The names of the kings of the Fifth Dynasty may serve as a prototypical example for the re-evaluation of Manetho’s king-list: Userkaf, Sahure, Neferirkare, Shepseskare, Reneferef, Nirewoser, Djedkare-Isesi and Unas are all recorded in the king-list of Manetho as transmitted by Sextus Julius Africanus according to the Ecloga chronographiae of George Syncellus. Although the names as preserved have obviously suffered on a long way of copying manuscripts over and over again, a closer look at the Greek transcriptions reveals the high quality and the still unbroken relevance of Manetho’s Aegyptiaca for modern Egyptological scholarship, when dealing with chronology, onomastics and linguistics. As will be shown, there is a line, identifiable with variable degrees of difficultly but finally clearly discernible, which leads all the way down from the Old Kingdom to Manetho’s Aegyptiaca.
“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.
“Is ḥśjw-mw ‘water conjuration’ an ‘Älteres Kompositum’? Investigations into a terminus technicus of the Egyptian lingua magica” - Starting in the Old Kingdom, depictions of the work and dangers of herdsmen, who ford cattle and ward off crocodiles with magical gestures, formed part of the motif repertoire of country life and agriculture in many commoners’ tombs. The textual counterparts of such scenes are mentioned in seven literary, magical and religious texts from the Middle Kingdom to the Graeco-Roman Period. Regardless of the unity of meaning and context, the terminus technicus denoting those conjurations directed against crocodiles is written in three essentially different ways as ḥśjw-mw (Tale of a Herdsman, Hymn to Amun in Papyrus Leiden I 350, Cairo Love Songs, a magical papyrus in Budapest, Florentine Mythological Handbook), ḥśjw-m-mw (CT 836) and śḥśjw-m-mw (Magical Papyrus Harris). When compared to graphic peculiarities of ‘Ältere Komposita’, ḥśjw-m-mw (CT 836) and śḥśjw-m-mw (Magical Papyrus Harris) can be identified as phonetic writings, and the attestation in the Tale of a Herdsman, which exhibits the peculiar insertion of a “boat” (Gardiner P.1), as an unetymological writing. Consequently, all seven tokens can be assigned to a single morphological pattern, ḥśjw-mw ‘water conjuration’, which, tentatively, can be revocalised *ḥĭśjắw-măw.
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