In Reading Whole Words you learned to read a word sign by sign and stop at the determinative. Verbs read the same way. What is new in this course is what happens to a verb when it changes form, and that starts with its root.
Key idea
An Egyptian verb is built on a root of consonants, usually two or three, sometimes four: sḏm "hear", ḏd "say", nḏm "be sweet". Every form of the verb keeps the root and adds endings, prefixes or a suffix pronoun.
Why it works
Hieroglyphs write consonants, not vowels (Writing Without Vowels). Spoken Egyptian surely changed its vowels from one verb form to the next, the way English has sing, sang, sung. Those vowel changes are lost to us. What survives in writing is the root and the endings, so that is what we learn to read: the root tells you which verb it is, the endings tell you which form.
Finding the root
Take a form apart from the outside in. A suffix pronoun after = is the subject or owner. An ending after a dot (.n, .tw) marks the form. What is left is the root.
| Form | Take off | Root |
|---|---|---|
| sḏm=f | =f "he" | sḏm |
| sḏm.n=f | .n and =f | sḏm |
| ḏd.tw=s | .tw and =s | ḏd |
| ꜥnḫ=j | =j "I" | ꜥnḫ |
Worked example: Two consonants or three?
How many consonants does the root of mn.n=sn have?
- Take off =sn "they" and the .n.
- What is left is mn, "remain": m and n.
- Two consonants.
Answer: Two: mn.
Worked example: Reading the root from the signs
The verb ḏd "say" is written with the cobra and the hand. Read its root.
- The cobra (I10) is ḏ; the hand (D46) is d.
- Neither is a complement here: each writes its own sound.
- The root is ḏd.
Answer: ḏd
Most verbs have three consonants (sḏm, ꜥnḫ "live", ḫpr "come into being"). A good number have two (ḏd, mn, rḫ "know"). A few have four or more, and some of those repeat two consonants, like nḏnḏ "consult".
Common mistake
Looking for vowels to tell forms apart. Students expect a past tense to look different the way "heard" differs from "hear". In writing, sḏm "hear" and sḏm "one who hears" can look exactly alike; the vowels that once separated them are gone. Tell forms apart by their endings and their place in the sentence. Check: cover the endings with your finger; what is left should be a root you can find in the dictionary.
Egyptologists pronounce roots with a helping e, sḏm "sedjem", ḏd "djed" (see Saying Words Aloud). That is a classroom convention, not the ancient sound.