.j

Egyptian

Etymology 1

Compare with Arabic ـيَ (-ya) and Blin yə.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /ʔi/
  • Conventional anglicization: .i

Pronoun

 sg 1. suffix pronoun

1. I, me, my (see usage notes)
   • c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 41–45:

     jr.n.j ḫmtw hrw wꜥ.kw jb.j m snnw.j sḏr.kw m ẖnw n(j) kꜣp n(j) ḫt qnj.n.j šwyt

     I spent three days alone, my heart my only companion (literally, “my second”), lying inside a shelter of wood, I having embraced the shadows.

Usage notes

This form of pronoun attaches directly to the preceding word, and means different things depending on what it is attached to.

• When attached to a noun, it indicates the possessor of the noun.
• When attached to a verb of the suffix conjugation, it indicates the subject of the verb.
• When attached to an infinitive verb (especially of an intransitive verb) whose subject is not otherwise expressed, it indicates the subject of the verb.
• When attached to a transitive infinitive verb whose subject is otherwise expressed or omitted, it indicates the object of the verb.
• In the third person, when attached to a prospective participle, it indicates gender and number agreement.
• When attached to a particle like jw or a parenthetic like ḫr, it indicates the subject of the clause.
• When attached to a preposition, it indicates the object of the preposition.
• When it follows a relative adjective such as ntj or ntt, it indicates the subject of the relative clause (except in the first person singular and third person common).

Inflection

Alternative forms

The first person singular suffix pronoun is often not written; particularly, it is regularly omitted in Old Egyptian. When it is written, it has a number of variants:

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of .j  

.j	.j	.j	.j	.j
			sportive writing, from j (“reed panicle”)

Further, it can optionally be varied to indicate the identity of the antecedent — a distinction which would not have been indicated in speech, e.g.:

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of .j  

male human	female human	god	god or king	king	king	dead human	female human

In Late Egyptian, the presence of this pronoun results in the retention of final -t when the word it is attached to ends in this consonant; this is sometimes expressed by leaving the pronoun unwritten but adding to indicate the retained -t.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /ʔi/
  • Conventional anglicization: .i

Pronoun

 m sg 3. stative ending

1. (Old Egyptian, attached to a stative verb form) he, him

Inflection

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of .j  

∅	.w
most commonly, this morpheme is left unwritten

References

• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 50, 199, 206, 319.
• Edel, Elmar (1955-1964) Altägyptische Grammatik, Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum
• Junge, Friedrich (2005) Late Egyptian Grammar: An Introduction, second English edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, page 52
• Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, pages 32–33
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, page 25
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 7