Ancient Egyptian:Glossing recommendations

Glossing Hieroglyphic Ancient Egyptian: Recommendations

Extra Glossing transcription line

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

Compare the following table:

Puctuation	In traditional transliteration of Ancient Egyptian	In Glossing Rules
.	Affix or prefix	Portmanteau morpheme
=	‘Suffix’ pronoun	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
\	—	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).

Problematic example

Tranditional 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	underworld:F[SG]

I know your place in the underworld.
 

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

Example

Tranditional 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	underworld: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

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