A Little Egyptian Reading Book

Page 5

This time we'll have a slightly different type of lesson. You can learn some common conversational expressions. We often find these written in scenes in tombs which show ordinary people performing their usual work (or play). These scenes usually have captions which either tell what the people are doing, or giving bits of conversation that accompany the work.

Vocabulary

	ii=ti		"Welcome!" This means literally "You have arrived"
	ii=ti m Htp		"Welcome!" This is the same as the first one, with the addition of , m Htp, which could mean either "in peace," or "in safety." This additional phrase could also be used alone for "Welcome!"
	snb=t(i)		"Farewell!" "Goodbye!" This means literally "Be well!" Notice that the ending here has not been written out in full. This could happen with the endings on the other phrases here.
	Hs=ti		"Please" Literally "May it please you."
	dwA-nTr=i n=k		"Thank you!" Literally "I praise god for you!"

Grammar

The verb ending used in a number of these expressions usually conveys the meaning "You have..." or "You have been..." as is the case in the first phrase "You have arrived." However it was also used as an exclamatory ending with some sort of meaning like "May you..."
On thing about the Egyptian writing system that causes people confusion, is the variability of spelling, especially for word endings. Here we have the usual ending on snb=t(i) abbreviated, which might mean that the ending was pronounced without a following vowel sound, or just a weak one. In some cases the Egyptians didn't bother writing the endings at all if it seemed obvious to them that they were there, though it may not be obvious to us!

Introduction