Medu Netcher - Egyptian Hieroglyphs
In this course you will be introduced to Medu Netcher (Divine Speech), the Kemetic (i.e. Ancient Egyptian) sacred language and script, commonly referred to as Egyptian hieroglyphs.
DR. MARIO BEATTY, INstructor
Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University.
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In this course, Dr. Mario Beatty introduces you to Medu Netcher (Divine Speech), the Kemetic (i.e. Ancient Egyptian) sacred language and script, commonly referred to as Egyptian hieroglyphs. The course focuses on a phase of the language conventionally known as Middle Egyptian, dating from around 2100 BCE onwards. Using primarily the book by James Allen, Middle Egyptian (2014), the course will acquaint you with the fundamental elements of grammar and vocabulary in order to provide a unique and innovative examination of this African civilization from the inside through highlighting and translating numerous primary texts.
Dr. Mario Beatty
Mario Beatty, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, received his B.A. degree in Black World Studies at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, his M.A. degree in Black Studies at The Ohio State University, and his Ph.D. degree in African-American Studies at Temple University. He has taught at Morris Brown College, Bowie State University, and he served as Chairperson of the Department of African-American Studies at Chicago State University from 2007 to 2010. From 2004 to 2007, he served as an educational consultant for the School District of Philadelphia where he helped to write curriculum and to train teachers in the novel, district-wide mandatory course in African-American history. He currently serves as President of The Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC). His research interests include the Ancient Egyptian language, history, wisdom literature, astronomy in Ancient Egyptian religious texts, comparative analyses of African cultures, the image and use of ancient Africa in the African-American historical imagination, the theory and practice of African-American Studies, and Pan-Africanism.
Lesson 1 - The Uniliterals
In this lesson, you will learn all of the hieroglyphs referred to as uniliterals. These glyphs represent all of the fundamental consonants of the language and are the foundation needed to understand everything else in the course.
Lesson 2 - The Uses of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
In this lesson, you will
learn about the four major uses of Egyptian hieroglyphs as ideograms, as
phonograms, as determinatives, and as phonetic complements. The primary focus
is on the concepts of hieroglyphs as ideograms, phonograms, and determinatives.
Lesson 3 - The Uses of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Building on lesson #2, this lesson begins with a discussion of determinatives, but primarily focuses on the use of hieroglyphs as phonetic complements. This lesson prepares you to largely complete the important exercise at the end of Chapter 3 in James Allen, Middle Egyptian.
Lesson 4 - The Uses of Egyptian Hieroglyphs
This lesson focuses on special cases in the use of hieroglyphs as determinatives and phonetic complements.
Lesson 5 - Introduction to the Saidic Coptic Alphabet
This lecture explains the importance of Coptic as the last stage of Medu Netcher and introduces you to the Saidic Coptic Alphabet. Various Coptic equivalents are provided for Kemetic words drawn from Leo Depuydt's Core Vocabulary Noun List.
Lesson 6 - Egyptian Nouns: Gender and Number
In this lesson, you will learn about nouns in Medu Netcher in reference to the concepts of gender (i.e., masculine and feminine) and number (i.e., singular, plural, and dual). This lesson prepares you to complete exercises #1 and #2 at the end of Ch. 4 in James Allen, Middle Egyptian.
Lesson 7 - Egyptian nouns (Special Cases)
This lecture video focuses on special cases for
nouns that do not behave as expected in reference to gender and number. This
video highlights special cases involving some individual nouns, geographical
place names, collective nouns, nouns that are viewed as non-countable,
and false plurals. This video is primarily to be used for reference purposes.
Lesson 8 - Egyptian Noun Phrases
This lecture video focuses on noun phrases, i.e., two or more words used to express a relationship. In Medu Netcher, noun phrases are used to express three different relationships: possession (i.e., direct or indirect genitive), apposition, and connection (i.e., conjunction and disjunction). In addition to explaining these noun phrases, the video also highlights a special type of noun phrase referred to as "honorific transposition." This video prepares you to complete the exercise on noun phrases at the end of Chapter 4 in Allen's book.
Lesson 9 - Egyptian Noun Phrases (Allen Exercise)
This lecture video focuses on Exercise #3 at the end of Allen, Middle Egyptian, Ch. 4 on transliterating and translating noun phrases. Through the use of the PAC Method where P= possession (direct genitive, indirect genitive, or direct genitive in honorific transposition), A= apposition (nouns side by side referring to the same entity), and C= connection (conjunction "and"; disjunction "or"), this video concretely demonstrates how to transliterate, translate, and provide the appropriate grammar for examining noun phrases.
Lesson 10 - Egyptian prepositions and prepositional phrases
This lecture video introduces you to major prepositions in Medu Netcher as a building block for understanding a prepositional phrase (i.e., a preposition + a noun or noun phrase). With the understanding of the prepositional phrase, the lesson provides you with a brief glimpse of what is called the Adverbial sentence in Medu Netcher where the Subject is a noun or noun phrase and the adverbial predicate that follows is a preposition + a noun.
Lesson 11 - Adverbial Sentences
This lecture provides you with a clear sense of the basic structure of an adverbial sentence in Medu Netcher which often begins with an optional particle, and is followed by the subject (i.e., noun or noun phrase) which is, in turn, followed by the adverbial predicate (i.e., an adverb or a prepositional phrase). Since this is the dominant sentence type in Medu Netcher, you need to master its structure. Being familiar with the major prepositions and particles will tremendously assist you in deciphering the elements in this sentence structure, even if you are not familiar with all of the vocabulary.
Lesson 12 - Adverbial Sentences
This lecture introduces you to suffix pronouns and describes their three major uses: 1. as a genitive after a noun with our sense of possessive adjectives; 2. after prepositions; 3. as a noun with the simple tense of the verb. Please note that these uses are taken from Gardiner's Egyptian grammar book because Allen's grammar book does not provide enough clarity in Chapter 5 for the learner. The lecture concludes by highlighting a couple of examples from Allen's grammar book that show suffix pronouns in the context of adverbial.
Lesson 13 - Adjectives
This lecture introduces you to adjectives and focuses on two major uses: 1. adjective as modifier; 2. adjective as predicate. When adjectives are used to modify nouns in Medu Netcher, they follow them and agree in gender and number. When adjectives are used as predicates they are positioned before the noun (i.e., subject) and do not agree in number and gender with the noun. When adjectives are used as predicates, only the masculine singular form is used. In Allen's grammar book, these two uses are actually found in two different chapters, 6 and 7, but I think it is much easier to explain them together at the same time so that you can see the contrast. As I have indicated on a number of occasions, my approach transcends going chapter by chapter in Allen, but we will eventually cover everything.
Lesson 14 - Adjectives (The Nefer Her construction)
The lecture introduces you to a special type of adjectival construction called the Nefer Her construction that, on the surface, looks the adjective as predicate, but various context clues allow us to see the uniqueness of this construction. Medu Netcher uses this construction to describe the characteristics of someone or something. Unlike the adjective as predicate construction, the Nefer Her construction attaches the adjectival quality to the person rather than the thing being talked about. Knowing how to distinguish between the Nefer Her construction and adjectives used as predicates will be very important moving forward.
Lesson 15 - Apparent Adjectives and Beginning the Translation of First Egyptian Scene
This lecture introduces you to apparent adjectives (i.e., words that are not really adjectives in Medu Netcher, but are usefully translated as such in English). This video focuses on apparent adjectives that are really nouns from the standpoint of Medu Netcher. After beginning the discussion on apparent adjectives, the lecture introduces our first Egyptian scene for translation which is a ritual libation scene between a deceased mother and daughter.
Lesson 16 - Apparent Adjectives and Completing the Translation of First Egyptian Scene
The lecture continues our discussion on apparent adjectives (i.e., words that are not really adjectives in Medu Netcher, but are usefully translated as such in English). This video focuses on apparent adjectives that are really prepositional phrases from the standpoint of Medu Netcher. After completing the discussion on apparent adjectives, the lecture provides a full transliteration and translation of our first Egyptian scene which is a ritual libation scene between a deceased mother and daughter.
Lesson 17 - Demonstrative Pronouns
Lesson 17 focuses on explaining demonstrative pronouns and provides specific examples utilizing the exercise at the end of chapter 5 in Allen's grammar book. All of the examples in the lecture are taken from a very important literary text more appropriately termed by Jacob Carruthers as "The Nine Petitions of the Farmer Whose Speech is Good" and commonly referred to as "The Eloquent Peasant." The lecture provides a general background of this story before providing the examples taken from the text.
Lesson 18 - Verbs
This lesson introduces you to verbs in Medu
Netcher and exclusively focuses on categorizing and describing verbs based upon
their root class.
Lesson 19 - Dependent Pronouns and Verbal Sentence Structure
This lesson presents and explains dependent
pronouns and their three major uses: 1. as subject after adjectival predicate;
2. after a number of particles except iw; 3. as object of a verb. After
introducing the third use of dependent pronouns, the outlines of the verbal
sentence structure that is abbreviated as VsdoSOA are explained.
Lesson 20 - Verbs
Using small examples taken from Sir Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar, this lesson focuses on introducing you to basic translations of primarily verbal sentences. It also provides you with initial conceptual tools to analyze sentence structure. Key terms discussed are main and subordinate clauses, marked and unmarked clauses, and the 3 types of subordinate clauses in Medu Netcher: adverb clauses, noun clauses, and relative clauses. This lesson highlights the adverb clause, the most dominant clause that you will encounter in reading Middle Egyptian.
Lesson 21 - Verbs
Building on the foundation of Lesson 20, this lesson focuses on the various ways to translate what is called the Sedjemef form. Since Medu Netcher does not have a rigid tense system, the sedjemef form can be translated as present, past, future, or subjunctive, but context will usually call for translations that are subjunctive or future. Elements can also be inserted between a verb and its subject to communicate additional information in translating the verb. The sedjemef form can be made passive by adding an element "tw" between the verb and the subject (sedjemtuef= "he is heard). The sedjemef form can be made to communicate completed or past action by adding an element of "n" between the verb and the subject (sedjemenef= he heard, he has heard).
Lesson 22 - Independent Pronouns and Nominal Sentences
This lesson begins by presenting independent
pronouns and follows with a discussion on nominal sentences. It explains the 3
nominal sentence patterns, AB, A pw, and A pw B with examples.
Lesson 23 - Early Kemetic History, the Ruler, and the Fivefold Titulary
As a prelude to the discussion on the Coffin of
Amenhotep II, this lesson focuses on some important aspects of early Kemetic
history, highlighting the famous Narmer Palette. He explains the early concept
of the Ruler as the embodiment of the falcon divinity Horus and describes the
evolution of the fivefold titulary attached to the Ruler.
Lesson 24 - Osiris, Isis, and Horus (Part 1)
As part of providing necessary context to the
divine imagery of Isis on the coffin of Amenhotep II, this lesson describes and
explains the beginnings of the myth of Osiris, Isis, and Horus in the late Old
Kingdom. The lesson presents late period accounts of this myth by Greek
scholars Diodorus (1st c. BC) and Plutarch (1st c. AD) that dominate popular
discourse. The lesson deconstructs these accounts steeped in Greek
interpretation in order to ground the explanation of the myth in actual Kemetic
texts.
Lesson 25 - Osiris, Isis, and Horus (Part 2)
As part of providing necessary context to the
divine imagery of Isis on the coffin of Amenhotep II, this lesson describes and
explains the beginnings of the myth of Osiris, Isis, and Horus in the late Old
Kingdom. The lesson concretely demonstrates in narrative form how to decenter
Greet accounts of the myth as primary texts by focusing on select excerpts from
the Pyramid Texts.
Lesson 26 - Osiris, Isis, and Horus (Part 3)
As part of providing necessary context to the
divine imagery of Isis on the coffin of Amenhotep II, this lesson describes and
explains the beginnings of the myth of Osiris, Isis, and Horus in the late Old
Kingdom. The lesson concretely demonstrates in narrative form how to decenter
Greet accounts of the myth as primary texts by focusing on select excerpts from
the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts.
Lesson 27 - The Coffin of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings (KV 35)
This lesson presents a complete transliteration
and translation of a scene from the coffin of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the
Kings (KV 35). The scene depicts the goddess Isis situated at the foot of the
coffin with her hand on a "shen" ring and squatting atop the symbol
for gold. In addition to the transliteration and translation, the lesson
provides descriptive grammatical and cultural commentary to assist in
contextualizing and interpreting the deeper meaning of the scene. Please find
below the specific readings that were referenced in the video.
Lesson 28 - Prepositional Nisbes
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