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Narmer and Khasekhan, the earliest kings
Credit: Ancient Egyptian Art website
http://www.best.com/~tdgilman/egypt/
To: ethiopia@hs1.hst.msu.edu
Cc: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
From: ab67@cornell.edu (Ayele Bekerie)
Subject: Re: Clicks
Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 15:42:57 -0400
>Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 12:26:29 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Harold Marcus
>To: paul manansala
>Cc: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
>Subject: Re: Clicks
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Sender: owner-athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
>Precedence: bulk
>
>whether or not one is an Ethiopiaqn does not make one expert in ethiopian
>languages. Amharic has glottal sounds, or explosives as i termed them to
>indicate that clicks were implosive sounds--and never the twain does meet!
>HGM
>
Dear Dr Marcus,
I must say that there is no way for me to conduct the research I conducted
on the Ethiopic Writing System and come up with holistic definitions if I
am not intimately linked to the language, history, and cultures of
Ethiopia. Moreover, I would never claim that an exclusive criteria by
which non-Ethiopians cannot accomplish similar feats. Further, in this
debate, it is important to bring the insider perspectives.
Back to "never the twain does meet", I am glad to report to you that they
do meet !
Some Examples:
In the Ethiopic we have the explosive "q*"; in the SeSotho there is "k"
with the same sounds,
In the Ethiopic there is the sound "tse"; and the corresponding sound in
seSotho is "ts",
In the Ethiopic there is "p*"; and "p" in SeSotho as the corresponding sound.
This is just to show you that it is possible to establish links between the
Ethiopic and SeSotho languages on the basis of tonalities. Moreover, in our
research, there are sound grounds to study the relationships of Ethiopic
with Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele, Shona, SePedi, SeTswana, Shagaan, and Venda.
p/s The sounds of SeSotho are written here in collaboration with a MoSotho
speaker of the language who was here during this posting.
p/s I want you to know that I recognize the contributions you have made in
the field of Ethiopian Studies.
Sincerely,
Ayele Bekerie, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor
African Studies & Research Center
310 Triphammer Rd
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 255 4607
Fax (607) 255 0784
----------------
Message: 706
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
From: ab67@cornell.edu (Ayele Bekerie)
Subject: African Knowledge Systems
Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 14:11:39 -0400
Dear Participants,
Thank you for your insightful, critical, and constructive suggestions and
comments regarding my posting of 5-2-96 with regard to the Ethiopic Writing
System and its relevance to an Afrocentric Paradigm.
First of all, I was not able to read all the postings. However, I did read
Peter Daniels' comments and criticism. His first posting was so hostile, I
wondered if he read my posting in its entirety. I also read comments by
Harold Marcus, Paul Mansala and others.
In my posting, I defined writing system as a system of signs or graphs
created and perfected for linguistic, philosophical, aesthetic, numeric,
and religious purposes. In other words, the definition seeks to have a
holistic approach, which was deduced from a systematic study of the
Ethiopic Writing System, which I believe is one of the most sophsticated
systems of notations designed to organise, generate , and perpetuate
knowledge.
The System goes beyond language and linguistics. It is not restricted to
language. This is very important to note. And that was the focus of my
brief postings. I did read the World's Writing Systems edited by Peter
Daniels, especially those parts that pertain to my area of resaerch. The
book is an excellent linear compilation of the different writng systems of
the world. However, it is designed strictly in the context of languages.
Even within the context of languages, I was shocked to see Ethiopian and
Egyptian Writing Systems being presented as separate from African Writng
Ssystems. I did read the Ethiopic Writng by Dr. Getachew Haile, whom I
respect a great deal.
I repeat the sound categories of the Ethiopic Writing System are unique and
they cannot be fully comprehended within the existing system of
classfication. The Ethiopic Writing System is not alphabetic; it is
syllabic and that is why I am suggesting the term syllographic. Are there
glottal sounds in Ge'ez and Amharic? Yes. But you also have sounds - what
Mackie Blanton called *physical phonetic combustion* emanating from the
tongue, upper teeth, palatal, and labial.
I was asked by Blanton if the sound categories were phonotactics and not
phonemes. Given my understanding of these terms, the system can best be
described as syllabic (Blanton's phonemics and not phonotactics). Each
graph represents a specific phoneme. The ability to fuse the consonants and
the vowels into distinct graph-sounds is unique to the System. In this
regard, the System is totally different from Arabic or Hebrew languages.
I must admit I did not use the word clique in the technical sense of the
word. I used the term in the nonconventional sense, which include
implosive, and explosive sounds. I have two students at present , one from
South Africa and the other from Ethiopia, an Oromo--they are doing a
preliminary study on the relationship of Amharic, Oroomegna and SeSotho
languages -- the focus is on tonalities. When I used the term clique, I
used it only after I exchanged the sounds in Amharic with the sounds in
SeSotho with my South African student. We sounded the sounds many many
times and we did identify similarities and differences. But one thing is
certain, both languages have those *physical combustions* that you do not
find in some European languages. And yet, I fully understand that a whole
lot of work has to be done before reaching any definitive conclusions.
I just like to remind Peter Daniels my analysis of the Ethiopic Writing
System is not restricted to languages. Examining its ideographic and
pictographic properties will enable you to see the relationship between the
names of the 26 syllographic classes and the graphs created in a meaningful
way. You don't find a meaningful relationship between Greek letters and the
names of the letters beyond acrophonic representations.
I am so glad that a lot of issues pertaining to Afrocentricity came to such
a close scrutiny. In the final analysis, there will be an advancement of
critical knowledge regarding the African world as well its relations to the
whole world.
Sincerly,
Ayele Bekerie, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor
African Studies & Research Center
310 Triphammer Rd
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 255 4607
Fax (607) 255 0784
-----------------
Message: 788
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
From: ab67@cornell.edu (Ayele Bekerie)
Subject: THE ETHIOPIC WRITING SYSTEM
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 16:47:08 -0400
>
>DEAR PARTICIPANTS,
>
>It seems to me that some of the arguments presented here are rooted in
>rigid and impositional ideological positions, which are not conducive to
>critical discourse.
>
>In the name of academic discipline, I see a persistent perpetuation of
>divisions
>among peoples, particularly among the peoples of Africa. As one writer
>puts it geography is the mother of history. There is no history that
>cannot be located in space and time.
>Therefore, Africa is a historical, cultural, and geographical entity.
>Obviously, these parameters
>have diverse manifestations in Africa given the lengthy dimension of time
>and the vastness of its space.
>
>The Ethiopic Writing System is a product of the Ethiopian people. It is the
>deeds of the Ethiopian people. The principles associated with the System
>are extracted from the sociohistorical and cultural experience of the
>Ethiopian people, who are Africans. When I talk about Ethiopian history, I
>am talking about an African history.
>
>Given the technical limitations of the computer I am using, I was not able
>to show the images of the System. However, I would invite you to look at my
>forthcoming book entitled: *ETHIOPIC: AN AFRICAN WRITING SYSTEM: ITS
>HISTORY AND PRINCIPLES*, which will be published by Africa World Press and
>slated to come out in August 1996.
>
>There aree a whole range of topics that I would like to discuss inthis
>DEBATE, unfortunately, I have a family obligation and this week will be my
>last week.
>
>Again, I learned a lot from this debate.
>
>Sincerly,
>
>Ayele
>
>Ayele Bekerie, PhD
>Visiting Assistant Professor
>African Studies & Research Center
>310 Triphammer Rd
>Cornell University
>Ithaca, NY 14850
>(607) 255 4607
>Fax (607) 255 0784
>
Ayele Bekerie, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor
African Studies & Research Center
310 Triphammer Rd
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 255 4607
Fax (607) 255 0784
---------------
Message: 838
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
From: diriyeam@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Diriye Abdullahi Mohame)
Subject: Re: refuting Diop?
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 01:25:36 -0400 (EDT)
>
>
> S. F. Thomas complains that I do not use primary sources to refute Diop.
> That is because I do not know the primary sources; the Egyptologists and
> Classicists know them. All I kno w is that when Diop strayed into my
> area of expertixse, viz/., linguistics, what he did nade no sense whatsoever.
>
Would be kind enough to share with us what did not exactly made
in Diop regarding linguistics? As African whose mother tongue
contains hundreds if not thousands of words similar to Ancient
Egyptian I would be interested if you can enlighten us in what
ways was Diop's linguistic sources wrong?
Ancient Egyptians called the essence of life Bah and Kah;
my mother taught me the same words - moreover, she still
pays tribute to AySitu (Ay - means mother) (Isis to the West) and
to AwZaar (Aw - father) (Osiris to the West). Ancient Egyptians
called the headrest Arshin, my people it Barshin. We too have
the moon - Aya - Daya, the sun god - Rah - Rah.
Kemedaw means black one in my tongue - think of Kmt.
As far as I know Diop only used similar methods to pinpoint
similarities in Egyptian to living African languages.
> I think it's more incumbent on his partisans to show that he is trustworthy
> than on me to adopt the methods of many on this list and make criticisms
> using materials they don't comprehend.
>
> See my very first posting to this List for my interpretation of the "plagiarism"
> charge. It, and the word "Stolen" in the title of the work of G. G. James,
> suggest that those who use it simply don't realize how the int4eraction of
> cultures works. Whatever aspects of Greek culture may have been received from
> the Egyptians were not "plagiarized" or "stolen". (PKM provided quote after
> quote from Greeks trying to give credit to the Egyptians for things many
> scholars say they couldn't have gotten from them.) Anthropologitsts use the
> non-emotive term "borrowing" when they identify examples of a culture influ-
> encing another.
>
> Diop, and I suppose James, apparently was a good propoagandist; his unscientific
> use of "plagiarize" perhaps caught on. But one thing we ougth to be aware of,
> and to avoid, is propaganda masquerading as science. Let's try to keep the
> emotive language out of the discussion of the ancient facts, and restrict it
> to the few who insist on maintaining their schoolyard name-calling long after
> everyone else is quite exhausted by it.
>
----------------
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
Cc: sak@NSD.3Com.COM (San Kwadjovie)
From: San Kwadjovie
Subject: Re: Diop's linguistics (fwd)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 17:26:11 -0700 (PDT)
To Mr. Peter Daniels:
First my credentials: I am a Silicon Valley Engineer. I am
also skilled in several African and European languages.
I did my undergraduate and graduate studies in France.
More precisely in Paris and in Toulouse. I used to
pay frequent visits to Presence Africaine in the
Quartier Latin because it was the only place in Paris
we could purchase books about African experience.
I discovered Professor Cheikh Anta Diop's fascinating
opuses during one of these visits. I have read all his
works. Some of his books I read several times. In terms
of affinity, I share with Professor Cheikh Anta Diop
a West African origin and French colonization.
Having said that, I state it is impossible to understand
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop works without placing them
in their Panafricanist context. Diop was no ivory tower
scholar. You can accuse him of many things but lack of
consistency is none of them. Throughout all his books there
are two powerful recurring themes:
1. Cultural Unity: In _ L' Unite' Culturelle De L' Afrique
Noire (Editions Presence Africaine, 1982), he states in his
introduction:
"J'ai voulu de'gager la profonde unite' culturelle reste'e
vivace sous des apparences trompeuses d'he'te'roge'ne'ite'."
In linguistic research, he saw himself as a trail blazer.
In _Civilization Or Barbarism_ (Lawrence Hill Books, 1991),
he opined (page 215):
" It is therefore a necissity that a duly conducted African
linguistic research bring our people to experience deeply their
linguistic unity, in the same way as Europeans have, in
spite the apparent superficial heterogeneity. The results
obtained already allow us to undertake the cultural education
of the African consciousness in that sense."
2. Kmt (Ancient Egypt), Center of Inspiration: In _Civilization
Or Barbarism_ (Lawrence Hill Books, 1991), Professor C. A. Diop
states (page 309):
" Vis-a-vis Black Africa, Egypt has played the same role that the
Greco-Latin civilization has played vis-a-vis the West. A
European specialist, in any domain of the humanities, would be
ill advised to conduct any scientific work if he cut himself off
from the Greco-Latin past. Similarly, the African cultural facts
will only find their profound meaning and their coherence in
reference to Egypt." This was a statement he already made in
_Nations Negres Et Culture_ (Editions Presence Africaine, 1979).
I would like to finish by addressing the issue of comparing
Walaf and Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian). West Africans place their
ancestry in the Nile Valley. In _L'Afrique Noire Precoloniale_
(Chapter X), Prof. C.A. Diop shows the migratory patterns.
On page 209, Prof. C.A. Diop explains the formation of the Walaf
ethnic group. The map clearly shows migrations from Egypt. It
does then make sense to compare Walaf and Kemetic (Ancient
Egyptian).
Regards,
San A. Kwadjovie
----------------
Diriye Abdullahi Mohame wrote:
This in answer to P. Daniels post on Diop's linguistics
a while ago.
As you are aware, if you are in the field of linguistics,
Eureapean comparatists worked with
lists of words they thought were related across
several languages (F. Bopp, the Schlegel brothers,
Grimm, and A. Schleicher). It is only afterwards
that they tried to justify the evolution of the
differences across the languages. Thus the b in
Germanic instead of f in the Latin languages (brother
vs. frere, fratello, etc).
Their methods for the derivation of the Indo-european
were always indirect; they first compared French,
for example, to other Latin languages, then they
compared Latin to Germanic after having compared
German to Old Germanic, and finally all
(Slavic, Germanic and Latin, etc.) were compared
(the lists of words were compared) to arrive at the
supposed mother language - Indo-European (Greek
is still a hard nut and does not fill in so neatly
as they made the others look). (Ducrot and Todorov
1972) (Schleicher is said to have been enthusiatic
about the whole comparisons that he thought
that he could compose fables in Indo-european -
he was delighted to have drunk at the source or
mother language at last!)
Besides lexemes, comparatists have also compared
grammatical elements (prepositions are, for example,
grammatical elements) and syntactic structures
thought to be less borrowed than words and Turgot
has emphasised the necessity of this. (Ibid.)
Now to come to Africa, as late as the 1950s,
all African languages were classified as Bantu
by European linguists (Ancient Egyptian was thought
of as an exception and was being at the explored to find
similitudes with the Indo-european languages!!).
Internally these African languages were just divided
into zones West (Wolof, etc.), East (Somali, etc.),
Congo or Central etc. That most African languages were
Bantu was then justified on the presence of mono-syllabic
affixes and tones in these languages; this is the kind of
classification that appeared in the works of Clement M. Doke
(Bantu, International African Institute, 1945) and Malcolm Guthrie
(The Classification of African Languages) among others.
However, by the 1950s, the astonishing similarity of
Ancient Egyptian to other African languages brought
a reclassification of African languages. In came,
the de-Bantuing of those languages very similar to
Ancient Egyptian (so called Cushitic languages -
Somali, Afar, Agaw, etc.). It was even suggested
that their speakers were recent arrivals in
Africa and that they were more related to Europeans
etc. All of a sudden the valid grounds - the tones,
the monosyllabic affixes were all forgotten -
they are still there! As a Somali, the whole
thing makes me laugh.
Indeed, it appears that the former classification
of most African languages as Bantu was rather in a more
consistent direction if one follows the workings
of historical linguists and comparatists - or was the
derivation of Indo-european wrong and there is no need to
follows the steps of comparatists. For example,
all the languages and I include Ancient Egyptian,
which Greenberg left as a lone branch of his
Afro-Asiatic, in most East and North-East Africa
are clearly related: this is attested both by lexical
statistics, grammatical features and syntax.
In turn, these languages share certain shares such as
lexical items and grammatical features with the Nilotic
groups of languages; in these two share some consistent
features with the languages that have been labelled
as Bantu by Greenberg. These include such common features
as the tones, the monosyllabic affixes and now focus
in the syntax (focus is a feature which
puts the emphasis on a N (noun) or V (verb) in a
structure) - a common focus word in African
languages is Wa which exists also in Ancient
Egyptian - an example from Somali: Waa nin (it is
a man - what was coming is a man etc. no verb is
required at all; all you have is a focus word and
a noun (N.).
The question is if all African languages are related
where do the Semitic languages (Arabic, etc.) fit
since they are classified with large number of
African languages in the so-called Afro-asiatic
languages? The theory that the speakers of the
so-called Afro-asiatic languages originated outside
of Africa does not fly - most of these languages (98%)
are spoken in Africa and they are spoken by perhaps
60% of Africans - Hausa alone is the first African
language.
There are clues to the origins of the Semitic
languages but they have been largely ignored while
every artifice has been tried to find a non-African
origin for Ancient Egyptians and Cushitic speakers
(Ethiopians, Somalis, etc.). The Semitic
languages and Semites originated in Africa.
There is a linguistic proof for this. In Arabic,
the original old dialects were spoken and are still
spoken in the southermost tip of Yemen (Jibali,
for example), the nearest point to Africa. These
South Arabian dialects have kept the true Dad sound -
a kind of hard d; theirs is the most articulated and
the hardest.
Thus instead of Ethiopians and Somalis having originated
in Asia, linguistically and culturally,
it is more likely that Arabs and Jews immigrated
from the African side of the Red sea; on the other side,
they mingled with the Asiatic peoples and
changed their spots in the process (Jews especially,
have undergone a lot of transformation - they look Germanic
or Nordic now); nevertheless, South Arabians and Yemenite Jews
are very dark-skinned today and have cultural similaries
with the African brethren on the other side of the Red Sea - some might
attribute this to the influence of the Afrian Empire of
Axum which held sway over most of Arabia for the
birth of Mohamed (PBH) - however, this cannot explain not
the fact that Semitic languages are only the languages
in Asia related to the vast number of African languages spoken in Africa.
Now to go back to Diop's linguistics, he was not
as naive as you suggest in his forays into
linguistics; he was familiar with the techniques
of European classical comparatists (the German
school - most comparatists were Germans).
Obviously, Diop did not spend a life-time
pursuing comparative linguistics; Obenga had
more time to do that. But one of the interesting
things that emerged from his short foray into
linguistic comparisons was the prevalence of
the monosyllabic morpheme Ka and its variants in
African languages ranging from Wolof to Ancient
Egyptian, Somali; in fact, the whole range of
African language with the exception of Khoisan.
This K morpheme is an affixe (suffice or prefixe).
In my own language, it occurs as:
Ka (one the), Ki, Ku, Kii, Kee (who), Kuu, Kee, Kuwa, Kuwee,
Changing the K to H you have in Arabic - Huwa (the one), Hiya, Huwana, etc.
In Ancient Egyptian, it is obviously in Kemet
(the black one, ones, thus the black people).
For those who of you read Alex Haley's "Roots,"
you may remember that the author followed the
trace of mysterious Ka, ku sounds that had been
heard from his great-grand mother, if my I remember
well; hence Kunta Kinte.
A comment on your looking up the dictionary
and striking up similar words to our own
language. Suppose you and I are given each
a dictionary of Ancient Egyptian, and are told
told to strike off the words similar in meaning
and form to words in our mother tongue. Supposing
that your maternal tongue is English, mine is
Somali, it is obviously I will gain the match by
several thousand words. The lesson in this is
that incidence of large number of lexical
similaries (excepting obvious borrowings) pinpoint
to the common roots of two languages or at least to
a common history of the two peoples and common
history is afterall what creates or characterises
similar peoples. I suppose you and I would find little
recognisable words in Korean excepting those borrowings
from European languages like telephone, radio which I
suppose are the words used in Korean as they are now
used in most languages.
>From the land of Aysitu (Isis - the Mother God)
and AwZaar (the Father God), and Ra (the Sun God),
Mad hel (May you find the essence of being or existence).
References
Benveniste, E. Problemes de linguistique generale, 1,
Paris: Gallimard 1966.
Ducrot, O., Todorov, T., Dictionnaire encyclopedique
des sciences du language, Paris: editions du Seuil,
1972.
----------------
Message: 924
To: athena-discuss@info.harpercollins.com
From: diriyeam@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Diriye Abdullahi Mohame)
Subject: Re: kemet
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 18:15:41 -0400 (EDT)
>
>
> Here, Yurco goes on to conclude that km, the adjective "black", cannot
> be transformed into the noun necessary in the attempted translation
> of kmt as being "land of the blacks". But later...
>
Among the so-called Egyptologists there are two regretful
mistakes: a) studying Ancient Egypt in isolation from
from the cultures, histories and languages of the rest of
Africa; b)incestuous borrowing and quoting of each other with
no substance added.
The above built-in faults lead sometimes to ludicrous
and inexcusable mistakes; let me give an example on the
that culturally very African object known as the head-rest.
This is Egyptologist wrote recently and I qoute and
translate from French: "It is difficult to determine ... the
use the headrest in real life. However, its use in the funeral
context is well know." (Franco, Isabelle, Rites et croyances de
l'eternite, 1993. p.197).
God and to think that I had several of them in real life as
had the living thousands of Africans from Zaire to Somalia. Basically,
this cultural object is used when one develops an elaborate coiffure
or hair-style (a kind of Afro only more elaborate in some cases).
The headrest keeps the bundle of coiffure from crumpling at rest
and is placed below the neck just slightly towards the head. The
owner when not at rest carries it by slipping his hand into the
hollow of the stem. It is evident the above writer studied
the object only in the isolation of books and musuems. She
even boasts of having participated in diggings in Egypt.
(The art and the use of the headrest has disappeared in Egypt.)
Now to come to the original subject of kmt; as I have explained
this is composed of two words ka + mt or Ka + mataw (one, ones
+ black). How do I know this? This is consistent with all
those languages nearest to Ancient Egyptian in syntax and in
semantics, namely the so-called Cushitic languages. It is also
consistent with the morphology of most African languages. Allright,
Egyptian has been placed in a place of its own, a lone language
in the so-called Afro-asiatic languages. In that case,
continue in your beliefs.
Daniels, who said he does not trust me to consult me
on my own native tongue - I wonder if he trusts any of
my kind!- would argue that I am wrong and quote me the
works of x and y.
To conclude, a study of Ancient Egypt is only meaningful
when studied in the African context. My own people live far away
from Egypt and they still pay homage to Ay Situ (mother
Situ - Isis to the West) and to Aw Zaar (father Zaar -
Osiris to the West). Typically, every pregnant woman
must pay homage to Ay Situ by offerings so that She
might facilite her term. The culture and the rites
of Zaar are well known across Africa, so I need not
go into there.
We have also
Ancient Egyptian Somali
------------------------------
Ba essence of life Essence of life, energy
Ka essence of life Essence of life, radiation
Bes God-cat Bisad - cat
Aya Moon-deity Daya - Moon (the worship aspect has been
forgotten)
Rah Qor-Rah (The neck of the Sun, the Sun)
Arshin Barshin (head-rest)
Wad Wadad (priest) (Lest I forgot, our
Wadads are the keepers of science and
knowedge, parted only to those who
their apprenticeship - this is a common
feature across Africa)
I think that would suffice. And other similarities with
other living African cultures had already pointed out by
Diop or Obenga (A charlattan to Daniels). Now add me
in your book of charlattans, Mr. Daniels, but please come
up with an explanation for the cultural and linguistic
affinities between Ancient Egyptians and other Africans;
why is there the same corresponding divisions of society -
into warriors, blacksmiths, hunters, priests, with the
blacksmiths occupying a low caste position; why the
funeral and other rites that ressemble each other such as
the sprinkling of water on graves and on mourners;
the spraying of libation or blood of sacrifice (a goat
or a chicken's) on new houses - the latter as I found
goes on today in Egypt, female circumcision; the ram
as a symbol of divinity; on this B. Davidson wrote:
"In many parts of West Africa people ... held the ram to be
a symbol of divinity, just as the Egyptians did. And until
modern times men and women of the Congo, thousands of miles
from the Nile, rested their heads on wooden pillows of a
style and shape remarkably like those of Egypt." (African
Kingdoms, p.36).
Diriye
>From the land of AySitu and AwZaar, Ba and Ka
----------------
Some Lexical correspondences between Egyptian and Walaf:
Egyptian Walaf
Per-aa = Pharoah Fari = supreme king
Fara = officer in charge
Fara leku = keeper of harem
Paour = the chief Bur = the king
P-our = the king (b > p)
P.ouro = king (Coptic)
pamr = pyramid bameel = tomb
pa haw = grass ba-haw = grass
taht = temple tah = heavy construction,
building
kw = height kaw = height
seked = slope segg = to lean
seggay = a slope
ssd = a slope sadd = a slope (s > d)
nb = basket, half-sphere ndab = calabash, half-sphere
khar = 20 sekat khar = 20 unit measurement
mehta = square with mata = 2 khar, cube with
sides = one cubit sides equal 1 cubit
hsb, hsp = simple cubit hasab = cubit
pss = to divide patt = to divide (s > d)
mitt pw = this one, like miit bw, miit bi = this one
also, like
tp n sity = method of proof top seet = to follow, verify
seeti = to go verify
seet = to prove
sopi (Coptic)= to transform, sopi = to transform, change
become
ta = earth ta = inundated earth
tem = to stop, cease tem = to stop, cease
Seh = noble Seh = dignitary
dtti = desert, savage land datti - brush, uninhabited
land
tak = to light up tak = to light up
Demonstratives
(p > b)
pw bw
pwy bwy
pn bane, bale
(n > l)
pf bafe
pf3 bafa
pfy bafy
p3 ba
iptw batw
iptn batn, batale
iptf batafe
Phonetic correspondence
(n > l)
nad = ask lad = ask
nah = protect lah = protect
ben ben = well up bel bel = well up
(h > g)
hen = phallus gen = phallus
hwn = adolescent gwne, gone = adolescent
(Diop, Cheikh Anta _Civilization or Barbarism_, Chicago,
1991; "Symposium on 'The peopling of ancient Egypt and
the deciphering of the Meroitic script.' Cf. _Studies and
Documents No. 1_, UNESCO, 1978)
--------------------------
Concerning uniform rates of change in languages, such
theories have been shown to be invalid. Historically,
many languages have shown drastic change over a short
period, certain indigenous languages, for example, while
others, like Arabic, have been very stable. Indeed, in
the one and a half centuries or so, English, as spoken
in Britain, may have undergone more changes than Arabic
has in the last 12 centuries.
Paul Kekai Manansala
----------------
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