Hieroglyphs 102 · Chapter 04

Saying no

Chapter 03 left you one sign short of a god. This chapter pays that debt — and teaches Egyptian to refuse. Four signs, because the negation chapter is where hearts, thrones, and death itself enter the inventory, and none of them would wait.

Batch five

Draw each five times — arms wide, heart with its two little handles, throne, and the cautious stroke that stands where death would be.

Grammar bite — the adverbial sentence

One new sentence type today, Egyptian’s third and last. Beside the nominal sentencea sentence made of nouns side by side, no verb "to be" at all — Egyptian's mw pw, "it is water" (mw pw) and the verbal sentencea sentence built on a conjugated verb — in Middle Egyptian the verb comes first, wearing its subject as a suffix: ḏd≡f, "he says" (ḏd≡f), Egyptian builds sentences from a subject and a where-phrase — nothing else:

X m Y — “X is in Y.” No verb anywhere; the preposition carries the “is.”

The grammars call it the adverbial sentencea sentence made of a subject and a where-phrase, no verb at all — Egyptian's sw m s,t≡f, "he is in his place", and when the subject is a pronoun, Egyptian uses a special light form — sw, “he” — to stand in the front slot.¹

The prince in his place

The Doomed Prince is the New Kingdom’s dark fairy tale: a king without a son prays for one; the gods grant the boy, and the Seven Hathors pronounce his fates — death by crocodile, by snake, or by dog. The tale follows him as he flees his fate abroad, and at one turn it sets him down with this chapter’s whole grammar bite in five signs:

• sw — “he”: the light pronoun from the bite, spelled with 101’s sw-plant 𓇓M23 · sw · sedge plant; writes nswt, king and the coil 𓏲Z7 · w · coil (cursive quail chick).
• m — “in”: the owl, carrying the whole “is.”
• s,t — “place”: your new throne 𓊨Q1 · st · seat, throne with its t, and 101’s house-plan 𓉐O1 · pr · house (ground-plan) classifying it as somewhere one can be.
• ≡f — “his”: the viper, closing the sentence.

Subject, where-phrase, done. Remember whose story this is, though: in a tale about escaping your appointed place, “he is in his place” is never a neutral sentence.

Life is in it, death is in it

The temple library kept the language’s most compressed sentences. This one runs the adverbial pattern twice — and needs the cautious stroke to write its second half:

• ꜥnḫ — “life”: the ankh you have known since 101, spelled full with its n and ḫ, the scroll 𓏛Y1 · papyrus roll tied shut — classifier: abstract idea marking it as an idea.
• jm≡f — “in it”: the preposition m takes the shape jm before a suffix — the bite’s pattern, one letter heavier.
• m(w)t — “death”: m, t — and the word’s own sign is not drawn. Your new 𓏱Z6 · — · substitute stroke stands where a death-sign belongs, because some pictures were too dangerous to draw on a working document. The scribe negated the image — this chapter in one sign.
• jm≡f — “in it,” again: the refrain sealing the parallel.

Life in it, death in it — whatever it was (the papyrus does not say on this line; the library liked its aphorisms sharp), the sentence pattern carried Egypt’s biggest antithesis in eight signs.

Grammar bite — three ways to say no

Now the refusals, all built on the spread arms:

• n + verb-with-.n — “did not.” The past negation: n before the verb, and the verb wearing a little .n after its stem. Hold the frame n … .n as one thing: “did not.”
• nn — “there is no.” The arms plus a ripple: existence denied. nn X — “there is no X”; nn X m Y — “there is no X in Y” — the adverbial sentencea sentence made of a subject and a where-phrase, no verb at all — Egyptian's sw m s,t≡f, "he is in his place", negated.
• bn — “not,” the spoken form. In New Kingdom colloquial texts the arms trade their n for a b: bn. Same job, later accent — you will hear it from a doctor below.

King Piye’s verdict

In 728 BCE a Nubian king marched north and took Egypt city by city. His victory stela — one of the great historical texts of the Nile — records not just the battles but his judgments. Of the defeated princes who came to submit, it explains why all but one were kept from his palace:

• n — the spread arms, opening the refusal.
• rdi̯.n — “put” with the past .n: chapter 03’s giving verb in its fuller rdj shape — 101’s little give-arm 𓏙X8 · ḏi̯ · conical loaf held out — give inside the spelling — closing the n … .n frame: “did not put.”
• ≡sn — “they”: the plural suffix, its three strokes 𓏥Z2 · three strokes — classifier: plural marking the many.
• Jmn — Amun, with the god-sign 𓊹R8 · nṯr · temple flag on a pole — netjer: god closing the name this time.
• m jb≡sn — “in their hearts”: your new heart, exactly where the bite put it.

A conqueror from Nubia, judging Egypt’s own princes on the state of their hearts toward Egypt’s own god. Grammar aside, it is one of the sharpest sentences on any stela — and every piece of it is now yours.

The doctor says no — kindly

Refusal could also be mercy. New Kingdom texts let us hear the bedside voice:

• bn — the spoken “not” from the bite.
• m(w)t≡k — “you die”: death’s word again, the cautious stroke again — and the mirror basket from chapter 02 carrying “you.”

Three signs and a suffix: the sentence every patient in history has wanted to hear.

The eye meets its throne

The debt, paid. You met the offering formula — ḥtp-ḏi̯-nswt, “an offering which the king gives” — in 101’s own chapter. An Old Kingdom tomb runs it three times in a row, and the third giver is the name you came for:

• ḥtp-ḏi̯ nswt — the formula you have owned since 101: the offering-mat 𓊵R4 · ḥtp · loaf on a reed mat — offering, peace, the little give-arm 𓏙X8 · ḏi̯ · conical loaf held out — give, the king’s sedge.
• ḥtp-ḏi̯ Jnp,w — “an offering Anubis gives”: the jackal-god’s name spelled plainly, j-n-p.
• ḥtp-ḏi̯ Wsjr — “an offering Osiris gives”: 𓁹D4 · jr · eye𓊨Q1 · st · seat, throne — the eye of chapter 03 seated on the throne of chapter 04. Two signs, and you are reading the name of the lord of the dead — on a tomb wall, where he was needed most.

Why an eye and a throne spell Wsjr is a genuine open question — Egyptologists have argued sound, symbol, and folk-spelling for a century, and this course will not pretend to settle it. What is settled is that you can now read it, anywhere in Egypt.

Drill before you go on

1. Draw 𓂜D35 · n · arms spread in refusal, 𓄣F34 · jb · heart, 𓊨Q1 · st · seat, throne, 𓏱Z6 · — · substitute stroke from memory — and say which two never make a sound.
2. Compose in transliterationthe sign-by-sign rendering of ancient writing in modern letters, so every sign stays accountable, on the bite’s pattern: “she is in her place”; then negate this chapter’s patient’s good news into the sentence nobody wants.
3. Read Piye’s line cold, covering the gloss, and point to both halves of the n … .n frame.
4. Write Wsjr from memory. Enjoy that this is now a thing you can do.

Next: the prescription — another remedy, the doctor’s own formula, and the silent signs of the sickroom.