Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

DEMONSTRATIVE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 61 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS There are several See also:

series based on m. p; f. t; pl. n; but n as a plural seems later than the other two. From them are See also:developed a weak demonstrative to which possessive suffixes can be attached, producing the definite and possessive articles (p', to, no, the," y'yf, "his," p'y-s " her," &c.) of See also:Middle See also:Egyptian and the later See also:language. NOUNS Two genders, m. (ending w, or nothing), f. (ending t). Three See also:numbers: singular, dual (m. wi, f. ti, gradually became obsolete), plural (m. w; f. wt). No See also:case-endings are recognizable, but construct forms—to See also:judge by Coptic—were in use. Masculine and feminine nouns of See also:instrument or material are formed from verbal roots by prefixing m; e.g. m•sdm•t, " stibium," from sdm, " paint the See also:eye." Substantives and adjectives are formed from substantives and repositions by the addition of y in the masculine; e.g. n•t, " See also:city, nt•y, " belonging to a city," ' See also:citizen "• hr, " upon," jtr•y (f. ltr•t; pl. $r•w), " upper." This is not unlike the Semitic nisbe ending iy, ay (e.g. Ar. beled, " city," beledi, " belonging to a city "). Adjectives follow the nouns they qualify. in often changes to y.

f. iy. NUMERALS I, w.; 2, .fn; 3, 1pmt; 4, fdw; 5, See also:

dw'• 6, As (or sw'?); sfh; 8, Amn; 9, psd; 10, mt. 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (?) resemble Semitic numerals. 20 and 30 (See also:mob) had See also:special names; 40-90 were named as if plurals of the See also:units 4-9, as in Semitic. too, snt; See also:I000, A,; to,000, zb'; See also:Ioo,000, hfnw. VERBS The forms observable in hieroglyphic See also:writing See also:lead to the following See also:classification STRONG VERBS. Biliteral Often showing traces of an See also:original III. inf. ; in See also:early times very rare. Triliteral Very numerous. Generally formed by reduplication. In See also:Late Egyptian they were no longer inflected, and were conjugated with the help of See also:fry, ' do." Properly triliterals, but, with the 2nd or 3rd See also:radical alike, these coalesced in many forms where no vowel intervened, and gave the word the See also:appearance of a biliteraL iii. See also:gem. Rare.

unified early. Some very See also:

common verbs, " do," " give," " come," " bring " are irregular. Iv. inf. . Partly derived from adjectival formations in y, from nouns and infinitives:—e.g. idle, inf. stet; adj. stpty; verb (4 lit.), ilpty. Many verbs with weak consonants—1y, Iw, t I. inf. (m[w]t), and those with rs---are particularly difficult to trace accurately, owing to defective writing. It seems that all the above classes may be divided into two See also:main See also:groups, according to the See also:form of the See also:infinitive: with masculine infinitive the strong triliteral type, and with feminine infinitive the type of the In. inf. The former See also:group includes all except inf., Iv. inf., and the causative of the biliterals, which belong to the second group. It is probable that the verb had a special form denoting See also:condition, as in Arabic. There was a causative form prefixing .f, and traces of forms resembling Pied and Niphal are observed. Some roots are re-duplicated wholly or in See also:part with a frequentative meaning, and there are traces of gemination of radicals. Pseudo-Participle.—In very early texts this is the past indicative, but more commonly it is used in sentences such as, gm-n-f wt.

'/s kwt, " he found me I stood," i.e. " he found me See also:

standing." The indicative use was soon given up and the pseudo-participle was employed only as predicate, especially indicating a See also:state; e.g. ntr•t .f nett, " the goddess goes "• tw-k wd"tt, " See also:thou See also:art prosperous." The endings were almost entirely lost in New Egyptian. For early times they stand thus: Sing. 3. masc. I, late w. Dual wit. Pl. w. See also:fern. tt. tttw ti. 2. masc. II tiwny. fern, tt t. c. kwt. wyn. The pseudo-participle seems, by its See also:inflexion, to have been the perfect of the original Semitic conjugation.

The simplest form being that of the 3rd See also:

person, it is best arranged like the corresponding tense in Semitic grammars, beginning with that person. There is no trace of the Semitic imperfect in Egyptian. The See also:ordinary conjugation is formed quite differently. The verbal See also:stem is here followed by the subject-suffix or substantive—sdm f, " he hears "; " i4mw stn, " the See also:king hears." It is varied by the addition of particles, &c., n, In, See also:Air, tw, thus: , " he hears' ; sdm-w f, " he is heard " (pl. sdm-tt-in, " they are heard ") • sdm-tw f, " he is heard "; sdm-n f, " he heard sdm-n-tw f, "he was heard "; also, sdm-tn f, sdm-hr f, sdm-k, f. Each form has special uses, generally difficult to define. sdm f seems rather to be imperfect, sdm-n f perfect, and generally to See also:express the past. Later, idm-f is ordinarily expressed by periphrases; but by the loss of n, sdm-n f became itself sdm f, which is the ordinary past in See also:demotic. Coptic preserves sdm f forms of many verbs in its causative (e.g. TANjOq " cause him to live," from Egyptian See also:diet-11A I), and, in its periphrastic conjugation, the same forms of wn, " be," and try, " do. With sdm f (iedmo f) was a more emphatic form (esdomef) at any See also:rate in the weak verbs. The above, with the relative forms mentioned below, are supposed by See also:Erman to be derived from the participle, which is placed first for emphasis: thus, idm•w stn, " See also:hearing is the king "; sdm-f, for f4m-fy, " hearing he is." This Egyptian See also:paraphrase of Semitic is just like the Irish paraphrase of See also:English, " It is hearing he is." The imperative shows no ending in the singular; in the plural it has y. and later w; cf. Semitic imperative. The infinitive is of special importance on See also:account of its being preserved very fully in Coptic.

It is generally of masculine form, but feminine in III. Inf. (as in Semitic), and in causatives of biliterals. There are relative forms of sdm f and sdm-n f, respectively sdm•w f (masc.), sdm•t-n f (fern.), &c. They are used when the relative is the See also:

object of the relative See also:sentence, or has any other position than the subject. Thusidm•t-f may mean " she whom he hears," " she who[se praises] he hears," ' she [to] whom he hears [someone speaking]," &c. There are See also:close analogies between the See also:function of the relative particles in Egyptian and Semitic; and the See also:Berber See also:languages possess a relative form of the verb. Participles.—These are active and passive, perfect and imperfect, in the old language, but all are replaced by periphrases in Coptic. Verbal Adjectives.—There is a See also:peculiar formation, sdm•ty-fy, " he who shall hear," probably meaning originally " he is a hearer," sdm•ty being an See also:adjective in y formed from a feminine (t) form of the infinitive, which is occasionally found even in triliteral verbs; the endings are: sing., masc. ty, fy, fern. ty-iy; pl., masc. ty-in, fern, ty-it. It is found only in Old Egyptian. Particles.—There seems to be no special formation for adverbs, and little use is made of adverbial expressions. Prepositions, See also:simple and See also:compound, are numerous.

Some of the commonest simple prepositions are n " for," r " to," m" in, from," hr " upon." A few enclitic conjunctions exist, but they are indefinite in meaning—swt a vague " but," grt a vague " moreover," &c. Coptic presents a remarkable contrast to Egyptian in the precision of its periphrastic conjugation. There are two See also:

present tenses, an imperfect, two perfects, a pluperfect, a present and a past frequentative, and three See also:futures besides future perfect; there are also conjunctive and optative forms. The negatives of some of these are expressed by special prefixes. The See also:gradual growth of these new forms can be traced through all the stages of Egyptian. Throughout the See also:history of the language we See also:note an increasing tendency to periphrasis; but there was no See also:great advance towards precision before demotic. In demotic there are distinguishable a present tense, imperfect, perfect, frequentative, future, future perfect, conjunctive and optative; also present, past and future negatives, &c. The passive was See also:extinct before demotic; demotic and Coptic express it, clumsily it must be confessed, by an impersonal " they, e.g. " they See also:bore him " stands for " he was See also:born." It is See also:worth noting how, in other departments besides the verb, the Egyptian language was far better adapted to See also:practical ends during and after the See also:period of the Deltaic dynasties (XXII.–XXX.) than ever it was before. It was both simplified and enriched. The inflexions rapidly disappeared and little was See also:left of the distinctions between masculine and feminine, singular, dual and plural—except in the pronouns. The dual number had been given up entirely at an earlier date.

The pronouns, both See also:

personal and demonstrative, retained their forms very fully. As prefixes, suffixes and articles, they, together with some See also:auxiliary verbs, provided the See also:principal mechanism of the renovated language. An abundant See also:supply of useful adverbs was gradually accumulated, as well as conjunctions, so far as the functions of the latter were not already performed by the verbal prefixes. These great improvements in the language correspond to great changes in the economic condition of the See also:country. they were the result of active See also:trade and See also:constant inter-course of all classes of Egyptians with foreigners from See also:Europe and See also:Asia. Probably the best See also:stage of Egyptian speech was that which immediately preceded Coptic. Though Coptic is here and there more exactly expressive than the best demotic, it was spoilt by too much See also:Greek, duplicating and too often expelling native expressions that were already adequate for its very simple requirements. Above all, it is clumsily pleonastic.

End of Article: DEMONSTRATIVE

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
DEMONOLOGY (L1alµwv, demon, genius, spirit) 		[next]
DEMOSTHENES

Site © 2006 - Net Industries