Questions

Questions

A question is a sentence in which the speaker asks for information rather than stating a fact. English has clear markers — a question word or a change of word order. In Middle Egyptian the situation is more complex: some questions are explicitly marked, and some look completely identical to an ordinary statement.

Middle Egyptian distinguishes two categories:

Yes/No Question

A yes/no question can appear in two ways:

A. Unmarked — context alone

The sentence looks completely identical to a statement. Intonation (which we cannot hear in writing) and context do the work.

Such a question is called a virtual question: structurally it is a statement, and only the context shows that it is a question.

	Hieroglyphs
mw jm nn mw jm?	Transliteration
“Is there water there, or is there no water there?”	English
“Is water there, or is water not there?”	English

Literally: “Water there? No water there?” — two statements used as a question. nn mw jm can also be understood as an answer: “there is no water there”.

	Hieroglyphs
ḏꜣt jtrw m sꜣ ṯbwtj ḏꜣt nfr nn?	Transliteration
“Is crossing [the] river on sandals a good crossing, or not?”	English
“Crossing [the] river on sandals is a good crossing, or not?”	English

Literally: “Crossing the river on a pair of sandals — a good crossing? There is not.” — a nominal sentence (A B) used as a question, and the nn at its end means “or not”. The question is ironic: one cannot cross a river in sandals.

B. Explicitly marked — jn jw

When the writer wished to mark a yes/no question explicitly, he used the particle jn (or jn jw) at the beginning of the sentence:

The particle jn is a kind of Egyptian “question mark” and is not translated. It occurs with all types of predicate: with a nominal predicate it stands alone; with an adverbial or verbal predicate it is followed by jw (jn jw).

1. jn + nominal predicate:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	jn mḫꜣ.t pw?	“Is it a scale?”
	jn jw qsn.t pw?	“Is it something difficult?”

In the second example jw appears even in a nominal sentence (A pw) — this is almost the only place where jw appears in a sentence with a nominal predicate.

2. jn jw + adverbial or verbal predicate:

	Hieroglyphs
jn jw mrj=f ꜥḥꜣ r=k?	Transliteration
“Does he desire to fight against you?”	English
“Does he desire to fight against you?”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jn jw jn.n=k tꜣ mḏꜣ.t?	Transliteration
“Have you brought the book scroll?”	English
“Have you brought [the] book roll?”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jn jw nṯr ḫm.w jb.w rmṯ?	Transliteration
“Does [the] god not know the hearts of men?”	English
“Is god ignorant of people’s hearts?”	English

ḫm.w is a stative (“does not know”), so the predicate is adverbial and jn jw is used.

3. Negative question: jn nn + prospective

jn nn + prospective sḏm=f means “will he not hear?” — a question expecting a positive answer.

	Hieroglyphs
jn nn jnt=k jrṯ.t n ẖrd.w=j?	Transliteration
“Will you not bring milk to my children?”	English
“Won’t you bring milk for my children?”	English

4. jn written n

Sometimes jn is written with the negative sign n, and the sentence looks like a negative sentence. The context shows that it is a question:

	Hieroglyphs
n wr n=k ꜥntjw?	Transliteration
“Do you have much myrrh?”	English
“Do you have a great deal of myrrh?”	English

	Hieroglyphs
n jnk tr smꜣ=f?	Transliteration
“Am I his partner?”	English
“Am I his confederate?”	English

Content Question

Middle Egyptian has five interrogative pronouns that function as nouns in the sentence. Two of them — m and sjj — can also serve as adjectives (“which”).

When the question sentence is verbal, the verb appears in its nominal or prospective form — in this way the emphasis shifts to the question itself. In nonverbal sentences the regular sentence patterns are used: A B, A pw, or A pw B.

Pronouns that come before the interrogative pronoun are taken from the independent pronoun series; pronouns that come after it are taken from the dependent pronoun series.

Interrogative pronouns:

A. m , → “who?” or “what?”

Examples:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	jrj=j m	“What should I do?”
	dd=ṯn n=f ḥr m	“For what reason is it that you give to him?”

In the first example m is the object of the prospective jrj=j. In the second, dd is a nominal (emphatic) form, and the emphasis shifts to the phrase ḥr m “on what, why”.

B. sjj → “who?” or “what?”

Examples:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	ntk sjj	“Who are you?”
	sjj pw mjw pn ꜥꜣ	“What is this great cat?”

As an adjective, sjj comes before the noun: ḥr sjj wꜣ.t “on which road”:

	Hieroglyphs
šm=k rf ḥr sjj wꜣ.t?	Transliteration
“On which road, then, are you going?”	English
“On what road then are you going?”	English

C. jšs.t → “what?”

Examples:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	jšs.t pw	“What is it?”
	ꜥnḫ=k m jšs.t	“What would you live on?”

ꜥnḫ=k is a prospective: “(on what) will you live”.

D. ptr → “who?”

Examples:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	ptr sj	“Who is she?”
	ptr rḫ mj Rꜥ	“Who is [the] one who knows like Rē?”
	ptr rn=k	“What is your name?”
	ptr jr.t.n=k	“What have you done?”

In the last example jr.t.n=k is a feminine perfective relative form: literally “what is (the thing) that you have done?”.

E. jḫ → “what?”

Examples:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	jw=ṯn mj jḫ	“You are like what?” (How are you?)
	sḏd.t(w) md.t tn ḥr jḫ	“Why was this matter related?”

F. wr → “how much?”

wr (“great”) also serves as the interrogative adjective “how much?”. It appears as the predicate in an A pw sentence:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	wr pw	“How much [is] it?”

Literally: “it is how much?”. This is how the questions in mathematical problems are phrased.

Interrogative phrases with prepositions:

The interrogative pronouns also follow prepositions, and the phrase serves as an interrogative adverb:

Hieroglyphs	Combination	Meaning	Example
	ḥr m	“on what?” → “why?”	dd=ṯn n=f ḥr m “For what reason are you giving to him?”
	ḥr jḫ	“on what?” → “why?”	sḏd.t(w) md.t tn ḥr jḫ “Why has this matter been told?”
	mj jḫ	“like what?” → “how?”	jw=ṯn mj jḫ “How are you?” (literally: “you are like what?”)
	m jšs.t	“with what? from what?”	ꜥnḫ=k m jšs.t “On what will you live?”
	ḥr sjj wꜣ.t	“on which road?”	šm=k rf ḥr sjj wꜣ.t “On which road, then, are you going?”

Interrogative Adverb ṯn

ṯn → “where?” “from where?”

All the question words we have seen so far are pronouns: they function as nouns, and so can be subject, nominal predicate, object, or follow a preposition (ḥr m, mj jḫ). ṯn is different: it is an adverb, and so behaves like other adverbs, for example jm “there” and ꜥꜣ “here”, and not like a noun. This has three consequences:

• ṯn is an adverbial predicate, so the sentence is built like an ordinary sentence with an adverbial predicate: jw=k ṯn “where are you?”, exactly like jw=k jm “you are there”.

• ṯn stands at the end of the sentence, where the adverbial expression always comes, and does not open a sentence as ptr or sjj do.

• ṯn does not follow a preposition. Whether it means “where?” or “from where?” is determined by the verb: with a verb of motion such as jj “to come” it is translated “from where”. When the sentence is verbal, the verb appears in the nominal (emphatic) form, and the emphasis shifts to ṯn: jj.n=ṯn ṯn “where have you come from?”.

Examples:

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	English
	jw=k ṯn	“Where [are] you?”
	jj.n=ṯn ṯn	“From where did you come?”

In the second example jj.n=ṯn is a nominal form (emphatic sḏm.n=f): the emphasis shifts to ṯn “from where”.

Enclitic Particles in Questions

A question is often accompanied by a reinforcing particle: rf / jrf, or tr / tj. These are enclitic particles (Enclitic) — they come after the first word and never open a sentence. They are usually not translated, or are translated “then”, “so”, “really”.

See also šm=k rf ḥr sjj wꜣ.t “on which road, then, are you going?” (above). ptr too originates in pw + tr.

Participial Questions

For the question “who did?” the participial statement is used (see Chapter “Relative Constructions”): jn + m + active participle. jn m later merged into a single word: n-m “who”.

jrr — imperfective participle (with gemination): ongoing action. jnj — perfective participle: one-time action. In the second example nḏs is a vocative (“little one!”).

Verb Forms in Questions

When a content question is verbal, the verb appears in the nominal (emphatic) or prospective form. The nominal form “shifts” the emphasis onto the question word at the end of the sentence:

Chapter New Vocabulary

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	Type	English
	jrṯ.t	Noun	Milk
	ꜥntjw	Noun	Myrrh
	ꜥḥꜣ	Verb	To fight
	mjw	Noun	Cat
	md.t	Noun	Word, matter
	ḫm	Verb	To be ignorant of
	smꜣ	Verb / noun	To unite; partner
	qsn	Adjective	Difficult
	ṯbw.t	Noun	Sandal