Ist the final -t morpheme by Ancient Egyptian (CiKam) Nouns a feminine gender marker?

Ist the final -t morpheme by Ancient Egyptian (CiKam) Nouns a feminine gender marker?

Are Egyptologists and Linguists incorrect when they claim that the majority of the instances of the final -t morpheme is a feminine gender marker when added to Egyptian nouns ?

by Asar Imhotep

In this brief expose we will seek to establish that Egyptologists and linguists are incorrect when they claim that the majority of the instances of the final -t morpheme is a feminine gender marker when added to Egyptian nouns. The reason for this assumption is that early Egyptologists, due to prejudice, assumed that Egyptian was a Semitic language. This has since been debunked, but there is a large amount of modern literature that still asserts a Semitic-Egypto connection, that in reality, doesn't exist.

We argue there that the /t/ suffix is in reality roughly equivalent to English indefinite and definite articles: "a," "an," and "the." It is used to form nouns and we argue this practice in Egyptian. In Egyptian you have PRIMARY NOUNS and SECONDARY NOUNS. The final -t suffix turns PRIMARY NOUNS into SECONDARY NOUNS. An example in Kalenjiin: chii "man" is a PRIMARY NOUN. chiito "a man" is a SECONDARY NOUN. (I argue this is a palatized form of Egyptian ka "person, god (when reduplicated)"; kAt "a body")

The Kalenjiin, a Nilo-Saharan language (part of the Kongo-Saharan macro family), forms secondary nouns by affixing the /t/ grammatical suffix as follows:

1) to a noun in its primary form, e.g. ko "house" (primary); which then becomes koot "a house" or "the house."

2) to an adjective in its root form, e.g. leel "white" (adj.) which then becomes leelinto (leelindo) "whiteness" (noun).

3) to a verb in its root form, e.g. pir "beat up" (verb); which then becomes pireet "a beating" or "the beating" (noun)

We will now see some examples between Egyptian and Kalenjiin which will demonstrate that this feature exists in Egyptian and the feature is predictable.

Egyptian: sr "sheep" (noun); sr(i)t "a particular kind of sheep" (secondary noun). [F.Dict. 235].

Kalenjiin: kechiir "sheep"; kechiiryet "a sheep."

Egyptian: aw "large" (adj.); aw.t "largeness" (Noun) [Budge 2b]

Kalenjiin: oo/woo "large"; oo-into/oo-indo "largeness"

Egyptian: bin "bad, evil" (adj.); bint "evil" (noun) [F.Dict., 81]

Kalenjiin: bunyoon "enemy"; bunyoot "an/the enemy"

Kalenjiin: boon "witching" (adj.); bondit "an/the evil" or "the witchcraft" (noun)

Egyptian: am "eat" (verb); am.t "food" (noun) [Gardiner 1927: 612; Budge 120b]

Kalenjiin: am "eat" (verb); amiit "food" or amdit "the food" (noun)

Egyptian: msyt "evening meal" [Gardiner 1927: 612]

Kalenjiin: amisyeet "any meal"; both derive from the am "eat" root

Egyptian: mn "be ill" (verb); mn.t "sickness, disease, wound" (noun) [Gardiner ibid., 615]

Kalenjiin: mian "be ill"; mian-eet "state of being sick"; mion-to/mion-do "sickness, disease, illness."

Egyptian: mtw/mdw "to speak, to talk" (verb); mt.t "speech, decree, word" (noun) [Budge 335a]

Kalenjiin: mwa "speak"; mwaeet "speech" or mwaitaaet "announcement" Consider also: amda (amta) "preech, inform" (verb); amdaaet (amtaaet) "sermons, lessons, information" (noun)

Further examples in Egyptian demonstrate the regularity of this practice (Taken from Raymond Faulkner's A Consise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian)

Egyptian:

sr "be wise"; srt "wisdom, understanding"

kj "think about"; kt "thoughts, a plan, a device"

Sms "follow, accompany"; Smswt "following suit"

krs "bury"; krst "burial"

mrj "love" (verb); mrwt "love" (noun); mrwty "the well beloved"

knh "dark" (adj.); knmt "darkness" (noun)

ksn "painful, painfully, irksome, wretched" (adj.); ksnt "trouble, misfortune" (Kalenjiin kisoneito)

As we can see here, what Egyptologists and linguists, who are Semito-Centric, argue is a "feminine" -t suffix, is in fact NOT a feminine suffix at all. However, there are genuine examples of feminine -t, however, it is PREFIXED to the noun, not SUFFIXED.

Egyptian sn "brother"

Egyptian snt "sister"

Coptic: soon/saan "brother"

Coptic: tasoon[e]

As we can see here, it is only by examining Kongo-Saharan languages that we can get to the bottom of ancient Egyptian condrums created by Semito-Centric Egyptologists. Egyptian is not an Afro-Asiatic language: it is Kongo-Saharan. Other grammatical features will be examined to prove that point at a later time. These features can also be demonstrated in ciLuba-Bantu as well. However, certain grammatical features as exhibited here cannot be shown in Yoruba as Yoruba is an isolating language and lost most of the grammatical features of Niger-Congo (as they are separate words unto themselves)

14.04.2012