Possession
Possession
When we speak of possession, there are always two sides: the thing possessed (the possession) and the owner. In English: “my house”, “I have a house”, “the house belongs to me”.
In Middle Egyptian possession is expressed in two main ways:
Within a noun phrase — “my house”, “the king’s house”. This is a phrase, not a sentence.
In a sentence — “I have a house”, “the house belongs to me”. Egyptian has no verb “to own” (“to have”), and so it uses other constructions.
Possession within the Noun Phrase
In a noun phrase the owner always comes second, after the thing possessed:
| The owner is | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| pronoun | noun + suffix pronoun | pr=f “his house” |
| Noun | Direct genitive | pr sn.t “[the] sister’s house” |
| Noun | indirect genitive (n(.jj)) | pr.w n.w nṯr.w “houses of [the] gods” |
The suffix pronoun is discussed in the chapter “Pronouns”, and the genitive — in the chapter “The Noun and the Noun Phrase”.
A demonstrative pronoun comes after the suffix pronoun: ḏr.t=j tn “this hand of mine”.
Note: the spoken language developed a new way — a suffix pronoun attached to pꜣjj / tꜣjj / nꜣjj before the noun: pꜣjj=f pr “his house”, tꜣjj=j ḥm.t “my wife”. These forms sometimes appear in late Middle Egyptian texts. pꜣjj, tꜣjj, nꜣjj agree with the thing possessed — not with the owner.
"Have": Possession in the Sentence
Egyptian has no verb meaning “to have” or “to own.” Instead it uses several constructions:
1. The preposition n “to, for” (adverbial sentence)
This is the most common way, and it resembles Latin “mihi est” “there is to me”: the thing possessed is the subject, and the predicate is a prepositional phrase with n “to, for.” Literally: “X [is] to the owner.”
Examples:
 |
Hieroglyphs |
| jw n=k ꜥnḫ wꜣs | Transliteration |
| “You have life [and] dominion” (lit. “to you [are] life and dominion”) | English |
|---|---|
| “Life [and] dominion are yours” (lit. “for you [are] life [and] dominion”) | English |
 |
Hieroglyphs |
| nn js n sbj | Transliteration |
| “There is no tomb for the rebel” | English |
|---|---|
| “]The[ rebel ]has[ no tomb” | English |
For the negative, nn “there is not” is used (see the chapter “Negation”).
2. The construction n(.jj) “belonging to” (adjectival sentence)
n(.jj) — the same nisba as the genitival adjective — serves here as the predicate at the head of the sentence. The meaning depends on the type of pronoun that follows:
Dependent pronoun + noun: “the pronoun belongs to the noun” — n(.jj) wj Rꜥ “I belong to Ra.”
Independent pronoun + noun: “the noun belongs to the pronoun” — n(.jj) ntk hrw “the day is yours.”
Examples:
| Hieroglyphs | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
 | n(.jj) wj Rꜥ | “I belong to Rē” |
 | nnk p.t nnk tꜣ | “[The] sky [is] mine, [the] earth [is] mine” |
In speech n(.jj) and the pronoun were pronounced as one word, and so they are sometimes written together: n(.jj)-sw “he belongs,” nnk (= n(.jj) jnk) “mine.” The construction is common in personal names: N(.jj)-sw-Mnṯw “he belongs to Montu.”
3. nb “owner” (nominal sentence)
The noun nb “lord, owner” in a genitive: “I am the owner of X” = “I have X.”
Example:
| Hieroglyphs | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
 | jnk nb kꜣ.w | “I have cattle” (lit. “I [am an] owner [of] cattle”) |
4. ẖr “under” and m ꜥ “in the hand” (adverbial sentence)
To be “under” something, or to hold it “in the hand,” means to be its owner.
Example:
| Hieroglyphs | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
 | ẖr.wt=j m ꜥ=j | “I have my possessions” (lit. “my possessions [are] in my hand”) |
5. The nfr ḥr construction
An adjective in a genitive with a noun describes someone who “has” a certain thing: ꜥšꜣ sr.w “many of sheep” = “one who has many sheep” (see the chapter “The Adjective”).
