Table Of ContentEGYPTIAN AND SEMITO-HAMITIC (AFRO-ASIATIC) STUDIES
IN MEMORIAM W VYCICHL
STUDIES IN SEMITIC
LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS
EDITEDBY
T. MURAOKA AND C. H. M. VERSTEEGH
VOLUME XXXIX
EGYPTIAN AND SEMITO-HAMITIC (AFRO-ASIATIC) STUDIES
IN MEMORIAM W VYCICHL
EGYPTIAN AND
SEMITO-HAMITIC
(AFRO-ASIATIC) STUDIES
IN MEMORIAM W VYCICHL
EDITED BY
GABOR TARACS
BRILL
LEIDEN· BOSTON
2004
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) studies : in memoriam W. Vycichl /
edited by Gäbor Tabes.
p. cm. - (Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics, ISSN 0081-8461 ;
v.39)
Consists of articles in English, French, and German.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-13245-7 (hard back)
I. Afroasiatic languages. 2. Egyptian philology. I. Vycichl, Werner. 11. Takäcs,
Gäbor. 111. Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics ; 39
PJ992.E33 2003
492-dc21 2003052101
ISSN 0081-8461
ISBN 90 04 13245 7
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PRINfED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Werner Vycichl (1909-1999)-biographical sketch
Gribor T akrics ..... .. .. .. .. .. .. ... ...... .. .. .. .. .... ..... .. .. ..... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .... ..
lX
SECTION ONE
EGYPTOLOGY AND COPTOLOGY
The Lexical Item NFT of an Old Egyptian Inscription 3
Francesco Aspesi
Ein aramäisches Lehnwort für "Katarakt" in der
Beschreibung Elephantines auf der Hungersnotstele 13
Francis Amadeus Kar! Breyer
Third Consonants in Ancient Egyptian ... ........... ...... .... .......... 33
Christopher Ehret
"Oh komm guter Zwerg, komm ..." -Über den religiösen
Hintergrund der Patäken-Amulette im Neuen Reich ........ 55
Hedvig 00ry
Beitrage zur Lexikographie 1: Mögliche Phantomwörter im
HLI ........................................................................................ 69
Rainer Hannig
Time paradoxes in Religious Literature . ............. .................... 98
t Uzsd6 Krikosy
Joh 2 in koptischer Sicht ........................................................ 103
4
Ulrich Lift
Remarques sur quelques etymo1ogies coptes ...... ................ .... 110
Dimitri Meeks
Beiträge zur koptischen Etymologie ............ ................... ........... 116
Joachim Friedrich Qyack
Omofoni ...................................................................................... 134
Alessandro Roccati
Hurrisch biarobbe "Goldenes" als Fachterminus im
Ägyptischen ............................................................................ 137
17lOmas Schneider
vi CONTENTS
SECTION TWO
SEMITIC LINGUISTICS
For an Interpretation of Eb1aic ne-si-in .................................... 141
Pelio Fronzaroli
New Etymo10gies for Common Semitic Anima1 Names ........ 144
Leonid Kogan & Alexander Militarev
An Egyptian Cognate for Ugaritic QWY (II)? .......................... 155
Wilfred G.E. Watson
Traces of iptaras in Arabic ........................................................ 160
Andrzd ;:,aborski
SEC TI ON THREE
BEJA LINGUISTICS
Beja as a Cushitic Language 175
David Appleyard
Beja Identity in Tu BeqawiE 195
Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst
Quelques observations sur 1es correspondances voca1iques
dans 1es themes verbaux semitiques et du bedja ......... ... .... 205
Anna G. Be/ova
Beja Pronouns and G1ides: Dia1ects in Search of Optima 217
Klaus Wedekind
SECTION FOUR
CHADIC LINGUISTICS
a
Preliminaires une etude de la langue kajakse d'Am-Dam,
de toram du Salamat, d'ubi de Guera et de masmaje du
Batha-Est (Tchad) .................................................................. 229
Khalil Alio
Genitive Constructions in South Bauchi (West Chadic)
Languages, Zul and Polchi, with Comparisons to
Ancient Egyptian .................................................................... 286
Ronald Cosper & Garba Mohammed Gital
A Grammatical Sketch of Goemai: Word Classes .................. 296
Birgit Hellwig
CONTENTS Vll
Das Birgit, eine osttschadische Sprache-Vokabular und
grammatische Notizen ............................................................ 342
Hemnann Jungraithmayr
Frühe lexikalische Quellen zum Wandala (Mandara) und
das Rätsel des Stammauslauts .............................................. 372
H. Ekkehard Wolf & Chris!fried Naumann
SEC TI ON FIVE
COMPARATIVE SEMITO-HAMITIC
(AFRO-ASIATIC) LINGUISTICS
Etymology of Some Hamito-Semitic (Mroasiatic) Animal
Names ...................................................................................... 417
Aharon B. DolgopolsJry
The Two Negatives {n} and {m} in Egyptian and Their
Counterparts in Distantly Related Languages .................... 437
Saul Levin
-s
Some N otes on the Ethio-Semitic Particle -si and the
Egyptian js ............... ............... ......... .... ....... ....... .... .... ............. 441
Adrian Macelaru
An Outline of Comparative Egypto-Semitic Morphology 454
Aaron Rubin
Statuses and Cases of the Mroasiatic Personal Pronouns 487
Helmut Satzinger
Towards Reconstructuring a Proto-Hamito-Semitic Lateral
Sibilant (*5) .............................................................................. 499
Giga V. Stolbova
Lexica Mroasiatica III .............................................................. 510
Gribor Takrics
Indices of Personal Names ........................................................ 551
Indices of Languages .................................................................. 561
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W
WERNER VYCICHL (1909-1999)
The last great representative of the old generation of Egypto-Semitic
and Afro-Asiatic (Semito-Hamitic)I comparative linguistics is gone.
Together with W.A. Ward and C.T. Hodge, both of whom passed
away recendy (in 1996 and in 1998, respectively), he belonged to
what can be described as the "old school" of Egypto-Semitic (and
Egypto-Afro-Asiatic) studies, a rather neglected field of research,
which was "kept alive" on the behalf of Egyptology up to the 1990s
practically only by these three long surviving scholars.
The range of W. Vycichl's scholarly activities was enormously
wide, going far beyond the limits of Afro-Asiatic: Egyptian language
history, vocalisation of Old Egyptian, Coptic language and culture,
Arabic (esp. its Egyptian and Sudanese dialects), Amharic, Berberology,
Beja (Bed'awye), and Hausa (Chadic) linguistics, Armenian, and even
Finno-Ugric languages (including Hungarian).
In remembrance of W. Vycichl, already two memorial volumes
have recendy appeared in two different areas of his activities: Egyptian
philology2 and Berberology.3 The present volume is paying homage
to his memory and scholarly heritage with a collection of articles
contributing to the huge domain to which W. Vycichl devoted his
research most intensively and extensively: Afro-Asiatic languages
(excepting Berber)4 and comparative Afro-Asiatic 1inguistics.
I W. Vycichl used the traditional term "Semito-Hamitic" (kept in the title of this
volume and in certain further cases out of respect for hirn), which, however, has been
recently replaced by JH. Greenberg's scientifically more correct and commonly
accepted "Afro-Asiatic" (and I.M. Diakonoff's "Afrasian" used in the Russian works).
2 Bulletin de La Soeieti d'Egyptologie, Geneve 23 (1999).
3 Nalt-Zerrad, K. (ed.): Artieles de linguistique berbere. Memorial Wemer Vyeiehl. Paris,
2002, L'HarmaUan.
Originally, still in late 1999 and early 2000, when I put forward the idea of an
4
Afro-Asiatic Gedenksehrifi for W. Vycichl, K. NaYt-Zerrad and I were thinking of one
common volume for all Afro-Asiatic contributions, but-due to the quantity of the
incoming papers-we soon realized the need for two separate and fully independent
volumes: one purely Berberological (undertaken by K. Nalt-Zerrad) and a further
one comprising all the rest of the Afro-Asiatic language family (initiated by G. Talcics).
x G. TAKAes
Since a detailed biography and bibliography of W. Vycichl has
been most recently published,5 this remembrance will be restricted
to mentioning only the most important facts of his life.
He graduated from the famous Institut für Ägyptologie und Aftikanistik
der Universität Wien (founded by Leo Reinisch, directed later by Wilhelm
Czermak) in 1932 with a Ph.D. dissertation entitled Untersuchungen
über das Hausa-Dialekt von Kano (which was partly published in his fun
damental study on the comparison of Hausa and Egyptian).6 He
spent 5 years (1934-38) in Luxor, thanks to which he possessed an
excellent knowledge of Arabic and its Egyptian dialect. His joint
research with William H. Worrell (University of Michigan), a highly
esteemed specialist of the subject, on the survival of Coptic tradi
tions in Upper Egypt started in 1936 in Luxor, which resulted in
their joint work on the Popular Traditions qf the Coptic Language.7 The
Second World War interrupted his career for a while. In 1947, he
married Armene Vycichl (stemming from the Armenian Barsamian
family), 8 a loving wife for his entire life.9 The period between 1948
and 1960 he spent in Paris. In 1960, he moved to Geneve. His aca
demic career restarted in fact only in 1968, when he was appointed
privat-docent of the University of Fribourg (he became a prqftsseur titu
laire in 1973). He took part in the foundation of the Sociiti rEgyp
tologie Geneve in 1978 accepting the position of the vice president. He
retired from the university of Fribourg in 1980, and devoted all his
time to completing his long awaited magnum opus, Dictionnaire ety
mologique de la langue copte (Louvain, 1983, Peeters), which was fol-
5 A. Vycichl: "Werner Vycichl: eli~ments biographiques." = Nait-Zerrad, K. (ed.):
Op. cit., pp. 15-17. G. Takacs: Publications de Werner Vycichl. = Ibidem, pp. 19-4l.
A further version of the biography and the bibliography was published by Mme
Armene Vycichl in the 54/2002 issue of the journal "Discussions in Egyptology" (Oxford),
pp. 5-33. A bibliography listing th~ works published by W. Vycichl in 1933-1980
appeared in Bulletin de La Sociüe d'Egyptologie, Geneve 4 (1980), 9-18. A third biogra
phy appeared in the journal Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 91 (2001),
9-14.
6 "Hausa und Ägyptisch. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Hamitistik." = Mitteilungen
des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen an der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin 37
(1934),36-116.
7 In: Coptic Texts qf the Universiry qf Michigan Collection. Ann Arbor, 1942. The
University of Michigan. pp. 294-354.
8 The painful history of this family has been painted by Meguerditch Barsamian
in his poetic "Histoire du village qui meurt" (Paris, 1990, V. et A. Barsamian).
9 I wish to express my best thanks to Mme Armene Vycichl (Geneve) for her
vivid attention, enthusiasm, and all the information with which she helped the prepa
ration of this volume.
