How do I prepare for an Egyptology Major?

Archaeologist
Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:28:24 +0000

nefer:

I recall reading that limited reconstructions were possible based on rare phonetic transcriptions found on cuneiform tablets.
nfr sounded like /nafir/, nfr.t (the feminine form) was like /nafra/. or something like that. If a further progress has been made, it would be an interesting read. Thank you.

A handful of scholars (Stuart Smith at UCSB, Antonio Loprieno at Basel, the late John Callendar at UCLA, et al) have attempted with limited success to reconstruct pronunciation by comparing Coptic with cuneiform documents. The difficulty with this approach is that foreigners were unfamiliar with Egyptian names and often wrote them incorrectly. You can see this in the Bible, for example, where Shoshenq is rendered Shishak.