A Little Egyptian Reading Book

Vocabulary

	Dd md.w		"Words spoken"-  Dd is "speak";  md.w is "words"
	in		"by (a person)"
	imny		"Ameny" - a person's name
	sS nsw		A title - "King's Scribe" or "Royal Scribe"
	Dd-f		"he says"
	ink		"I"
	sS		"scribe"
	iqr		"excellent," "skillful"
	wrt		"very"
	nfr		"good," "beautiful"
	r		"to," "than"
	xt		"thing"
	nbt		"all"
	rx		"to know," "to learn"
	md.w nTr		"words of the gods," = hieroglyphic writing

• .Dd md.w in is a very common phrase in inscriptions, introducing ritual recitations, or other material either reported as being said, or as an instruction to read the following text aloud.  It means "Words spoken by...." or "Words to be recited by...." and is followed by the name or names of the speakers (Ameny, in this case).
• In both sS nsw and md.w nTr we have "honorific transposition" in the writing, that is, because gods and kings were so important, the words for "god" and "king" would be written first, even though they would normally be said in the opposite order.  We transliterate them without the transposition.
• In all three of these phrases Dd md.w in , sS nsw and md.w nTr we see the Egyptians' tendency to abbreviate common phrases.  In the first, the d is omitted from the verb Dd and the subject md.w is abbreviated to a single sign md  In the scribe's title we find the word nsw (king) abbreviated to simply sw and there is no "man" determinative for sS (scribe).
• The third sentence has the stucture: adjective - noun which translates into English as noun IS adjective.  For example: iqr sS "The scribe is skillful."  You will find that frequently the Egyptian word order is exactly opposite to the English order.  In this type of sentence the adjective is invariably masculine singular, no matter what the subject is.
• The word rx "to learn" is an infinitive of the verb.  Egyptian infinitives are nouns, so our adjective-noun sentence is (removing everything else) nfr rx "To learn is good," or "Learning is good."
• In the third sentence we have the common phrase r xt nb.t which literally means "than anything," so we have "better than anything" or simply "the best."