Egyptian

Pronoun

Independent pronoun: first person singular

1. I, me (see usage notes)
   • Stela of Hekaib, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, AP 78,

     jnk nḏs jqr

     I (was) an excellent individual

Usage notes

Unlike the suffix pronouns and dependent pronouns, the independent pronouns are not tied to any other element of the sentence. Nevertheless, their meaning depends on context.

• After an infinitive, it is the subject of the verb.
• Before a noun, its meaning can be ambiguous
  • In the first and second person, it could be the subject of a noun phrase
  • Alternatively, in all persons, it can be the predicate of a noun phrase
  • But if the noun is a participle, then in all persons it could be either the subject or the predicate of a noun phrase.
  • If the demonstrative pronoun pw is placed between the pronoun and the noun, the pronoun is definitly the predicate
• Before an adjective, in the first person only, it is the subject of an adjectival phrase.

When the independent pronoun is the subject it may, but not always, indicate an emphasised subject.

The first person singular dependent pronoun has a number of variants:

jnk	jnk	jnk	jnk	jnk	jnk

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.:

male human	female human	god	god or king	king	dead human

Inflection

Dependent pronouns inflect for gender and number. The "neuter" third person form is used for inanimate objects. See individual pages for variant writings.

References

Allen, Middle Egyptian

1. ↑ 1995, Antonio Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian: A linguistic introduction, ISBN 0-521-44384-9

Finnish

Pronoun

jnk

1. Abbreviation of jonkin.