The Names of the Kings of the Fifth Dynasty According to Manetho

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“Indirect and Direct Evidence for the ‘Dreisilbengesetz’. Reflections on the History of the Ancient Egyptian Language with Particular Attention to the Names Nefertiti and Nefertari as well as a Peculiar Spelling of the Toponym Memphis” - The greater part of the Egyptian language’s history down to the Coptic era is marked by a strict syllable structure and stress law, which only allowed for word stress on the penultimate or last syllable of any given word (“Zweisilbengesetz”). However, masculine and feminine nouns, singular and plural forms, base nouns and nisbe adjectives arranged in pairs have traditionally served as key witnesses for the reconstruction of an earlier stage of the Egyptian language, which was characterised by the ability to form words with word stress on any of the three last syllables (“Dreisilbengesetz”). A set of peculiar compound nouns (“Ältere Komposita”), which, when revocalised, display word stress on the antepenultimate syllable, is often regarded as evidence in favour of the “Dreisilbengesetz”, but, to date, there is a want of definitive proof therefor. In this article, the morphology of the personal names nfr.t-jrj.t “Nefertari” and nfr.t-jjj.tj “Nefertiti” is analysed with the result that they comprised the adjective *nắfĭrăt, which here, under peculiar circumstances, evolved to *năft-, but else to *nắfră(t). A hitherto largely unrecognised attestation of the “Älteres Kompositum” mn-nfr “Memphis”, which looks as if it contained the noun mnw “monument”, is identified as a sportive writing in order to indicate an actual pronunciation *mĭ́năfă(r). Either of these discoveries strongly supports the existence of the “Dreisilbengesetz” during the Old Kingdom, but further discussion reveals that, though this fits the elite idiom of the Memphite region, some parts of Upper Egypt had already advanced towards the “Zweisilbengesetz”. With this to start, the syllable structure rules during the time of the “Dreisilbengesetz” and processes of vowel elision as well as further prerequisites for the transition to the “Zweisilbengesetz” are investigated.

Indirekte und direkte Evidenz für das Dreisilbengesetz. Überlegungen zur ägyptischen Sprachgeschichte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Namen Nofretete und Nefertari sowie einer ungewöhnlichen Schreibung des Toponyms Memphis

Gundacker¹

2021

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Ein besonderer basilophorer Name am Beginn des Neuen Reiches

Dietrich¹

2022

“A special basilophorous Name from the Beginning of the New Kingdom” Basilophorous names are comparatively rare during the 18th Dynasty, especially the ones containing onX. Remarkably, one is featured on the famous donation stela of Ahmose-Nefertari as the name of the depicted king’s son: [...] . Several aspects of his name are to debate: the function of onX as either part of the name or as an epithet, whether an honorary transposition is applied, the grammatical analysis of the name pattern, which heavily depends on the aforementioned points, and the use of the cartouche. The article discusses and evaluates these aspects, offering a schema of possible interpretations for basilophorous names containing onX.

The Morphological and Graphical Substitution of Ältere Komposita. Etymological Archaism and Contemporaneous Perception as Opposing Principles

Gundacker¹

2022

In the third millennium BC, Ältere Komposita were a prolific kind of compound nouns with specific morphological features, above all, word stress on a non-last constituent. In order to match the stress and syllable structure patterns of younger stages of ancient Egyptian, Ältere Komposita were either mutilated or substituted with neologisms. At the same time, the graphical representation of retained Ältere Komposita became a playground for the learnèd élite between the poles of tradition and innovative substitution. This contribution explores strategies of substitution in the realms of morphology and of writing.