How do you pronounce "Anpu" and "Ma'at" ?
Katherine Griffis
alt.culture.egyptian, after a bit of musing, scribed to us all:
>I'm a rapid Egyptian Mythology fan. However, I'm also one of
>these people who is terrible at pronouncing things I've never
>heard, only read about. If anyone could help me, I would very
>thankful. =)
>
>I know how to say Anubis, (Au-new-bis), but I'm clueless
>about "Anpu." Is it Ahn-poo, AN-poo, or something else?
>
>And how do you say "Ma'at" ? Is it May-et, or Maut?
While no one is quite sure how ancient Egyptian sounded, the best most
linguists and Egyptologists seems to do is presume certain sounds.
Anpu ('inpw) and Ma'at (mAa.t) both appear to have had glottal stops.
Possibly Anubis' name was said something along the lines of _'en-poo_,
where ' is s short inhalation of breath, and Ma'at's name along the
lines of _mah-'at_, with again a short inhalation of breath represented
by the ' glottal stop. James Allen has theorized that the A (ah) sound
may have stretched as far as an "ar" or "a(w)l" sound, but notes in his
book, _Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of
Hieroglyphs_ (Cambridge Univ Press: Cambridge, 2000) that this sound
disappeared into the glottal stop by the New Kingdom. Allen thinks that
the /a/ sound was set back deep in the throat, as a German or French
/r/, but may have originally had a /d/ sound quality as in the word
"deed."
Antonio Loprieno has also attempted to work out the linguistic features
of ancient Egyptian, drawing upon modern Afroasiatic languages in his
book, _Ancient Egyptian: a Linguistic Introduction._ (Cambridge Univ
Press: Cambridge, 1995). His work is based upon comparison of ancient
Egyptian with such North African languages as Chad, Berber, etc., and of
course, Coptic.
As you can see, both works are speculative, but provide a general guide
to persons working with the language as a starting point. BTW, the
"language" one heard in the movie, "The Mummy," was based upon the work
of Dr. Stuart Smith, a Coptologist, who was also responsible for the
"ancient Egyptian" language one heard in the movie,"Stargate" as well.
Regards --
Katherine Griffis-Greenberg
Member, American Research Center in Egypt
International Association of Egyptologists
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Special Studies
http://www.griffis-consulting.com
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Bast Black
>While no one is quite sure how ancient Egyptian sounded, the best most
>linguists and Egyptologists seems to do is presume certain sounds.
Hey, I'll settle for "generally accepted" pronunciation at this point. ;)
Thank you so much for the concise and speedy reply!!!! I've been
stumbling in the dark for far too long on how to say "Anpu," and
"Ma'at."
Shuffling through various spelling of each name didn't help me
either. I've seen Anpu spelled like "Inpw," but I've also seen it
like "Anup," "Ienpw," and "Yinepu." For Ma'at I've seen, "Maet,"
"Mayet," and "Ma'."
In my handy-dandy reference book by E.A. Wallis Budge, "An Egyptian
Hieroglyphic Dictionary," it lists Anpu as having a dot over the
"A." I have no idea what that means. Is it "AE", "AW" or "AH?"
Ma'at on the other hand, has a overline on the second "a," meaning
"AE." So what does the first "a" sound like, "AW" or "AH"?
You see why I've been pulling out my hair? ;)
My older sister was a linguistics major, and although
we've had some very interesting debates on the Egyptian language,
including me trying to convince her the modern English word
"Men" *might* be a corruption of an Ancient Egyptian Male Fertility
God, aka "Min" (pure speculation of course), I'm still no closer to
finding out how pronounce Egyptian names, or words.
>Anpu ('inpw) and Ma'at (mAa.t) both appear to have had glottal stops.
>Possibly Anubis' name was said something along the lines of _'en-poo_,
>where ' is s short inhalation of breath,
Sounds good to me. At least it's not "_'en-pooch_" ;)
>and Ma'at's name along the
>lines of _mah-'at_, with again a short inhalation of breath represented
>by the ' glottal stop. James Allen has theorized that the A (ah) sound
>may have stretched as far as an "ar" or "a(w)l" sound, but notes in his
>book, _Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of
>Hieroglyphs_ (Cambridge Univ Press: Cambridge, 2000) that this sound
>disappeared into the glottal stop by the New Kingdom. Allen thinks that
>the /a/ sound was set back deep in the throat, as a German or French
>/r/, but may have originally had a /d/ sound quality as in the word
>"deed."
"a(w)l", with a silent "a" - That's how I heard it recently on a
Discovery Channel documentary. The name Ma'at was pronounced,
*not* as "May-et," but as a single syllable "Mawt," or "Maut"
with a silent "a."
>
>Antonio Loprieno has also attempted to work out the linguistic features
>of ancient Egyptian, drawing upon modern Afroasiatic languages in his
>book, _Ancient Egyptian: a Linguistic Introduction._ (Cambridge Univ
>Press: Cambridge, 1995). His work is based upon comparison of ancient
>Egyptian with such North African languages as Chad, Berber, etc., and of
>course, Coptic.
>
Interesting.
Although the Ancient Egyptian has long since been a
dead language (wonder just how long?), many languages survive their
deaths by having words "leaked" into foreign tongues. It is
possible that some ancient words have survived to modern times?
Greek words have. I hear Sand Script is believed to be the most
similar lanaguge to the original Indo-European, and Sand Script came
from the East! I wonder if it "burrowed" any words from the once
powerful and influential Ancient Egyptian nation? - That's one for
the Linguistic professionals to think about. :)
>As you can see, both works are speculative, but provide a general guide
>to persons working with the language as a starting point. BTW, the
>"language" one heard in the movie, "The Mummy," was based upon the
>work of Dr. Stuart Smith, a Coptologist, who was also responsible for
>the "ancient Egyptian" language one heard in the movie,"Stargate" as
>well.
>
What an interesting career, huh? I think the movie using the word
"Magi" for the Pharaoh's guards was telltale sign it wasn't the
real thing. But still, what a kick it was, for five minutes, to
imagine people speaking Ancient Egyptian! :)
bB
Katherine Griffis
alt.culture.egyptian, after a bit of musing, scribed to us all:
>Katherine Griffis-Greenberg wrote:
>>While no one is quite sure how ancient Egyptian sounded, the best most
>>linguists and Egyptologists seems to do is presume certain sounds.
>
>Hey, I'll settle for "generally accepted" pronunciation at this point. ;)
>Thank you so much for the concise and speedy reply!!!! I've been
>stumbling in the dark for far too long on how to say "Anpu," and
>"Ma'at."
>In my handy-dandy reference book by E.A. Wallis Budge, "An Egyptian
>Hieroglyphic Dictionary," it lists Anpu as having a dot over the
>"A." I have no idea what that means. Is it "AE", "AW" or "AH?"
>Ma'at on the other hand, has a overline on the second "a," meaning
>"AE." So what does the first "a" sound like, "AW" or "AH"?
>
>You see why I've been pulling out my hair? ;)
Indeed. :) Well, from what I recall of phonetic symbols from Budge's
time, a (with a dot) was usually pronounced "ah", while a (with a line
over it) is usually either a long a or (when combined with a similar
sound, as Ma'at is) comes off as a short a or e. With the glottal stop
involved, I can see why some pronounce the goddess' name as a single
syllable, but it is two syllables, IMO, as that is the way it appears in
Egyptian.
>My older sister was a linguistics major, and although
>we've had some very interesting debates on the Egyptian language,
>including me trying to convince her the modern English word
>"Men" *might* be a corruption of an Ancient Egyptian Male Fertility
>God, aka "Min" (pure speculation of course), I'm still no closer to
>finding out how pronounce Egyptian names, or words.
"Sounds like" is usually not a good indicator of common origin. Some
words we use today are related to ancient Egyptian, though not as many
as some may think. You can review these words at the archives of the
Egyptologists Electronic Forum at
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/4482/AEloans.html
EGYPTIAN LOAN-WORDS IN ENGLISH
version 8 (revised; November 18, '99)
by Aayko Eyma
[Current as of March 16, 2000]
<snip a bit>
>>As you can see, both works are speculative, but provide a general guide
>>to persons working with the language as a starting point. BTW, the
>>"language" one heard in the movie, "The Mummy," was based upon the
>>work of Dr. Stuart Smith, a Coptologist, who was also responsible for
>>the "ancient Egyptian" language one heard in the movie,"Stargate" as
>>well.
>>
>
>What an interesting career, huh? I think the movie using the word
>"Magi" for the Pharaoh's guards was telltale sign it wasn't the
>real thing. But still, what a kick it was, for five minutes, to
>imagine people speaking Ancient Egyptian! :)
Actually, the word they were attempting to say is 'medja' [Egyptian:
mSa], which means a "soldier." It is a legitimate word for the name of
the type of "bodyguard" the Pharaoh would have had. In hieroglyphs, it
is A12, and is shown as a male wearing a plume headdress, carrying a bow
and a stick and is known from the OK onward as an 'infantryman' in the
Pharaonic army.