases, there is a clear majority of rhetorical questions (RQs), which are uninformative and assertive. Both OQs and RQs can be expressed by means of the same syntactic structure, be it predicate questions, adjuncts questions, or interrogative phrases without interrogative words. Some are however preferred for RQs, and vice versa. The RQs as adjunct questions, which are predominant in this text corpus, invoke a predetermined answer from the addressee, being either jnk pw or jnk + nominalized participle. As such they reveal a first rhetorical strategy in which the answer is the counterpart of the question with exactly the same syntactic structure (jSs.t pw A – jnk pw, zy pw A – jnk pw, and (j)n-m + participle – jnk + participle). The jSs.t pw A and (j)n-m + participle patterns expose a further rhetorical strategy in which the speaker and/or the addressee is/are objectified.

“The homeland of Sahidic”
Almost every region of Egypt has already been suspected to be the original homeland of the Sahidic dialect of Coptic. This paper reviews the various proposals and provides new support for a location in Middle Egypt around Hermopolis. This support comes from localized prosopographical and (to a lesser degree) topographical data, as well as from the hitherto much neglected field of lexical isoglosses or word geography. It is also explained why the evidence of the Sahidic vowel system, which seemed to contradict a Middle Egyptian location, has been misinterpreted in the past.

We apply Deep Learning techniques to the task of automated transliteration of Late Egyptian. After a brief presentation of the technology used, we examine the result to highlight the capabilities of the system, which is able to deal with a wide range of problems, including grammatical and phraseological ones. We then proceed to extract signs values from what the system has automatically learnt.

This article discusses, first, the role of the i-prefix in the so-called “nominal” sDm-f paradigm in earliest Old Egyptian textual data. It is argued that this represented a means of facilitating the creation of a distinctive syllabic structure with 2rad roots and of harmonising it with that of the 2red and 3inf classes. Second, the study contains a partial revision of some of the key issues treated in an earlier article by the present author on the role of the similarly written prefix in the subjunctive and “circumstantial” sDm-f paradigms.

Indirect speech with full adjustment of person deixis in Coptic is shown to occur exclusively in contexts where the report is not based on an original assertive speech act or when the reporter (i.e. the real speaker) considers its propositional content invalid or unacceptable. As opposed to the much commoner direct speech, indirect speech thus seems to have represented a pragmatically charged and modally marked strategy of reporting at this stage of the Egyptian language.

Review article on the edition of P. Vienna ÄS 10321 by Regina Hölzl, Michael Neumann & Robert J. Demarée. The paper discusses the general contents of the entries relating mainly to transfers of copper. In addition, various issues regarding new or known lexical items are highlighted. Finally, a list with sundry observations to the edition ensues.