Ancient Egyptian:Glossing recommendations

Extra Glossing transcription line

Traditional Egyptological transcription of Hieroglyphic Ancient Egyptian uses punctuation, too. This punctuation is in conflict with the punctuation as defined by the Glossing Rules.

Note that what English speaking Egyptologists usually called ‘transliteration’ should rather be labeled a ‘transcription’ in accordance with linguistic standards.

Compare the following table:

Puctuation	Meaning in Egyptological transcriptions	Meaning in Glossing transcription line	Meaning in Glossing line
.	Affix	—	Portmanteau morpheme
=	‘Suffix’ pronoun (actually ⸗)	Clitic
-	Compound, or combined name phrase	Affix
:	Causal prefix (“s:”)	—	(Unspecified) seperable morpheme
( )	Non-overt phonemes, scholarly reconstruction	—	Inherent category
[ ]	Completely destroyed text (lacuna), potentially with reconstructed content	—	‘Zero’ morpheme
⌈ ⌉	Partially destroyed text, potentially with reconstructed content	—
{ }	Emendation of a scribal error (deletion), or Certain orthographical convention	—
< >	Emendation of a scribal error (addition)	Infix
~	—	Reduplication morpheme
\	—	—	Transfix
_	—	Fixed phrase	Fixed phrase
\	—	—	Ablaut phenomenon
/	(Options)	—	Ambigous morpheme

In order to prevent any confusion, it is strongly advisable or, as far as “-”, “=”, and “< >” are concerned, even mandatory not to use these symbols in their traditional meaning in the Glossing transcription line (directly above the Glossing line). Keep in mind that the number and sequence of “-”, “=”, “~”, and “< >” in the Glossing transcription and the gloss needs to match exactly.

Problematic example

Egyptological transcription	m=[ṯn]	⌈wj⌉	<r>ḫ{r}.k(w)	s.t={t}<ṯ>n	ḫnt(ï).t	dwꜢ.t
Glosses	ATTN-2PL	=1SG	get_to_know\RES-1SG.RES	seat:F[SG]-2PL	in_front-ADJZ-F	netherworld:F[SG]

‘I know your place in the underworld’.
 

Consequently, the encoder needs to add an extra ‘Glossing transcription line’ between the Egyptological Transcription line and the Glossing line.

Example

Egyptological transcription	m=[ṯn]	⌈wj⌉	<r>ḫ{r}.k(w)	s.t={t}<ṯ>n	ḫnt(ï).t	dwꜢ.t
Glossing transcription	m-ṯn	=wj	rḫ-kw	st-ṯn	ḫnt-ï-t	dwꜢt
Glosses	ATTN-2PL	=1SG	get_to_know\RES-1SG.RES	seat:F[SG]-2PL	in_front-ADJZ-F	netherworld:F[SG]

‘I know your place in the underworld.’
 

In the Glossing transcription line, all symbols need to be used according to the Glossing Rules. In the Traditional transcription line, however, the encoder may use all the symbols according to his/her Egyptological tradition.

Hands-on transliteration transformation guidelines

To derive a valid Glossing transcription line from an Egyptological transcription line, the follwoing hand-on rules may help.

Compare the following table:

Egyptological transliteration line	Glossing transliteration line	Examples
.	“-” (if it is a neatly seperable affix)	zẖꜢ.t → zẖꜢ-t scribe-F ‘(female) scribe’ sḏm.tw → sḏm-tw hear\IPFV-PASS ‘is heard’
	leave out (if rather part of a transfix)	jr.t → jrt eye:F ‘eye’ ḏd.w → ḏdw say\POST ‘will say’
s:	“CAUS-” plus translation of the non-causative base lexeme	s:jwr → s-jwr CAUS-pregnant\INF ‘(to) impregnate’
	leave colon out plus translation of the causative meaning	s:jwr → sjwr impregnate\INF ‘(to) impregnate’ s:ḏd → sḏd tell\IPFV ‘tell’
=	“-” (affix) [to be discussed]	sn=s → sn-s sn(M)-2SG.F ‘her brother’
-	“_” (if it is a fixed phrase that corresponds to one single gloss)	wꜢḏ-wr → wꜢḏ_wr ocean(M) ‘ocean’
	two separate words (if it is a fixed phrase, but the encoder wants to analyse it)	wꜢḏ-wr → wꜢḏ wr green great ‘ocean’
	“=” (clitic; if a ‘Direct Genitive’ compound)	ḥm-nṯr → ḥm=nṯr servant(M)=god(M) ‘priest’
( )	leave parentheses out; keep content or leave it out	sḏm(.w) → sḏmw hear\POST ‘will hear’ sḏm(.w) → sḏm hear\POST ‘will hear’ s:ḏd(.t) → sḏdt tell\INF ‘(to) tell’ s:ḏd(.t) → sḏd tell\INF ‘(to) tell’
< >	leave brackets out; keep content	sn<.t> → snt sister:F ‘sister’
{ }	leave brackets and content out	sn{.t} → sn brother(M)[SG] ‘brother’
[ ]	leave brackets out; keep content or leave it out	[sn].t → snt sister:F ‘sister’ [sn].t → [___]t [___]:F ‘[destroyed]’
⌈ ⌉	leave brackets out; keep content	⌈sn⌉.t → snt sister:F ‘sister’

Examples for common forms

• Glossing of common Earlier Egyptian (Middle Egyptian, Old Egyptian) forms
• Glossing of common Late Egyptian forms (Please contribute)
• Glossing of common Demotic forms (Please contribute)

Examples in published articles and books

List of examples of glossed texts online.