Posts

A “Younger Cushitic Speakers of Lower Nubia” Scenario for the Origination of Ancient Egyptian Auxiliary Verbs: A Consolidation of and Response to Feedback, with Further Speculations

Image
This blogpost is part of an ongoing research project reanalyzing Ancient Egyptian for auxiliary verbs. It further expands on ideas presented at the Sixth Annual Missouri Egyptological Symposium (21 September 2024), and includes response to feedback on a previous blogpost . . . . As has been recently outlined, a reanalysis of Ancient Egyptian for auxiliary verbs (Mihalyfy 2024a; 2024c) could correspond to not only a creolid scenario (Mihalyfy 2024d), but also a prehistoric-into-historic scenario wherein Egyptian absorbed a large number of adult Cushitic speakers in Lower Egypt during early state formation and thus helped efface geographic distribution evidence for a Berber-Semitic-Cushitic node of Afroasiatic (Mihalyfy 2024e).  Here are some further explanation and further thoughts, especially based on feedback to the most recent version of this thinking, and ultimately producing what might be termed a “younger Cushitic speakers of Lower Nubia” scenario as an alternat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ex-Mormon Sues Over Joseph Smith’s Purported Translation of Egyptian Papyri

Image
The study of Ancient Egyptian civilization of course intersects with modern doings – think of how it’s inspired architecture of our time, or how it’s informed any number of pop culture creations . And yet, decorative use of hieroglyphs aside, it seems like it’s relatively uncommon for this aspect of reception history to involve the linguistic side of Egyptology. That’s part of why an ongoing class action lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is so interesting. Legal stuff can be complicated to parse for the untrained, and this U.S. case seems both particularly quixotic and particularly unruly. That said, it’s basically a 2019 class action lawsuit started by ex-Mormon Laura Gaddy and attorney Kay Burningham that’s expanded and shifted a bit over time and even suffered dismissal , although they’re now appealing so that they can file a third amended complaint. Nonetheless, amidst all of this thicket of procedural detail, one constant drumbeat is that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Possible Linguistic Evidence for Egyptian’s Arrival from the West and Subsequent Absorption of Cushitic Speakers: A Tentative Reconstruction within Afroasiatic, Based on a Reanalysis of Ancient Egyptian for Auxiliary Verbs

Image
This blogpost is part of an ongoing research project reanalyzing Ancient Egyptian for auxiliary verbs. It expands on ideas presented at the Sixth Annual Missouri Egyptological Symposium (21 September 2024), including contemplation of possible links to other Afroasiatic verb forms (a line of questioning by Signe Cohen).   . . . A prehistoric scenario that bleeds a bit into historic times and begins to overlap with the dawn of Egyptian writing: Against a backdrop of hunter-gatherers and then herders wandering in a more-verdant climate, the 5 th millennium BCE aridification forced the linguistic ancestor of Ancient Egyptian into arriving from the West and setting up as what became the Naqada culture of Upper Egypt, a fateful development that would result in expansion into Lower Egypt, absorption of Cushitic-speaking peoples there, and a misleading geographical cleavage in a Berber-Semitic-Cushitic sub-branch of Afroasiatic, what with the remaining Cushitic peoples being strande...
Post a Comment
Read more