You can now parse most of a Middle Egyptian sentence: find the verb, name its form, find its subject and object. The last step is to turn that analysis into English that a reader would want to read.
Key idea
A good translation keeps the meaning and the tone, not the word order. jw=j jj.kj is not "is I come-I" but "I have come"; zꜣ=f mrj=f is not "his son, his beloved" but "his beloved son"; z pw wn… is "there was once a man…".
Why it works
Every language packs meaning differently. Egyptian puts the verb first, uses jw and mk where English uses nothing or "look", leaves out "is", and chains clauses with no conjunctions. A word-for-word gloss is useful to check your parsing, but it is not a translation. The goal is English that says what the Egyptian says, with nothing added and nothing lost, in the way an English speaker would say it.
A method in three steps
- Parse: mark each word's form and job. jw = statement marker; =j = subject "I"; jj.kj = stative of "come", first person.
- Gloss: write a rough, literal version to check the grammar: "(statement) I (am) having-come".
- Translate: say it in natural English, keeping the sense of the form (here a state reached): "I have come" or "I am here".
| Egyptian | Gloss | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| jw=j jj.kj | is I come-I | I have come. |
| nfr sw | good he | He is good. |
| nn mw | not water | There is no water. |
| jn nsw rdj ḥtp | by the king one who gives an offering | It is the king who gives an offering. |
| ꜥr nṯr r ꜣḫt=f | went up the god to his horizon | The god ascended to his horizon (the king died). |
Worked example: From gloss to English
Translate z pw wn ḫw-n-jnpw rn=f.
- Parse: z pw "a man it was"; wn participle "existing"; ḫw-n-jnpw rn=f "Khun-Anup his name".
- Gloss: "a man it was, existing, Khun-Anup his name".
- English: the formula opens a tale, so use the English formula for that.
Answer: "There was once a man named Khun-Anup."
Worked example: Keep the form's meaning
Translate jw pr ḫtm.w.
- Parse: a stative of the transitive ḫtm "seal": a passive state.
- Gloss: "(statement) house sealed".
- English needs "is".
Answer: "The house is sealed."
Two more habits help. Translate the time last: decide what the form means (completed, general, wished, a state) before choosing an English tense. And read a whole passage before polishing a single sentence, since particles, circumstantial clauses and quoted speech all depend on what comes around them.
Common mistake
Translating word for word. "Is I come-I" keeps every word and loses the sentence. Check by reading your English aloud: if no English speaker would say it, go back to the parse and say the same meaning naturally. Then check the other way: does your smooth English still match every form you parsed?