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gyptian Alphabet

for the

E§:yptian People

Second Edition,

alifbe ahl masr.

a, a, e, e, i, y, o, 6, u, ^ (alif), h(be), t(te), X(td), g (gym), g (^en), \\{hi), h (M)^ b (hd), d (ddl), d (dad), r (re), z (zen), s (syn), ^ (^yn), s {^dd), ' ('en), f (fe), q (qdf), k Ci^ii/), 1 (Idm), m (mym), n («2a;2;, w (w^i5/:J, j C/<^J.

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Florence

The Land! Press

1322-1904

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The New-Egyptian Alphabet.

fyh alifb^ inglyzyja, we alifb^ riimyja, we alifb^ ^arabyja. j^tara mu^ mumkin jekfln fyh alifb^ mas- ryja kemcln?

— ^

wdgib ^cda kull wdhid jehibb masr, in jisaid ^ala migy el jom elly fyh kull -en nds es sdkinyn '^alal nyl jimkinhum jiqru we jiktibu el lisdn elly jit kallimuh we ji/hamuk.

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el alifb^ es sahla li et ta^'lym we HI kit^ba tig^'al e§ ^a'^b nabyh; we en nabi,ha tig^al es ^a^b qawy we mabsdt.

An

Egyptian Alphabet

for the

Egyptian People

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alifbe ahl ma^r.

a, ^, e,^ t, i, y, o, 6, u, a (alif), b (be), t (te), t (td), g f^3//«j, g- (J-^^^;, h f/^^;, h (hd), \ (hd), d C^^/), d (dad), r ^r^j, z (zen), s Cjj/;2;, ^ f>>/^j, s {^dd), " {"en), f (fe), q f^^^X^, k C>^4/9, 1 (Idm), m (mym), n (nun), w (wau), j (y'^J.

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Second Editioitt;/; i /;>

Florence

The Land! Press

1322-1904

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Tadle of Contents.

PAO

The Story of the Alphabet i

I. The Alphabet 37

II. Pronunciation 39

III. Illustrative Readings 48

IV. Grammatical Accidence 57

1. Article 57

2. Pronoun 58

3. Substantive 60

4. Suffixes 63

5. Adjective 66

6. Numeral 68

7. Verb 72

V. Proverbs and Sentences 90

VL Punctuation and Other Signs . 96

341218

The Story of the Alphabet

The alphabet here represented and explained is that of the living language of Egypt. It consists of thirty-four letters, of which the first ten express pure vowel sounds — five short in their nature, and five long. No existing tongue possesses an alphabet embracing so wide a vocal range, and at the same time of so sim- ple a character; and few nationalities can boast of one which can be so rapidly acquired, or so readily applied both in writing and printing. It may be generally de- scribed as a modification of the Latin letters, devised with no little ingenuity, and adapted with no little skill to the vocabulary in use, at the present day, by the inhabitants of the Nile valley. Properly speaking, it is not to be regarded as a system of transcribing, or transliterating, the elements of any other alphabet, but rather as an independent ABC, specially elaborated, to express, in the clearest and most convenient manner, the vocal and consonantal articulations of this newest Egyptian tongue. It is to be treated as belonging to the Egyptians, just as the German alphabet belongs to the Germans, or the Greek alphabet to the Greeks, or the Persian alphabet to the Persians. It is not intend- ed to be used in writing any other form of speech,

The Egyptian Alphabet

and, in particular, it cannot be employed, without ma- terial alteration and extension, in writing the classical or Koranic Arabic — often styled the Old-Arabic — which is the parent of the modern Egyptian. Its com- ponent letters are here arranged, to some extent, mor- phologically — a method which, as a noted English writer tells us, *' is very convenient for the' learner; letters of similar form being brought into juxtaposition, it becomes easy to compare them, and to remember minute distinctions in their outlines. " ^) But the clas- sification of the letters is not a matter of grave im- portance. The Old-Arabic alphabet, as it has been, in the course of time, adopted and adapted by various Asiatic nations, differs more or less, in each country, in order and extent, from its primitive. We have grown accustomed, too, in these days of investigation, to see all alphabets arranged, by the grammarians, for their special purposes, in differing groups in accordance with varying schemes of collocation or of classification. This new alphabet — so simple yet so complete — owes its origin to that most ardent friend of the Egyp- tian people — that most zealous and most successful of all students of the Egyptian dialect,

Wilhelm Spitta,

who was born June 14, 1853, in the little Hanoverian town of Wittengen, and died at the baths of Lippspringe, in the principality of Lippe, September 6, 1 883. Within the narrow limits of an existence of three decades it has rarely happened that a single brain has wrought

:) The Alphabet by Isaac Taylor (London, 1883), I, p. 189.

The Egyptian Alphabet

so much and wrought so well. But that brain was for- tunate enough to discover its proper field of study and energy at an extraordinarily early age. While still young, Wilhelm lost his father, the lyric poet, Philipp Spitta, from whom he inherited the quick intelligence and early mental maturity which enabled him to begin his Oriental studies even during his gymnasial years. These were passed at Hildesheim, the picturesque cradle of North-German art, whence, after a brilliant exit-examination, he entered the university of Gotting- en at the Easter term of 1871 ; but ultimately, having meanwhile undergone his year of military service, he transferred his studies, for the sake of the Arabic in- struction of Heinrich Fleischer, to the university of Leipsic, at which great school he took his doctorate early in 1875. ^^ evident and so eminent were his qualifications for the post that, through the efforts and recommendations of his teacher, Fleischer, and of the Egyptologist, Georg Ebers, he was appointed, while still an undergraduate in the university, the suc- cessor of Ludwig Stern as director of the Viceregal Library which had been founded at Cairo in 1870 by the khedive Isma'yl. He assumed the duties of this office April 5, 1875 — i^^t yet twenty- two years of age. The following year he published at Leipsic his valuable tractate, ** Zur Geschichte Abu'l-hasan al Ascharis " — a paper first drawn up in order to serve as his doctor's dissertation. This was succeeded later on by various contributions to the Oriental journals of Europe; it was followed, as well, by numberless hours of ready and ungrudging help to students and others, who sought his scholarly aid, and by generous counsel and assist-

The Egyptian Alphabet

ance in all undertakings promising to be of advan- tage to Egypt, its people or its letters. But to all outward appearance his heart was, most of all, in his official work. When, on April 19, 1882, he was de- prived by the minister of education of the position he had so ably filled — a consequence of the oligarchic fanaticism which had raised the ignorant ""Araby and his fellow conspirators to power — he could write to a learned compatriot thus: — *' In truth, the existing organization of the Library, in all its departments, is my work'. I have re-arranged and catalogued, with my own hand, its European section ; of the Oriental division I have compiled a card-catalogue by authors, with shelf-lists, and have very nearly ready for the press two big volumes of a scientifically-classified cat- alogue. I have brought the collection from 1 3.000 volumes to 30.000 — of which 20.000 are Arabic, Per- sian and Turkish manuscripts. The present personnel is my creation, and I have even taught the art of cata- loguing to my successor. All this has been the labour of seven hard years. " These '* seven hard years '* were more fruitful for Egypt, as we shall hereafter see, than were the Pharaonic " seven years of great plenty. "

Those who had the good fortune, as did the writer of these pages, to see Spitta b^ engaged at his work in the important Cairene collection of books, were amazed at both the quantity and the quality of the labour he was accomplishing. He seemed to them the model librarian — a combination of the highest intelligence with the highest faculties of administra- tion and industry. Little did many of his interested

The Egyptian Alphabet

visitors dream that those long hours of diligence rep- resented the less valuable portion of the task he had assigned himself. Few, certainly, of his European associates, understood that outside of that not very wholesome edifice in the darb el gam^myz, in which were housed the precious volumes under his charge, he was building himself (during hours which should have been hours of restful leisure) a monument which can never decay. He made his home, from the be- ginning, in an Arabic household, and during much of his unofficial time came into contact only with na- tives, taking down from their mouths, with untiring assiduity, glossaries, idiomatic sayings, proverbs and popular tales. Amid these surroundings, or arrang- ing, during his summer vacations, the abundant ma- terial thus accumulated, he at length brought to a conclusion, before the earliest five of his *' seven hard years " had completely elapsed, his systematic investi- gations into the living speech of Egypt. The result was, as has been more than once remarked, " the first scientific treatment of a modern Arabic dialect; " and not often has a first treatment been so exhaustive. His ** Grammatik des arabischen Vulgardialectes von Aegypten '' was published in the latter half of 1880, and was followed by its supplementary volume, the " Contes Arabes Modernes " in 1883 — almost in his dying hours. These two works form, perhaps, the most remarkable contribution to Oriental linguistics during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and are, in every respect, models of philological research and statement. No one who has read the deeply-inter- esting preface to the '' Grammatik " can doubt the

The Egyptian Alphabet

\

warmth of the hope which he entertained that the work — as his biographer expresses it — *' might contrib- ute to the elevation of the spoken dialect into a written language, thereby bridging over that deep chasm between the idiom of the people and the idiom of literature, which is the greatest obstruction in the path of Egyptian progress. "

The striking and forcible paragraph which closes the preface has been frequently cited, but a transla- tion of it here can hardly be out of place: — ** Fi- nally, I will venture to give utterance to a hope which, during the compilation of this work, I have constantly cherished; it is a hope which concerns Egypt itself, and touches a matter which, for it and its people, is almost a question of life or death. Every one who has lived, for a considerable period, in an Ara- bic-speaking land knows how seriously all its activities are affected by the wide divergence of the written language from the spoken. Under such circumstances there can be no thought of popular culture ; for how is it possible, in the brief period of primary instruc- tion, to acquire even a half-way knowledge of so dif- ficult a tongue as the literary Arabic, when, in the secondary schools, youths undergo the torture of its study during several years without arriving at other than the most unsatisfying results? Of course the unfortunate graphic medium — the complex alphabet — is in great part to blame for all this ; yet how much easier would the matter become if the student had merely to write the tongue which he speaks, instead of being forced to write a language which is as strange to the present generation of Egyptians as the Latin

The Egyptian Alphabet

is to the people of Italy, or the Old-Greek to the inhabitants of Greece — a language which, without being the popular speech, is no longer even the clas- sical Arabic! A real literature cannot be thus devel- oped; for only the limited cultivated class knows how to use a book ; to the mass of the people a book is really a thing unknown. If he have need to write a letter, or execute a document, the ordinary man of the people must put himself blindly into the hands of a pro- fessional scribe; he must trustingly sign the most im- portant papers with a seal which he cannot read, and which may be and is easily imitated. Why can this lamentable condition of things not be changed for the better? Simply because there is a fear, if the lan- guage of the Koran be wholly given up, of incurring the charge of trespassing upon the domain of religion. But the Koranic language is now nowhere written; for wherever you find a written Arabic it is the Middle- Arabic of the offices. Even the dubious unity of the Islamitic peoples would not be disturbed by the adop- tion of the spoken vernacular, since the language of prayer and of the ritual would still remain everywhere the same. It is also asserted that the New-Arabic is wholly unfit to become the language of the pen because it obeys no fixed laws, and flows on without any syn- tactic restrictions. I venture to believe that the pres- ent publication proves that the speech of the people is not so completely incapable of discipline; that, on the contrary, it possesses an abundance of grammatical niceties; and that it is precisely the simplicity of its syntax, the plasticity of its verbal construction, which will make it a most serviceable instrument. Did the

8 The Egyptian Alphabet

Italian seem any more promising when Dante wrote his Divine Comedy? And would a commission of the most learned and most expert men of Egypt not be able to do infinitely better that which it has not ap- peared to me, a foreigner, too difficult to undertake?" The distinguished Eduard Meyer — himself a sad loss to the ranks of Germany's orientalists before he had reached his real maturity — was Spitta's most inti- mate associate in his university years and afterwards. He thus describes Spitta during his Leipsic days : — *' He had an aspect full of vigor and comeliness; the weakness which had affected him in his boyish years had com- pletely vanished ; and no one who looked at him could have divined that he was doomed to be a victim of pulmonary disease. The strong moral seriousness and lofty nobility of his nature were evident in every- thing he did or said. *' The same friend affectingly adds: — " Personally I know not how to do him other honor than to declare thus publicly that the greater part of whatever I may either intend, or accomplish, will be based upon principles which we unitedly de- veloped. " As early as the last months of 1877 his physical appearence already showed shght changes, but in the winter of 1880-81 he was still a striking and attractive personage — perhaps handsomer be- cause of the hectic flush which tinged his cheeks, and presaged the sure fate awaiting him. In society he was often modestly reticent, but when he did talk the listener soon recognized the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He was familiar with most of the languages of Europe, and with all of those of the East which have adopted the Old-Arabic alphabet,

The Egyptian Alphabet

although his Oriental studies began with the Sanscrit. In the literature of bibliography, and of bibliothecal management he was well versed. Like all his family- he was fond of music, which was almost his only diversion ; and his finely-trained ear stood him in good stead in testing and fixing the fluctuating and uncertain vowel-sounds of Egyptian speech. One may occasionally doubt the correctness of his transcription, but after hearing the word in question pronounced by a dozen different native voices the decision is generally in favor of the Spitta orthography.

Looking back upon the hours of intercourse with him, and recalling a thousand instructive incidents in- dicating his extraordinary intellectual capacity, it is im- possible not to wonder what a score of years, added to his scanty score and a half, might not have enabled him to accomplish. But whatever his additional achieve- rrients might have been it is certain that they would have largely benefited the Egypt he so loved — how deeply and truly may be judged from the concluding words (the very last he wrote) of the introduction to his " Contes Arabes Modernes: " — " Au moment o^ j'ecris ces lignes, je vais quitter T^fegypte probable- ment pour toujours, assur6ment pour longtemps. Je serais content si, par les pages suivantes, je gagnais quelques nouveaux amis a la vieille 6gypte populaire, humble et cach6e, mais forte par la chaleur int6rieure de sa vie, par rintimit6 et la naivet6 de ses senti- ments — a cette Egypte inconnue des financiers et des diplomates, qui, depuis les Pharaons jusqu'a hos jours, a surv6cu ^ toutes les civilisations."

lo The Egyptian Alphabet

Preceding Steps and Studies.

What the Germans style the '' Transcriptions- frage " — which may be loosely defined as the ques- tion of writing extra-European languages by means of a European or modified European alphabet — has producexi a considerable literature. The history of this branch of philological work cannot, of course, be por- trayed here at any length. The efforts of English schol- arship, so far as this kind of research is concerned, have been chiefly limited to the languages of India. They began with an essay by Sir William Jones — a man memorable in many ways — *' On the Ortho- graphy of Asiatic Words in Roman Letters" (1788). His observations show great insight, technical and other- wise, for he objects to the use of " double letters " to express a single vowel sound, and to the inter- mixture of " Roman and Italic letters " in the same word, which, he remarks, '' both in writing and printing would be very inconvenient. " He did not however adopt throughout the principle of " one sound, one letter; " and the little he attempted in the transcription of Arabic, evinced a marked deficiency of knowledge in regard to the phonology of that tongue. He insist- ed on giving to the European vowels their Italian values, but in the crude condition of philological stud- ies, at that time, he failed to see that the English con- sonantal system is, in many respects, as barbarous as its vowel scheme. On the whole, however, he exhibit- ed qualities which were hardly again united in the same mind until the appearance, more than two gen-

The Egyptian Alphabet 1 1

erations later, of Lepsius and Spitta. But his good endeavours were thwarted by an inferior scholar, Johii Gilchrist, who, in his grammatical and lexicographical works on the Hindustani (i 787-1796), adopted, in his transcriptions, the English alphabet pure and simple, heedless of its defects and anomalies. It is Gilchrist who is responsible for the uncouth orthography of In- dian local and personal names so long prevalent in English publications, and not yet wholly abandoned. Sometime after 1830 Sir Charles Trevelyan, a man of varied ability and familiar with many of the Indian idioms, made a serious attempt to recur to the methods of Sir William Jones, which partially succeeded ^) ; later on Max Mliller, as we shall hear, proposed a complete revision of the previous method of transliteration, but his combination of Roman and Italic letters, long be- fore justly condemned by Sir William Jones, gave evi- dence of that want of proper aptitude for this kind of labour, which has been common to many minds other- wise of high philological astuteness. Dr. Caldwell, Sir Monier Monier- Williams 2) and the Rev. George Uglow Pope, as well as a special committee of the Madras Literary Society, followed in the track of Tre- velyan, the second-named displaying great good sense,

i) Origmal Papers illustrating the History of the Application of the Roman Alphabet to the Languages of India, by Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, edited by Monier Williams (London, 1859). Interesting reviews of these pa- pers appeared in the London Athenaeum (1859, II, p. 628), in the Calcutta Review (July, 1864), ^^^ i^ the London Reader (1863, II, p. 604 and 1865, I» p. 598).

2) Bagh 0 Bahar : the Hindustani Text of Mir Amman : edited in Roman Type, with Notes, and an introductory Chapter on the Use of the Roman Char- acters in Oriental Languages, by Monier Williams (London, 1859).

1 2 The Egyptian Alphabet

but some of the others clinging to the clumsy double consonants (especially ch and sJi),

In France the acute, but not always profound Vol- ney was the first to take up with seriousness the subject of expressing Asiatic and African vocables by means of European letters ; he did this in connection with the publication of the results of the Napoleonic scientific survey of Egypt (1795), and, at a subsequent period (181 8), presented a more carefully elaborated scheme. In his earlier method he employed two characters to represent a single sound in only a single case, but his mixture of Greek and Latin letters, and some of his peculiar graphic modifications of the Latin alpha- betical signs made a writing at once unseemly and com- plicated; his final alphabet was an improvement, but his mingled Italic and Roman letters, his superlinear letters, his retention of several Greek letters, as well as some other features of his alphabet, kept his text still far from sightly. The Germans were late in the field, but, as in so many other portions of the linguistic domain, their labours were more fruitful. In his Latin transliteration of Sanscrit words Bopp (1833) led the van in forsaking the unsystematic modes of transcrip- tion, but was soon followed by Brockhaus, Benfey and the whole Sanscrit school — one of Germany's greatest glories — while, in treating in the same way the Old- Arabic alphabet, the late Karl Paul Caspari and Fleisch- er were not slow to make important innovations in the right direction.

In the meantime physiology had come to the aid of philology, and the new science of phonology was growing up. This led to a treatment of the subject on

The h^yptian Alphabet 13

a wider scale as well as by juster methods. Moreover a new stimulus from a novel source was given to these alphabetical studies. It was in 1848 that the Rev. Henry Venn, the secretary of the Church Missionary Society in London, issued his *' Rules for reducing unwritten Languages to alphabetical Writing, *' for the benefit more particularly of missionaries in various parts of Africa. In many other quarters the subject was now taken up with energy. The accomplished Christian Bunsen — then Prussian ambassador in Eng- land — enlisted several noted philologists and other scholars in the movement, summoning them to a con- ference in London. Among those participating were Trevelyan, who still supported the alphabetical ideas of Sir William Jones, and Max Miiller, ^) who devised and advocated an entirely new scheme, to which allusion has already been made, but which was soon overshadowed by that emanating from Berlin. In that city Richard Lepsius, incited by the missionary organizations, inter- ested himself in the matter, for the treatment of which his previous studies had specially fitted him, soon pro- ducing his *' Standard Alphabet "(185 5), and ultimately a second edition (1863) with modifications. ^^ Between these two issues came his treatise " Ueber die Aus-

i) Proposals for a Missionary Alphabet by Max Miiller {London, i855» with a folio volume of alphabets). As late as 1867, when his ** Outline Diction- ary " was published, Professor Max Miiller, in his transliteration of foreign alphabets, still made use of both Italic and Roman letters.

2) Standard Alphabet for reducing unwritten Languages and foreign graphic Systems to a uniform Orthography in European Letters, by C. R. Lepsius (London, 1863, but printed in Berlin). The slight historical sketch of the subject here given is greatly indebted, for its facts and dates, to this second edition of the treatise of Lepsius.

14 The Egyptian Alphabet

sprache und die Umschrift der arabischen Laute " (Ber- lin, 1861). The " Standard Alphabet " is a vast con- trivance of nearly eighty sonant expressions, notable beyond all preceding efforts for its technical exellence, and for the evidence of common sense, as well as of scholarly research, which characterizes it. Five diph- thongs are expressed by double vowels; nine letters are either derived from the Greek alphabet or are ar- bitrary signs; and the remainder are all Latin letters modified by diacritical marks. It includes a distinct representative of every possible variety of human artic- ulation. But its chief utility is in furnishing a written medium for the wholly uncultivated tribal tongues — unconnected, even remotely, with any form of written speech — and in which it seems unlikely that any great printed literature will ever exist; in that aspect it has undoubtedly been a boon to the missionary world. For other purposes it has proved less useful; and it has never been generally applied to any considerable lin- guistic group.

Spitta's Work.

With all that had thus been discussed and done by the preceding scholars — English, French and Ger- man — whose names have here been cited, and by many others to whom no reference has been made, Spitta was minutely familiar. He approached the alphabetical I / part of his task, however, with the sole idea of evolving the simplest and clearest medium of expression for a language which was, as yet, unendowed with any, and which was the daughter of a tongue possessing one too cumbersome for national use, too complex in its

The Egyptian Alphabet 15

character for the purposes of modern life. Although still an unwritten speech the vulgar dialect was des- tined, unless all our study of the history of linguistic development be misleading, to blossom out, at no re- mote date, into the flowery freshness of a new lite- rature. Spitta was, perhaps, the only available person of his day, who could look at his undertaking, as it grew into realization, from every point of view. He possessed all the imaginable qualifications for his task — not a few of which, as has already been stated, had been notably lacking in those who had hereto- fore occupied themselves with the invention or de- signing of alphabets, or with the evolution of schemes of transliteration. He was not only an able philologist and phonologist, but he perfectly understood every phase and feature — even those technical subtleties generally known only to the expert — of the arts of writing and printing. This is a most important consid- eration, for an alphabet must serve three very dissim- ilar ends — it has to be read, it has to be written and it has to be printed. A scholar may know whether the alphabet be such that, through its proper expres- sion of the proper sounds, the language can be sat- isfactorily read, but only the calligraphist can decide whether it be fit for the purposes of chirography, only the printer can judge whether it be available for the aims of typography. Want of this technical availa- bihtyhas recently resulted in the speedy condemnation of a method of transcribing Arabic, adopted, after much learned travail, by a congress of Orientalists — a meth- od which, at a glance, shows the absence of any prac- tical, artistic or mechanical expertness in the committee

/

1 6 The Egyptian Alphabet

which devised it; for it employs signs inconvenient in calligraphy and nearly impossible in typography. ^)

i) A diacritical sign frequently used in the system of transliteration for Arabic, reported by a committee to a late (1894) Congress of Orientalists at Geneva {*<Xme Congres international des Orientalistes Session de Geneve. — Rapport de la Commission de Transcription, " pp. 7 and 14-15), is made by the awkward process of a stroke backward, followed by a stroke forward — an operation which will not commend itself to the calligraphist. W^hat would the writer of English think, if instead of dotting the / he were constantly obliged to complete this double stroke? Among the letters to which this diacritical wonder must be subscript is the g (to represent the gen) — but the downward extension of the printed g already goes as far below the line as is possible without impinging upon the type below it. How do the astute devisers of this scheme propose to get the type-founders to cast, or the printers to use such an impossible type ? Unless they intend to cut off the lower end of the letter, and put the sign under the tail of the g as it were, the mark must at best be made too minute to remain long unbroken. But when the student has fairly decided to learn and to employ this congressional method of transcription he will find that, after all, he need not feel himself obliged to adhere to it, for he is told that, in many cases, in place of the transliterating letter the substi- tution of a combination of two other letters is "permissible. " For instance, in place of the g^ with the double backward and forward stroke under it, he may write for gen the combination gh; instead of j, with the same subscript double stroke, he may, at his own sweet will, write sh. Again, if it does not please him to put two dots under a t (to express td) he is allowed to put only one. But it is hardly worth while to mention the other absurdities of this scheme^ of which there are many. The evident dissatisfaction with the report of the committee felt by that high Arabic authority, the late Albert Socin, is not strange, although his expression of it seems not by any means as critically se- vere as it might well have been — a forbearance which may possibly have arisen from his personal relations to the committee. The same may be said of the strictures upon the Geneva scheme in a more recent brochure, " Die Tran- scription fremder Alphabete " (Leipzig, 1897) by Professor Ernst Kuhn and the distinguished librarian, Hans Schnorr von Carolsfeld, of Munich. This little work is intended particularly for the use of book-cataloguers, that is for cal- ligraphic purposes. Otherwise useful, it is perhaps marred by giving too little consideration to the exigencies of typography. It seems to grant the impro- priety of /= soft g^ but decides to use it; and it abandons, with reason, the " permissible " variants of the Geneva report. Both the " Rapport" and the essay by the two Munich scholars are criticized in the Giornale delta Societa Asiaiica lialiana (*' Le nuove Proposte di Trascrizione, " vol X, 1896-7) by F. Scerbo, but not from a typographical point of view.

The Egyptian Alphabet 17

The alphabet of Spitta uses a single Latin char- acter to express a simple phonetic element — an abso- lutely essential condition — such combinations as ch, gh, kh, sh finding no place in it, and indeed no literal combinations whatever being used except those repre- senting the diphthongal ai and au. This avoids every chance of obscurity, for if you use s as one sonant sign, h as another, and sh for a third sound, how are you to know when the two letters are to be pronounced indi- vidually and when together, in other terms, whether you are to read ashal as as-hal or ash-alf Considered from the outset as a genuine alphabet, and not as a mere artificial contrivance for transliterating another alphabet, it, of course, admits of no confusing alterna- tives, such, for example, as allowing ch or kh to be written at the will of the transcriber for ^. Each Latin character, too, retains its identity, its personal individ- uality, its pure Latinity, so to speak, without disfigure- ment by over-heavy or wrongly-placed appendages. The letters are modified solely by additions, not by organic charges of form; and those additions are of the simplest and slightest sort — dots and strokes — such as can be read and written with the utmost ease, and printed with the utmost facility and distinctness. These diacritical marks, as they are usually styled, are all superscript or subscript, never lateral adjuncts, disturb- ing the letter's perpendicular simplicity and obscuring its outline. In Spitta, too, there was the sense of the artist as well as the wisdom of the scholar and the cunning of the craftsman — another essential for the profession of the alphabetist, if we may coin that term. No useemly, outr6, non-homogeneous or non-accord-

1 8 The Egyptian Alphabet

ant letters (like those with which many who attempt to follow in the footsteps of Cadmus are so apt to disfigure their text) break the neat uniformity of the lines, paragraphs and pages which are written or printed with these Egyptian characters. ^)

One marked instance of Spitta's scholarly, prac- tical sagacity — unusual because both scholarly and practical in an extreme degree — is his treatment of what may possibly be styled the /-group. His em- ployment of the j — the true consonantal i — for the sound expressed by the final letter of the Old-Arabic alphabet is warranted on historical, philological and typographical grounds. It is sanctioned also by gen- eral usage, since a considerable majority of the peo- ples making use of the Latin alphabet in any form have adopted it as the representative of that phonetic element. In fact only the English, the French and Portuguese, and the Spanish give to the / another yalue, and those nationalities all differ from each other in the character of that value — the English sounding it like soft g, the French and Portuguese like zh, and

i) If any curious person desire to see a noteworthy example of alpha- betical uncouthness let him examine either of two works — one by an Austrian and the other by an English professor. The first has little to do with the newer Egyptian speech, is entitled " Die Transcription des Arabischen Alpha- betes " (Wien, i860), and is by Professor H. A. Barb. The other is "A Handbook of Modern Arabic" (London, 1866), the author of which is Pro- fessor Francis W. Newman. Both are curiosities, each in its own way. Of that class of works which attempts to reproduce Egyptian sounds by the unaided use of the English alphabet there are no end of specimens. The method they favour may be styled the dragomannic system of transcription — for many of them are compiled by ambitious Syrian or Egyptian interpreters. But what- ever be the nationality of their compilers they are almost equally entertaining to the orthographical student.

The Egyptian Alphabet 19

the Spanish like the German guttural ch, Spitta's employment of it for its legitimate purpose enabled him to avail himself of the character jv — another i- letter — for the rightful long sound of i (that is, of ie in shield). This selection proves how carefully he had studied the typographical side of alphabets. He comprehended the inevitable inconvenience, in printing, of an accented i — the accent, after slight usage, almost invariably breaking off from the thin and frail body, or becoming so worn or battered that it is no longer distinguishable from the ordinary dot of the letter. Even a tyro in the art of printing would compre- hend the utter impracticability of adopting, in an alphabet for general use, an accented i (whatever may be the form of the accent) to express any sound of very frequent recurrence. Furthermore to accent an i — so far as printing is concerned — is to deliberate- ly disfigure it by removing one of its essential features, since the dot must generally be eliminated to make place for the accent. The adoption of the / for the consonantal Arabic je, and of y for the long ^'-sound (as in fiend), are of themselves sufficient to demon- strate the study, the acumen and the broad discern- ment brought by Spitta. to the execution of his ar- duous undertaking, i)

i) One of the absurd phases of our wonted extreme Englishness — so often satirized even by ourselves — is our demand that foreigners, in our in- tercourse with them, adopt and use, for our especial comfort and convenience, English customs and forms. If we do not succeed in bringing this about we cannot too severely censure the outside world for thus failing to cut its cloth according to our measures — than which we can imagine none better. Such a national habitude is not merely national obstinacy. It is often, if we but knew it, an unwitting acknowledgment of our own ignorance or backwardness

20 The Egyptian Alphabet

Something must be said in this place of the four semi-vowels to which Spitta had recourse in reducing to writing the" spoken Egyptian, in order to express the more obscure vocal articulations. These find no place in an alphabet for permanent practical and pop- ular use. That it is hardly the province of such an alphabet to indicate the more delicate shades of

in certain fields of life or activity ; or mayhap an equally unintentional confession of slowness of comprehension beyond certain intellectual limits. An example in point is the tardiness of the whole Anglo-saxon world in accepting the met- rical system — long since naturalized even among our sister Germanic peoples. That this English trait is as striking in linguistic matters as elsewhere the pages of Notes and Queries — to cite one particular witness — abundantly and constantly testify ; and everybody will recall the case of the American diplomatist who thought that all foreign governments should pass strenuous laws forbidding their subjects to speak any language but English. A student of almost any race but our own, with the fine early training given in so many continental schools, can readily comprehend that no Latin character so fittingly represents the consonantal z-sound as does the letter y, but anybody who peruses the Eng- lish philological literature of the day will frequently have occasion to observe that even experienced English-speaking writers on linguistic science cannot wholly rid themselves, in this respect, of their intellectual insularity ; while in the case of less learned people the prejudice against the historical and true ortho- graphic use ofy arises as much from a felt lack of mental quickness, training or adaptability, as from any other sentiment. Nothing seems simpler to the average foreigner, when he is authoritatively told that / is the best represen- tative of the Arabic je than to so use it; but the average Anglo-saxon will none of it. He says, or feels : — * ' Let the ' blamed furriner ' do what he pleases with his js, I am going to stick to my ys. ". But the same obstinate Englishman, when he undertakes to learn German must of necessity acquiesce in the fact that our jv-sound is to be expressed by j. Why should he find it more difficult to utter the Egyptian /a (oh !) than the German /a (yes) — the two being pronounced virtually alike ? On the other hand, in acquiring French, he must perforce be content to know that /, in that language, is pronounced like our z in azure, for he would hardly insist that the French be obliged to write z'ai (instead of fcti) to suit his English eye and ear. In view of the differences in the orthography of the various modern tongues which must be mastered in these days of inter- national intercourse, it ought not to require either a great brain or an extraor- dinary patience, to fix in one's mind the fact that the learner must write, in the idiom of Egypt, jigy (not yigy)^ jitkallim (not yitkallim), joni (not yom),

The Egyptian Alphabet 21

sound Spitta was himself aware. He expressly states that, in transcribing, he has largely confined himself to the simple vowels, a, i, and u, instead of always endeavouring to reproduce with exactness the obscurer vowel- tpnes, "da einestheils solche feine Niiancen doch wieder nur durch conventionelle Zeichen wiederge-

^arabyja (not '^arabyya or ^arabtyd). This letter / is, in truth, one of the many confusing elements in our hybrid English alphabet. We write gem, gin and George, but also jam, jelly and James. After the same fashion we articulate the initial consonants of get and genial, of gip'^y and girdle quite differently, while the two varying orthographical forms, gaol and jail, are sounded exactly alike. The same is to be said likewise of the character y. We treat it as a consonant in you, yellow, steelyard, yonder, and as a vowel element in quay, key, stray, try, rely, while die and dye, like lie and lye, are as similar in pro- nunciation as they are diverse in orthography. It is an alphabet like this which the unlettered — and some who style themselves lettered — desire to offer to any still unwritten language in search of a literary medium ! In reviewing the literature which concerns itself more or less intimately with the current Egyptian speech it will be found that it is the product of two conflicting classes of per- sons, all of whom, as friends of Egypt, are quite willing that the Egyptians shall learn to read and write. But each class attaches to its good will its own uncompromising condition. The first group consists of those who have passed safely through the wearisome hours necessary to be spent in order to make one's self master of the Old-Arabic alphabet; they kindly wish to make the rest of the world undergo the same ordeal; and they thus insist upon applying this antiquated and incommodious alphabet to everything that can possibly be styled, in any sense, Arabic. In other words they say to the mass of the people of Egypt : — " Spend all the schooltime — all the intellectual labour — which you can afford to spend, in the doubtful endeavour to familiarize your- self with this tedious alphabet — then go plough your fields, gather your crops, support your families, and thank God all the rest of your lives that you know the Arabic alphabet when you see it ! " Then there is the second class of Egypt's benefactors, which cannot conceive of any alphabetical dress for the Egyptian speech other than that ungainly one so unfortunately and so inconveniently worn by the English language. These benevolent people declare that it is quite impossible to understand jiktib and jimsjk, unless you write them yiktib and yimsik, or to x^^A jasmyn or jemyn unless you write them yasfneen And yemeen. Between these two classes the unhappy Egyptians, who stand waiting, with / the untiring patience bred of centuries, for the blessing of a broader culture, may indeed feel that salvation lies only in getting rid of all their friends.

22 The Eo^yptian Alphabet

geben werden konnen, die das Transcriptionssystem sehr complicirt machen wurden, andererseits man bei richtiger Articulation der Consonanten von selbst sein- er Stimme die Biegung giebt, welche der Aussprache am bequemsten ist. " Another writer has perhaps expressed the same idea more forcibly by saying that *' An alphabet intended for practical purposes can nev- er aim at giving, as it were, a minute image of the varying sounds of language. Letters are meant to indicate the sounds of words, and not to photograph every shade of sound, that occurs in spoken langua- ges. '' ^) Such characters as have been referred to are naturally of utility in a dissertation markedly phonolog- ical in. its purpose. To retain them in journals and books designed merely for general reading, or ele- mentary instruction, would be like attempting to em- ploy, in writing our own language, the multitude of signs, symbols and figures made use of by Ellis in his invaluable scientific treatise on ** English Pronun- ciation ; " or like trying to print one of the principal Romance or Germanic tongues of Europe by means of the " Standard Alphabet " of Lepsius. In the same way it appears allowable, if not advisable, to abandon, in practical usage, the employment of Spitta's semi- vowels in their character of *' Zwischenvocale, '^ that is, with the object of filling the hiatus (or cessation of utterance) caused by too many sequent consonants. This hiatus, although certainly more marked in the pronunciation of the Semitic dialects, is also suffi-

i) Outline Dictionary for the Use of Missionaries ^ Explorers and Stu- dents of Language, by Max Miiller (London, 1867), p. xxiv.

The Egyptian Alphabet 23

ciently noticeable in some of the Latin languages, in which no expedient of avoiding it has ever been gen- erally adopted. In Italian, for instance, the rule which requires Ispagna (instead of Spagna), after a pre- ceding consonant, is fast falling into disuse. In such forms as *' go over " and ** wasps sting '' in English, a similar hiatus is observable. It must then be al- ways remembered, in studying the two important pro- ductions of Spitta, that they are in a great degree pioneer works. He was endeavouring to put on rec- ord, for the first time in an intelligible way, and at the same time in a final shape, the principal pho- netic pecuharities of the Cairene dialect. But he never, in doing this, lost sight of the fact that his main and greatest purpose was, as has been said, to provide a proper means of writing that dialect — that it might become an efficaceous instrument for the education of the whole Egyptian community.

The Alphabet.

It is to be noted first of all that the new Egyp- tian alphabet has one feature in common with the old alphabet of the written Arabic and with all other Oriental alpabets — it knows nothing of capital letters. In this respect, too, it fulfils the dream of the philologist — of men like the founders of modern Germanic linguistic studies, the brothers Grimm, in whose noble lexicological work capitals have been discarded. They, as many other profound students of language have done, looked forward to the day when written and printed speech everywhere shall be

24 The Egyptian Alphabet

simplified by the total abolition of the uncial alphabet. The continued use of capitals, after the exigencies of current writing had led to the adoption of the smaller or technically-styled '* lower-case " letters, is a heritage from the mediaeval scribes, who loved variety more than simplicity, ornament more than utility, elaborate decoration more than beauty unadorned. Without capitals — large or small — the cost and toil of typo- graphy would be sensibly diminished — not to speak of the economy of labour effected in teaching and learning. In this latter regard, it would be interest- ing to understand exactly the feelings of a child, when, after convincing himself, through a period of much distress, of the individuality and identity of A, B, C, D, E, he finds himself confronted by another long series of characters — a, b, c, d, e, — very dif- ferent in appearance, which he is told are positively the same thing, having the same names and powers, although he speedily finds that he has to begin to exercise all over again his not yet very robust mental faculties before he can fully complete his alphabetical knowledge. The Egyptian alphabet possessing no capitals, initial words of sentences, as well as names of persons and places, begin with the same kind of characters as all other words — as there is indeed no reason why they should not — and so there is one perplexing orthographical rule the less to learn and apply.

Compared with the Old-Arabic alphabet, the Egyp- tian ABC has 34 characters' instead of the 130 or more necessary to represent, by the former, all the consonantal and vocal elements. The so-called ** chan-

The Egyptian Alphabet 25

eery " Arabic — that bar to Egyptian progress — in its journals and other published works, is obHged to employ this huge Old-Arabic conglomeration of alpha- betical signs. Imagine a compositor in an English, French or German printing-office condemned to handle 130 distinct types (which do not even include any up- per-case characters, nor any marks of punctuation, nor any numerals) ! But the evil does not end with the printer. The reader likewise suffers; and, above all, education suffers. Nobody can fail to be .struck by the irregularity and distortion of the Arabic printing- alphabet, so far removed, in that respect, from the graceful symmetry and uprightness of the Kufic and other early forms of writing ; while the eye is wea- ried by the indistinctness of the finer lines, the mi- nuteness of the vowel-marks, and the imperspicuity of the various diacritical points and strokes — all of which are so liable to be shattered or mangled by a little usage as often to make half a dozen words, in a page or column, nearly illegible. No educational torture can be more cruel than to subject the tender eyes of children to such a typography. Many west- ern scholars, although commencing their Arabic stud- ies in adult years, can testify, by sad experience, to the injury inflicted by the Arabic calligraphy upon human eye-sight; and the typographical char- acters are even more hurtful, because much smaller and less clear. To be concise, it may be said that the Old-Arabic alphabet, especially as it is used in the press, seems designed to promote illegibility, and to limit the spread of knowledge. With its con- tinued service, as the handmaid of speech, the highest

2 6 lite E^yptimi Alphabet

stage of general, or popular, enlightenment can never be attained in the East. But sober sense, uninfluenced by the faddishness of the scholastic specialist on the one hand, and the sentimentalism of the religious big- ot on the other, will sooner or later bring about the substitution everywhere of a better medium both for the pen and the press.

In the phonetic, as in the inflexional forms of the Egyptian dialect, there are many deviations from the mother-tongue. Just as in the case of the verb, the passive voice and various modal peculiarities, as in the case of the noun, the dual, the feminine plural and the case-endings have dropped away, so in the pronunciation three sounds, once expressed by the Old-Arabic letters ci;, o and ^ ^\ have disappeared, and, of course, require no written or printed representa- tives. Three of the existing Egyptian consonantal elements (/, d and s) — and possibly a fourth {Ji) — are not unlikely to follow, at a not very remote period, since their enunciation, in som.e special words, at least, not infrequently goes over to the sounds of /, d, s and h respectively. Moreover, most of the at- tributes formerly belonging to the first letter of the Old- Arabic alphabet have ceased to be exercised; and its position, as a distinct phonetic expression, has thus been greatly weakened. It is for this reason that it seems not improper to give its place to the vowel- group, which heads the living Egyptian alphabet.

i) J^ is still heard in a limited number of Cairene words, but its place is generally supplied by zen (z). Were it necessary to represent its sound it would be done by z with, the subscript dot.

The Egyptiafi Alphabet 27

In this group the long vowels are indicated, except in the case of the long /, by the circumflex accent above the corresponding short-vowel character. If one carefully examine the reasons for the use of this diacritical sign, rather than of the customary long-accent mark (as in a, for instance), they will be found to be not altogether illogical. In writing, the circumflex accent cannot interfere, so to speak, with the preceding or the following letter. It cannot well be prolonged in either direction, but must be begun with the upward stroke and ended with the down- ward; it thus occupies only the space existing above the letter, and included in the outline, or contour, of the character to which the sign is attached. The ordinary long-accent sign, in the rapidity of calli- graphy, is easily carried too far. In printing, the circumflex has the advantage, as every printer knows, over the slender long-accent line in being less easily marred or broken ; this is owing to its shape, and to what is technically described as its greater weight of metal. So much for this feature. The long i- sound, as will be noticed, is an exception to the system followed in portraying the other long-vowel sounds ; instead of a circumflex i, the letter y is em- ployed to express this sound, and some weighty reasons have already been given for this variation in the graphic scheme of the long-vowel elements. But there is an obscurer aspect — a more imaginative view — of this instance of discontinuity in the vowel method, which is worthy of a word, even if that word must be addressed only to minds of a certain sen- sitiveness of observation. This view of the matter

28 The Egyptian Alphabet

has reference to that subtle law of orderly beauty, which makes a too symmetrical symmetry, so. to speak, repulsive; and to that other law, which proves an unbroken series of things to be less striking, and therefore less easily fixed in the memory, than an interrupted series. In all the arts the mind shrinks from a succession of unvaryingly similar objects; a list of words all ending in -tion is more difficult to acquire by heart than if, now and then, words of different terminations intervene ; and an alphabet of letters all round, or all quadrangular, in their external lines, would be neither attractive nor of facile acquire- ment. But this digression is perhaps running too near the boundary-line of fancy to be continued.

As to the consonants, the unusual, or non-Roman characters are eight in number, representing sounds not expressible by single letters of the Latin alphabet. Of these, four, t, d, h and s are the graphic repre- sentatives of sonant elements differing merely in a slight degree from those expressed by /, d, h and s respectively. This divergence could not be denoted by diacritical marks above the first three of these con- sonants because of their height, which is so great as to occupy all the space above the line ; while, in the case of the 6-, that character, with a superscript sign, has another office, that is, to designate the English sh- sound (i). The dot is the simplest form of diacriti- cal distinction, and is thus properly significant of the slightest shade of vocal dissimilarity. Placed below the Latin letters representing sounds of an analogous character, it thus completes the additional characters required. Another letter, the li, describes an articulation

The Egyptian Alphabet 29

of the voice which the principal European alphabets are able to portray only by the cumbersome device of a combination of letters — as in the German by ch. Some of the motives for the employment and position of the distinguishing subscript curved stroke are identical with those alluded to in speaking of the circumflex long-vowel mark. Its convenience, both in writing and printing, will be evident from a com- parison with the other devices,' in the various trans- literation schemes, for denoting the sound in question. The letter syn (s) represents the English ^>^-sound, or the German ^^^-sound. Being a pure sibilant it was almost inevitable, in devising a proper character for it, that its base should be the Latin s. The addition of the customary acute-accent sign was a clever choice, partly because of its ease in writing and simplicity in form, partly because it is made use of nowhere else in the Egyptian alphahet. The letter is, on this account, immediately recognizable, and simple as is its distinguishing adjunct it is plainly differentiated, being superscript, from its near relative, the sad (s). It appears to be much more appropriate, in every way, than the representatives of the same sound in the Lepsius alphabet, and in some other schemes. The two remaining alphabetical forms required no lit- tle amount of reflection. They are the gen (g) and the V« Q. The former describes a sound, which, to some ears, is nearer an r, than a gy and for it, in some of the transcriptional methods, an r, with a diacrit- ical mark, is employed. But the highest linguistic authorities are united in treating it as a guttural rather than a labial. The Latin g was, therefore, preferred

30 The Egyptian Alphabet

. J

as the base-letter. The shape of the g made the diacrit- ical mark necessarily superscript, and again the sim- plest one was chosen; again, too, the superscript is in a certain respect unique, for no other letter, rep- resentative of a non-Latin sound, bears it. There are thus three dotted letters — the /, the g and the y. The character used for the V/a-sound is really a modification of the upper half of the Old-Arabic let- ter (5). In the " Grammatik " of Spitta the German printers used for it the inverted comma, which, though similar in form, is too inconspicuous, but in the ** Contes Arabes" this was replaced by a specially made and more distinctly observable type. Dr. Spitta, as is known from his own lips, did not accept this solu- tion of the difficulty without some reluctance. The marked dissimilarity of the ^hi to any Latin sound made the choice of a graphic representative a matter of embarassment. As usual it was desired to pay heed to its typographical uniformity with its fellows, but many suggestions to effect this purpose were one after another rejected — all for important reasons. The sound is the strongest of the vocal utterances made by the almost unaided breath (faucal sounds, as they are styled), and like all these breath-letters has something of the character of a vowel. Holding thus a position half way between a consonant and a vowel, it may be looked at from the point of view of either as only half a letter, and, as such, the type employed is not wholly inapt. Glancing down the printed page the letter pro- duces something of the effect of the quotation-marks — it is however rarely doubled — ^in European typography, and is therefore neither anomalous, nor disagreeable to

The Egyptian Alphabet 31

the European eye. It is assuredly less offensive than the character used in its place in some of the translit- erating methods — a slightly conventionalized but still wholly unlatinized form of the Old-Arabic letter ^en.

Of the remaining 16 letters there is little to be said. They are each familiar to the eye — as their sounds are known to the ear — of all who are accus- tomed to use the Roman alphabet. The gdf [q) has in Egypt a double pronunciation, differing in its value in different sections, but these are only dialectic varia- tions, and do not make two separate characters at all essential. The k, with an under-written dot, sometimes used to express this element, as well as the other char- acters occasionally adopted for this purpose, does not seem to form any better representative than the q, which has, at any rate, the advantage of being purely Roman. Of the je we have spoken fully elsewhere. The Egyptian does not employ the Latin c, which, even in many of the European alphabets, is redundant; it is replaced, in the transcription of foreign proper nouns, by the syn (s) or the kdf (k). Both the />-sound and v- sound of English speech are unfamiliar to the Egyptian tongue; in writing foreign names containing these let- ters recourse must be had to the other labials, be (b) or fS (f). In the same way the foreign x is separated into its two elements, and expressed by ks.

It should, finally, be understood that the order of the alphabet, as given in these pages, is not the work of Dr. Spitta. He wrote and treated the vowels apart, as is usual in the case of the Old- Arabic vowel-signs, and he gave the remaining letters in the order of the corresponding consonants in the earlier alphabet. For

:^2 The Egypt ia?i Alphabet

his immediate purpose this was doubtless wise, but, if the alphabet be generally used, and particularly if it be used in the schools, a more rational grouping appears advisable; and there need be no hesitation in adopting such an arrangement while the alphabet is still in the initiatory stage of its existence. The order, as here printed, lays no claim to perfection, but is merely an attempt to make the alphabet a little more easy of acquisition to young learners, and a little more conve- nient to all likely to familiarize themselves with it. It is not too much, perhaps, to hope that the opponents of a simplified or reformed alphabet will refrain, on this point, from objections. For even in applying the Old-Arabic alphabet to the dialects derived from the ancient tongue, certain changes would necessarily be made, since some of its letters have become totally obsolete, and would naturally drop out. It is, in any case, the letters of the new alphabet which are of im- portance— and not the arrangement of them.

Conchision,

Careful study of its details — especially if sup- plemented by a short period of use — can hardly fail to convince the investigator that it would be difficult, to say the least, to create an alphabet better adapted to its purpose than that of Spitta; in truth — as was stated in the first paragraph of these observations — there are few if any existing forms of speech, which possess one at once so complete and so simple, so available for all the exigencies of writing and printing.

The Egyptian Alphabet 33

Its general application to the national dialect of Egypt would forthwith immensely facilitate the extension of knowledge, and inestimably lessen the task of the teach- er throughout all the Nilotic lands; and this may well be brought about without, in any measure, affecting the position of the Old-Arabic alphabet as the medium of the venerated classical literature. Nor would such a step detract from the sanctified character of that alphabet, with which the sacred Koranic scriptures are written. The Bible of the Russians is printed by means of the Cyrilhc alphabet, notably differing from that made use of in the modern Russian. Our own English Bible, in its existing version, has many verses and phrases which can hardly be pronounced to be strictly modern English. The Catholic church regards only the Latin vulgate scriptures as authoritative, but the Catholic nations all have secular literatures in their own vernacular. The Copts daily use the Old-Arabic alpha- bet, and the ** chancery " Arabic, in their correspon- dence, while speaking the Egyptian idiom, although their holy books are in the ancient Coptic, having its own alphabet. There are other instances, even in the East, of similar alphabetical and literary evolutions and revolutions; and there seems no good reason why these examples should not be followed to advantage by na- tionalities of whatever race or creed. Religion in no wise suffers thereby, while the progress of the people is immeasurably accelerated.

With such a graphic medium as the Egyptian al- phabet there is little need of waiting for the new Dante, whose advent Spitta, in the closing phrases of the pre- face to his " Grammatik, " seems to hint at. Other

34 I'he Egyptian Alphabet

efficient forces are already at hand. Hundreds of young men are now constantly receiving an excellent training in the higher schools of the Egyptian cities — schools which are yearly growing better. These sons of Egypt are both intelligent and patriotic. Let all these youth of the newer generation put their shoulders to the wheel. Let them give their influence — great, if properly applied — to the development of the popu- lar tongue, and there will soon follow the unapproacha- ble blessing of universal education, with its inevitable result of a broad literature ** for the people, of the people and by the people. '' The present government of Egypt might well lend its aid — as it is at last in a position to do — to such an effort. An American writer has characterized the marvellous financial, commercial, agricultural and moral transformation of Egypt, effect- ed in these later years, as **the most splendid Anglo- saxon achievement of the century. " Why cannot the men who have been the potent factor in bringing about this beneficent material revolution, now open the gate, as well, to the spiritual development of the people they rule so ably and so honestly ? There is but one path that passes through that gate, and that path can be traversed only by a nation educated in the language it understands. That language is already the daily speech of social intercourse, of the family, the shop and the farm. Why should it not become the medium of an education, destined not only to elevate the nation which has its home under the palms of the Nile, but perhaps to revive, under a nobler form, the ancient glory of the whole Saracenic world?

Appendices.

(mal^hiq).

I. The Alphabet.

(alifbg).

a	ah		b •	^	U)
a	a		d	ddl	(^)
e	eh		d	dad	(u^)
t	i		r	re	i, )
i y	ih y	> ( ' )	z s	zin syn	(J )
o	oh		s	^yn	{^)
6	6		s	?dd	(^)
u	uh		c	'in	(£)
ti	u \		f	fe	(-)
b	bi	( V )	q	qdf	(o)
t	a	( o )	k	kdf	(^ )
t	td	( ^ )	1	Idm	( i)
g	gym	( Z )	m	mym	( ^ )
g	gin	( t )	n	nun	(o)
h	hi	( » )	w	wau	( > )
h	H	( z )	J	ji	(c^)

The following names have been used or suggested for the vowels : nasda for a/ fpefda for e ; I}if4^ for ^/ rof^a for (?/ and ruf'a for 2^. .

a, d, e, e, i, y, o, 6, u, ti, b, t, t, g, g, h, h, f}, d, d, r, z, s, s, s, \ /, q, k, /, m, n, w, j.

t^j d>j e^ Sj f-j ^ t^ t^ ^

^ /, /^ ^, 'y, ^j ^j ^j

^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ -^^^ /^.

^<<t«tttmtttmtt^ttm»tm»t<«ni

L»llillHHmill« 11 1111 itiiitnii linn

II. Pronunciation,

(el lafz).

Vowels (hurtif bala §6t).

a like English a in at, had^ man.

Examples. — ?h, father; abadan, 7iever ; afan- dy, Mr., gentleman ; ana, // balad, village, town; talagr^f, telegram, telegraph office; dahab, gold; samak, fish ; fall^h, peasant; madrasa, school, col- lege; ma^laqa, spoon; na^l, date-palms; nadah, he has called ; nadd^ra, spectacles, eyeglasses, opera- glass ; wara, behind; wa'^ad, he has promised: jitkallimu, they speak, will speak ; jistann^k, he waits for you; wala, or.

a - like English a In ah, bar, father.

Examples. — ^la, tool; b^b, door ; ^^jif, seeing;

^^f, he has seen; la, 7io ; m^ward, rosewater ; my-

• d^n, square, public place ; mylad, Christmas ; n^r,

fire ; n^mtisyja, mosquito-net; wMih, clear, distinct,

plain; j^fa, Jaffa.

Like the other long vowels a is pronounced as if short when fol- lowed by two consonants, and in certain other well-defined positions. But for orthographical reasons the long vowels all retain their original and proper diacritical signs even when subjected to transient or local phonetic changes. In the same way, the short vowels must occasionally be enunciated as if they were long.

adeeiyoouubttgghhfpddrzss^^fqklmn w j

40 The Egyptian Alphabet

e like English e in bed, ell, send.

Examples. — el, the; esna, Esna ;\i^\,yr , much; hxjmo, first; gedyd, new; hena, here; mega- wir, student; we, and,

e like English ey in they, or ay in say, layer.

Examples. — etn^n, two; tk, what;ht^, eggs; '^b, shame; '^s, bread; f^n, where; qar^t, I have read; \t, why ; 1^1, night, evening,

1 like English i in begin, 'sip, tilL

Examples. — ibn, son; isbit^lja, hospital; is- wid, black; inglyz, English; imta, when; intSi, you; bint, girl; kilma, word; misik, he has seized, grasped,

y like English ie m fiend, ea in steal, or ee in eel.

Examples. — yd, ha?id ; imsy! go away / hyr, well; byra, beer; sittyn, sixty; 'yd, festival; m^- lyja, finance; myn, zvho ; naggaryn, carpenters; wazyr, vizir,

O like English o in not, offer, yonder.

Examples. — aho, there he is; ob^ra, opera; ogostos, August; bortuq^n, orange; hod! take!* ''osmanly, Ottoman; moqattam, Mokattam,

O like English o in note, over, so, throne.

Examples. — 6da, room; ^6m, swimming ; bord6, Bordeaux, claret ; g6z, husband; b6sta, post, post-office; r6sto, roast; k6m, hill, mound; n6ba, tim.e, once; j6m, day ; j6m^n, two days.

adeeiyoouubttgghhfpddrzsss'fqklmn wj

The Egyptian Alphabet 41

U like English u m full, pulley, put.

Examples. — ubt, sister; umm, ?nother ; um- m^l, 0/ course, then ; gurncLl, neivspaper ; tult, third; dukkan, shop; qums^n, shirts; ksLVskdn, police sta- tion; kutub, books; muslim, Moslem; muft^h, key ; wust, middle,

U like English 00 in fool, ooze, soot, stool.

Examples. — barg<it,y?^a/ btil^q, Boulak; g{i- wa, in, zvithin; h{iwa, he ; dtld, worms ; fill, beans ; malbtis, dress; kaltin, lock; niXr, light.

Consonants (hurtif laha s6t).

b like English b.

Examples. — abryl, April; divmb, rabbit; \h- tada, he has begun; hkhdi, pasha; balt6, overcoat; bijUt, houses; tibn, straw; sabab, cause; kit^b, book; matba^'a, printing-office, press,

t like English /.

Examples. — etn^^ar, twelve; itkallim, he has spoken; ban^t, girls, daughters; bintfi, Napoleon, twenty franc piece ; taufyq, Teivfik ; tal^t, three ; talafdn, telepho?ie ; t6r, ox, bull; h^gat, things; kitten, linen,

t like English /, but with a rounding of the lips (as in forming the letter 0), and with slightly greater stress.

Examples. — ittala", he has studied; tanta, Tanta; t^r, birds; tyn, clay, soil; ^'ats^n, thirsty;

adeeiyoouubttgghhfpddrzs^s^fqklmn wj

42 The Egyptian Alphabet

quttsiy. cat/ lahbata, confusio7i ; jitla", he ascends, he comes out.

g like English g in bag, dagger, give, go.

Examples — agrtimyja, grammar ; tagir, mer- chant; gamal, camel; gamb, side, beside ; hagar, stone; faggal, radish-seller ; figl, radish.

g" like a strongly-aspirated, guttural r.

Examples. — aga, aga; bagl, m-ule ; gada, break/east, lunch; gasal, he has zvashed ; sugl, business, work; luga, language ; magrib, evening; jigsil, he washes.

n like English h in have, hear, behind.

Examples. — all^h, God; azhar, Azhar mosque; giha, direction; hyja, she; hum, they ; z3hv,/lozv- ers; muhandis, engineer; jahiid, Jeivs.

n like English h in horde, but slightly more aspi- rated.

Examples. — ahmar, red; tiftah, you open; habl, rope ; h^t, ivall; ihna, ive ; humar, donkey ; s^hiby, my friend ; mahall, place, spot.

Jl like German ch in ach, doch, Sache, or Scotch ch in loch'.

Examples. — tabb^h, cook; habar, news, in- formation; hamsa, five; duhhan, tobacco; h^jif, afraid; kutubhana, library; mahzan, magazine, warehouse.

adeeiyoouubttgghh^ddrzsss^fqklmnwj

The Egyptian Alphabet 43

d like English d.

Examples. — edfH, Edfu; tMrus, Theodore; gidd, grandfather ; ddl, these; duriis, lessons; mMna, minaret,

d like English d uttered with a rounding of the lips and slightly greater stress.

Examples. — adrab, / strike; ard, earth; di- lim, dark; duhr, 7ioon ; ""adm, bones ; o^^y^ judge; nad^fa, cleanliness,

r like English r, but slightly more rolling.

Examples. — arba^a, four ; berins, prince ; r%- gil, man; rtih! go! qir^, piastre; kafr, village; marrat^n, tzvice.

Z like English z.

Examples. — gezyra, island ; r\izz, rice ; zamb, mistake; z^j, as, how ; z^t, oil; mazb(it, firm, secure,

S like English ^ in sad, side, mouse.

Examples. — asmar, brown ; iswid, black ; bass, 07ily, enough; r^s, head, cape; saijid, gen- tleman ; s^'^a, hour, clock, tvatch ; sillim, stairs, ladder,

S like English sh in fishing, shall, mesh.

Examples. — b^^^b? wood, timber ; Ija^^, he has stepped in, entered; ^aij^l, porter, bearer ; ^t, thing; ^uwaija, some, a little ; ^tk, bread ; mi^mii^, apricot; mu^, not; wi^^, face, visage,

adeeiyoouub t tg g hh^dci^^s^s ^ f q k Im n w j

44 The Egyptian Alphabet

S like English s, but with a rounding of the lips and somewhat greater stress.

Examples. — 2,^i?iV^ yellow ; bass, he has looked at, gazed at ; rabys, cheap; saldi, prayer / sugaijar, small, little ; s6t, voice ; masr, Cairo, Egypt; wasfa, description; wus01, arrival,

C an explosive articulation, made by compressing the air-passages deep down in the throat.

Examples. — it^allim, he has learned; gy'^^n, he is hungry ; za'^^aq, he has cried out; ^'azym, glorious, splendid ; ^aly, high, Ali; ^tn, eye, spring; neby^ we will sell; ji^mil, he makes, he does.

f like English / in after, find.

Examples. — afryqa, Africa; alifb^, alphabet, ABC; i%r, mouse; febr^jir, February; fihimt, / have understood; kaff, palm of the hand; nafar, person, private soldier; nafs, soul, self.

q is in Cairo a catching (or quick, forced expul- sion) of the breath: in other parts of Egypt like the English g in gourd, but somewhat deeper and stronger.

Examples. — baqar, cows ; daqq, he has struck, knocked; siiq, market; qauw^s, cavass, consular messenger ; qunsul, consul; maqa^^a, broom.

k like English k.

Examples. — ^}&\.,food; hanak, mouth; sikkyn, knife; katMyk, Catholic; kalb, dog ; k^n, was; kull, all, the whole ; l^kin, but; makk^r, sly, sharp,

adeeiyoouubtt gg hhfpddrzsss^fqk I m n wj

The Egyptian Alphabet 45

1 like English L

Examples. — atkallim, I speak ; alm^nja, Ger- many ; tall, hill; lau, if; laban, milk; l^l^t, nights; luqsor, Luxor ; jiilja, July,

m like English m.

Examples. — a'^ma, blind ; emb^reh, yesterday ; badd^m, servant; sama, heaven^ sky ; lamma, when, after, so that; makst^r, broken; min, from ; myl, mile; minja, Minieh; n6m, sleep; j6m^ty, daily,

n like English n.

Examples. — enhu, which; t^ny, other, second, again; nabolit^ny, Neapolitan; n^r, fire; n^s, people ; fing^n, cup; jasmyn, jasmine,

W like English w.

Examples. — uwad, rooms ; tawyl, long ; sawa, together; maswaqa, whip; wabiir, steam-engine, steamboat, locomotive, train; wabry, late; Wclhid, one; widn, ear ; jig^wibu, they answer,

J like English y in yet, yesterday, youth.

Examples. — itilja, Italy; yj^m, days; ta- manja, eight; hyja masryja, she is a Cairene ; ""as^ja, stick, ca7ie ; lyja, to me; jasyr, prisoner, captive ; j^kul, he eats; jegyb, he brings ; jeqM, he says; jigu, they come ; yitkallim, he speaks; mi

adeeiyoouubttgghi^hddrzs^s ^ f q k I mn wj

46 The E^ptia7i Alphabet

jidrab^, he does not strike; ja salam! good gra- cious! jekuhhu, they cough; jimla, he will fill; jiisif, Joseph,

Diphthongs (ai we aii)

ai like English i in irate, life, right, or ei in height.

Examples. — aiwa, yes ; istaraijah, he has rest- ed; baijad, he has whitened, whitewashed ; tult^i, two thirds ; haiw^n, animal; saijib, he has let go, let loose ; ^aij^n, ill, sick; kuwaijis, pretty, nice, good; mitbaijin, shozmng, appearing ; jedaija^ he will lose,

Ai is somtimes interchangeable with the long vowel e^ as in saija^ or ^eja^, " to send, " and saijdl or iejdl, " porter, " ezzaijak or ez- zejak, how are you?

au like English ou in out, sound, or ow in now.

Examples. — auraq, /^/^r.y, documents; auwil, first; bauwab, doorkeeper, hall-porter ; rauwah, he has gone away, gone home; ^auwaq, he ivas delayed ; fauwil, dealer iii beans ; mauwit, he has killed; medauwar, round, circular ; mestaufy, com- plete; waraq meqauwa, paste-board ; nauw^r, blos- soms.

The Egyptian word for water varies greatly in its phonetic expres- sion — maija, moija, mdja. The second of these forms seems to be an almost unique example of a third diphthongal combination, namely, oi ; but the most recent grammatical . work (Willmore, p. 5) cites besides moija, alzo istugummoija (a game resembling hide-and-seek) , and '^oijdq (for '^yj'dq, the plural of '^djiq, meaning "fop," "larkspur").

adeeiyo6uubttgghhl}ddrzsss^fqklmn w j

The Egyptian Alphabet 47

To the English Learner.

Those who are familiar only with the English alphabet have merely to bear in mind that

j is always pronounced like En- glish y in the words yes, your, yield, yeoman, steelyard,

as, for example, in the Egyptian vocables: — agr{i- myja, (grammar), italja (Italy), gam^'yja (society, as- sembly), lyja (to me), myja (hundred), jallah! (go ahead!), jerfih (he goes, he will go), jemynak (your right), jigy (he comes), ji^rab (he drinks, he zvill drmk), j6m (day), jtisif (Joseph), jfinja (June),

Likewise it must be remembered that

y is always pronounced like ie in the English wield, or ee in steel, or e in me,

as, for example, in the Egyptian words: — yd (hand), battalyn (bad ones), byr (well), tyn (Jigs), taijibyn (good ones), tawyl (long), kebyr (great, big), ketyr (much, very), myl (mile), mylMyja (Anno Domini), myn (who), nyl (Nile), jestifny (he sees me),

adeeiyoouubt t gg hhfpddrzsis^fqklmnwj

48 The Egyptian Alphabet

III. Illustrative Readings,

(tamryn^t).

Phrases and Sentences (gumal).

ana we inta, / and you, q{il ly ! tell me I bi k^m er ratlPy^r how much a pound? kull j6m we j6m, every other day, myn di? who is that? imsy min hena, j^ walad! go away from here^ boy I g^rak myn? who is your neighbour? rah fy b^toh, he went into his house. \t 1^? ii)hy not? kalb el b^ kebyr qawy, the bey s dog is very big. myn min es syn? who is from China? aiwa, j^ sydy! yes, sir I el haqq wRijsk, you are right, manys gany, I a7n not rich, m^ lohs sugl ^andy, he has nothing to do with me, hyja z^tha gat, she herself came, di ""^b, that is a shame, lak al^ja, / am indebted to you. fyh t g6r kida? what else is there? f^t 'al^ja fil b^t, he called at my house. fyh full^s? is there any mofiey? la, m^ fyhs, no, there is fione. gara ^? what has hap- pened? ma garas Mga, nothing has happened, stlf el banat d61? look at those girls! ana mus f^him, ""auz tl I don^t understa7id, what do you want ? inta kunt ^and myn embareh bil lei? at whose house were you yesterday evening? el ^ilm jegyb el hilm, learning brings patience, el qabt^n sakin fy masr, the captain resides at Cairo. etn^n etn^n, tivo and two. hum k^nu hi hammam j6m el gum'^a, they were at the bath on Friday, kclm n6ba ruht fil ihr^m? how many times

The Egyptian Alphabet 49

did you go to the Pyramids? marrat^n, we inta? twice, and you ?

sab^h el \tv ! good morning / nah^rak sa^yd ? good day / mesa el Y^tr ! good evening ! l^ltak sa^yda ! good night! ezzaijak? how do you do? k^f k^fak ! how are you f taijibyn? are you well? taijibyn, el hamdu lill^h, very well, thank God! marhaba! wel- come! ahlan we sahlan ! you are welcome! itfaddal, tefaddal ! please ! be so good ! please come in! help your- self! take a seat! ma'' es SdAkvcidi, good bye ! auha^- tina, j^ b^-w^ga ! we are glad to see you, sir! istanna ^uwaija! stop a little! sallim ly ''ala ummak ! my regards to your mother !

MMha f6n? where are her children? m^ afham^ turky, / do not understand Turkish. ruhna netull ""al^hum, we went to call upon them, diryt bil babar ? did you hear the news? elly fat f^t, let bygones be by- gones, mcLJiVaf^ rasoh min rigl^h, he does not know his head from his foot, hyja ahsan minnoh bi ketyr, she is better than he by a good deal, da bet^^ha, that's hers, bij^kul lahma h^f, he eats meat and nothing ivith it, ballyk jemynak! keep to your right! suft el jasmyn- at fil gen^na betcl^etna? have you seen the jasmines in our garden? baqa teljus^ en nas^ra .el kenysa, now the Christians enter the church, ihna kunna fil mahatta es sa^'a talata we nuss, we were at the station at half past three, el b^g^ el alm^ny biji'^mil t dil- waqt? what is the German school-teacher doing nozv? m^ neq<ils h^ga, we say nothing, jertihu imta? when are they going? hiiwa m^ jibdimny^, he does not serve me, matltiboh kam qirs? how many piastres does he demand? tivciA e fy masr? ivhat are you doing at

50 The Egyptian Alphabet

Cairo? elly ^at^an ji^rab, he who is thirsty will drink, ma tidrabh^^ ! do not strike her I et talj^nyja jifhamu el lis^n el esbanj61y, lakin m^ jiqruhs, the Italians understand the Spanish language, but they do not read it, b6stet el hind m^ gats lissa. — el kahrabayja hyja hibr et talagrafgy, we 'iddet et talagraf hyja qalamoh. — ism bed^wy masr 'abbas basa et tany.- — mehammad taufyq el hed^wy es s^biq k^n jehibb masr we jehibb b^fha; we wafatoh si'bet 'alal masryjyn kulluhum. — el bahr el abjad we el bahr el azraq jingim'u sawa ""and el harttim fy wust afryqa, we min henak jibtidy bahr en nyl. — el agriimyja 'ilm el luga, we hyja maqsHma qismen: i. 'ilm el kilm^t, we 2. ""ilm eg gumal. kull masry l^zim jit'allim el agrtimyja ^a^^n innaha ti'allimoh jitkallim we jiqra we jiktib el lis^n elly rabbuna iddah loh, we elly jisma'oh kull j6m. — masr maqsfima li qismen, bahary we qibly ; fy kull qism saba*" mudyryjclt. mudyryjat bahry hyja: qaljtlbyja, daqahlyja, garbyja, sarqyja, beh^ra, menli- fyja; we mudyryjat qibly hyja: eg gyza, banysu^f, el faij<im, minja, asjtit, girga, qena we mudyryjet asw^n. — h^let el mcllyja el masryja fy yj^m 'abb^s basa et t^ny g6r haletha fy yjam isma'yl b^^a. — bilM eg gez^ir fil waqt el hMir tab'a li feransa ; we hyja waq'a b^n maraki^ we tfinis. — el faqyr di jasyr ""and el amyr el kebyr ketyr. — sallim ""alal me^'allim qabl m^ titkallim ! — el qamar jedtir hawal^n el ard kull tal^tyn j6m marra. — ed dunja kullaha tiVaf ally jiVafuh tal^t a^h^s. — eg g^mi*" el azhar akbar ma- drasa isl^myja fy ed dunja, we el h6g^t fyh astar h6g^t el lis^ri el ""araby el qadym, we min alam en nets fy ""uhim el qor^n. ma fyhs mahall jimkin el insin

The Ecryptian Alphabet 51

jit^'allim fyh el ^'ulUrn el ^arabyja z^j el g%m\ da. el meg^wiryn elly fyh gu min bilad ketyra, min maraki^ li hadd el hind, el g^mr el azhar kebyr we kuwaijis qawy, we en nas tinbisit ketyr min et tafarrug ""al^h, we mus^hdet el ""ulama el ""uz^m we et talamza elly fyh. — dant^ k^n ^^'ir talj^ny mash(ir; '^^ min 600 Sana, ashar a^'aroh ismoh ek kom^dja el muqaddasa. h<iwa inwalad fy felorensa, we mat manfy fy rafenna, ja^'ny ba^yd ''an watanoh. — ism el felastlf elly ibtara*" en naddara elly je^iifu biha en nug(im kcln galyl^o ; htiwa mat sanet 1642 mylMyja, we indafan fy fel6- rensa. — auwil kit^b taba'^uh k^n fy germ^nja min rub^emyja we b^msyn sana. min qablaha k^net el kutub kullaha makttiba bil Ijatt. — el g^mi'' loh madna wala madnet^n, we lyw^n, we mambar, we dikka, we mihr^b jedill ^alal qibla ja^ny gihet mekka el mu- karrama; we fil h6^ hanafyja we m^da; we fyh ga- wi-mi*" fyha madrasa. aqdam g^mi" fy masr htiwa gctmi*" ^amr, we g^mi" ahmed ibn tuhin.

el masryjyn kanu fil auwil jitkallimu we jiktibu el lis^n el masry el qadym; baM^n s^ru jitkallimu bil qibty; we baM^n s^ru jiqru we jiktibu el ''araby. dilwaqt humma jitkallimu we jiktibu el masry el ge- dyd. bil taryqa di el masryjyn gaijaru lugethum marr^t ketyr. — el luga el qibtyja k^nu jista'miluha fy masr fil kit^ba we el kal^m qabl dubtll el islam ; fy kutubb^nat bilM el ifrang kutub ketyra maktUba bil lis^n el qibty. ahsan agrtlmyja qibty katabha el mu'allim stern bil alm^ny. el luga el qibtyja m^ jitkallimus biha dilwaqt. — el fall^h el masry mu^ mit'allim. 16? 'a^^n innoh jiltizim jit'allim alifb^ sa'ba qawy, we lamma jit'allim el alif b^ di jil^qyha m§, tin-

5 2 The Egyptian Alphabet

fa'us fil 'araby elly bijitkallimoh. htiwa 'auz jifallim el lis^n elly jitkallimuh en nah^r da, mus el lis^n elly itkallimuh min muddet bumsemyt sana. — el alifb^ ma'mtlla min gins^n min el hurfif: hurtlf laha s6t ja'ny n^tqa; we hurHf bala s6t ja'ny sakta. el huriif en s^kta gins^n: qusaijara (a, e, i, o, u) we tawyla (d, e, y, 6, u), baqy hurtif alifb^, min harf el b^ lil ^bir» hyja hurtlf natqa (b li hadd j).

saqgdra, elly kdn ismaha zamd7i menf, kdnet auivil tafpt li bildd masr ; baden luqsor, elly kdnu el jundn jisammuha t^bes, baqet tafpt masr ; we bad luqsor baqet iskandaryja et ta^t, el "agam da^alu masr min aktar m.in alfen sana we hakaTnuha muddet myten sana taqryban, fy yjdm er rumdn (et taljdnyjyn el quddm) we eljuTidn, iskandaryja kdnet hyja talpt masr, iskandar el kebyr, malik er rum, bana medynet iskandaryja we indafan fyha. — fy sanet tamantdsar min el higra da- l}al ^amr, ganardl el f}alyfa ^omar, bildd masr, voe kdnet voaqtaha tab" a li mamlaket er rum ; we al].ad iskandaryja fy sanet tvdhidwe "esryn min el higra, "omar kdn el f^aly/a fy dimisq es sdm, huwa bana masr el qdhira, taht el huku- ma li bildd masr. masr sdret guz min mamlaket et iurk fy sanet g22 lil higra. — akbar feldsifet el "arab ibn syna, el ma'^ruf ""and el ifraigg bi ism avisenna, we ib^i rusd, el maruf "ayiduhum bi ism averrhoes. ibn sy?ia inwa- lad fy bufpdra sanet j§8 higryja, we ibn rusd inwalad fy bildd esbdnja sanet ^20 higryja. — el mdqryzy mat sa7iet 81 g higryja; huwa katab gografyjet masr elly intabd'et fy matbaet buldq; we ab el mahdsin katab tdrylp masr min yjdm el fpalyfa "omar li hadd mot el meallif sanet 84J higryja, we ibn ^aldun kdn min a lam el masryjyn, ive katab tar yip taivyl li masr, —

The Egyptian Alphabet 53

el kitdb elly kataboh batlymoSy el /eldsuf er rumy, ^ala en nugum targimoh bil ^araby el fergdny, — el gabr "^ilm hisdb a la, jista'^milu fyh el huruf biddl el a' dad.

aqwdl hikmyja,

el yd el batt^la nigsa.

iftakarna el qutt gana jenutt.

el hasHd \% jesM.

m^ ba'd es sabr ilia el qabr.

el hurtib nuss e^ ^aga'a.

Ms min fummak jetiil kumma]<.

161cl el kastira m^ k^net el fabiira.

el aVar b^n el ""imy sultan.

ma fyh^ warda bala s6k, la hal§,wa bala n^r.

g^jib ly hakym ga^ym 1^ ji'raf et tyn min el ^'agyn.

basal bi b^msa we bi bamsa basal.

myn talab el ""ula sihir el lej^ly.

el j6m elly jeflit ahsan min elly jigy.

in k^n lak 'and el kalb haga, qM loh : "j^ sydy! "

j6m ^'asal we j6m basal.

elly m^ je^uf^ min el gurbsll a'^ma.

el g^ry jfisal qabl el m^^y.

kal^m d Id madhtin bi zibda; jitla' ^'al^h en nah^r,

jesyh. m^ fyh^ fulUs, m^ fyh^ '^^. m^ fyh^ mehabba b^n eg g6za we durretha. en nad^fa min el ym^n. itgadda itmadda, it'as^a itmas^a. zi^q min g^r f^ida. tekiin fy hanakak tiqsam li g^rak.

54 The Egyptian Alphabet

in ^uft en nugiim ed duhr.

utltib eg g^r qabl ed d^r, we el rafyq qabl et taryq.

myn taanna n^l m^ jitmanna.

elly fy ydak aqrab min elly fy g^bak.

**e^ biddak, j^ a'ma?" ** quffet 'ujan. ''

el qird ""and ummoh gazal.

qabl m^ timsy ^^i r^jih tehott riglak f^n.

elly ^ala r^soh batha jihassis 'al^ha. .

en n^r wala el 'ar.

in till' el '^b min ahl el '^b m^ hus '^b.

th g^b tl^b fy melyg?

A Story (hikaja).

k^n r^gil ruziq bi walad we firih boh. k^n bid- doh jittery loh mahd. r^h li w^hid naggar we idda loh masalan rijal we q^l loh: *' i^'mil ly mahd:" q^l loh en nagger : " taijib ! nah^r el gum^'a ta^'^la we bod el mahd ! '' ja'^ny baM tamant yjam, k^n el liamys. nah^r el gum^a er ragil r^h loh, we qi-lloh; '*h^t el mahd ! " q^l loh en naggi^r : ** lissa mus balas. " we itahbar en nagger lamma misy el walad, we kibir, we itgauwiz we istaulid walad. qcll li abfih : " ""auz mahd li ibny. " q^l loh abtlh: " rfih 'and en nagger el ful^ny, ana wass^toh bi mahd jibqa dilwaqt 'e^ryn Sana; bodoh minnoh ! " rah /and en nagger, q^l loh : " hat el mahd elly wassak boh abtija we idda lak rij^l ! " qal loh en nagger : '' bod er rijal, m^ ahibbi^ asta'gil e^ sugl ! "

The Egyptia7i Alphabet 55

. Verse (si°r).

ana el wabtir iswid gatys we mu^tarctja alf^n kys; d61 jibdimuny afandyja mitrahifyn n^zilyja kull w^hid bi mahyja bil^f el d^ira we el dyw^n.

huiva. — "j^ munjet el qalb, qtll ly we t^ baqa jigra? ^di talatyn sana b^-dd^m bala ugra; we cldi talatyn sana we ana warak sauw^h; we idi talatyn sana baddy lukum mad^s ; we Mi talatyn sana we basma*" kal^m en n^s ; we Mi talatyn sana we el b^b qusad el bib; myja we taminyn sana ma hadd radd gawab. '*

hyja. — ''in g^t min el bib isha el bauwib jidrabak ! we in g^t min el h^t ti^a es silla wag'^a bak! we in tirt fil gau ^aija^t el 'uqab gibak ; we in g^t min el bahr et timsih aula bak. ''

huwa. — '' in g^t min el bib ball^toh sab'at ilwih, we in g^t min el h^t ball^toh sadih we madah, we in tirt fil gau aksar HI ''uqib eg ginih, we elly b^laqny jinaggyny min et timsih. *'

56 The Eo^yptian Alphabet

hasan li fdtma.

I.

agy lik min b^ty r^kib hus^n min nar ; we asbaq er ryh min kutr ^6qy. ''a^^n inny ahibbik inty bass mahabba md ternuts ilia lamma es ^ams tibrad, we en nugum t'lattim, zve yjdni ed dunja tii/^las.

2.

bussy min sibbakik, we hMy hubby we ^az^by ! ana raqid ^alal ard maijit ^asan innik m^ bitis^lys ""al^ja. ja r6t ryh el 161 jiwassal lik hararet hubby, we jimaijil qalbik 'as^n tisma'y hilf^ny bi inny ahibbik hubb md jemuts ilia lamma e§ sams tibrad^ we en nugum. t'lattim, we yjdm ed dunja tif^las.

rigl^ja tigry kull lela min kutr el har^ra elly fy qalby li "and sibbakik, ''a^^n asma"" el kilma elly tifarrahny. ^ iftahy bab qalbik, we b^b odtik, we ana aqtil lik ""an el hubb elly "andy liky elly 7nd jemuts ilia lamma es sams tibrad, zve en nugum tiattim, zve yjdm ed dunja ti^las.

The Egyptian Alphabet 57

IV. Grammatical Accidence.

(agrumyja — tagyjirdt el kilmdt)

el, et, et, eg, ed, edy er^ ez, es, e^, e^, ek. bil, "^alal, jfil, HI,

el arnab, el aranib. el etn^n. el imtih^n, el imtihan^t. el yd, el yd^n. el 6da, el uwad. el uht. el titad. el b^b. et tob. et tarbl^^, et tar^bys. eg gamal. el gammal. el hedyja. el hum^r. el b^rta, el b^rt^t. ed dyb. ed dufda^ ed dafMr. er rasfll. ez zirr. es sabat, es sabat^t. es ^amsyja. es sandtlq, es sanMyq. el ^igl. el farr^s. el qamara. ek k6m. el kiti,b. el madfa";. el nafar, el anf^r. el walad, el walad^n. el jetym. el ab we el umm. el me'^allim we et talimyz. j6m et talat. es sa'a bamsa. ""and eg gazz^r. er ruzz we es sukkar. wara el kenysa. ^ala ek kursy. ibn et t^gir. el gum^'a. eg garas. wust el birka. tarkybet we hagar el "iXd. mudyryjet el faijUm. e^ ^ams tM^'a. dyw^n el auqslf. masr el 'atyqa. el b^t^n ek kub^r. e^ ^al el ka^myr. bad ez zibda. el b^d el masltlq. gild el barHf. el gabal el ahmar. el 'asakir betH^ ez zabtyja. el mara eg gamyla. el badd^myn et ta'b^nyn. el qir^ et ta'ryfa. min el quds li es su^s. es sana el higryja. es sana el mylMyja. sab^h el b^r !

58

The Egyptian Alphabet

fil ard. fil rukn da. HI g^mi^ ^alal gen^na. lahm bil bat^tes. tiru fil markib el kebyra. ''alal hamz^wy. bil mil^zim we bil jtlzb^^a. HI akl. rah lil balad. artih ""alal b6t. fil dahabyia el ameryka- nyja. bil kullyja. hHwa fil medyna dilwaqt. katab bil qalam er rus^s. qa^ad ""alal qahwa kuU el j6m. amar loh bil mirwah. gaw^bcltak fil b6sta. jistiku lil hakim, fil aijam es sa'yda elly kan fyha hartln er rasyd.

	2.
ana	many^	da	enhu
inta	manias	di	enhuwa
inty	manty^	dot	any
Jiuwa	mahus	dola	enhy
hyja	mahys		enhyja
	mahyjds	dukha
		dikha	enhum
ihna	mahnds	dukhauwa
intu	mantus	dikhaija
hum	mahums
hum^na	mahummds	dukhamma

ady. adyny,adinta^ adinty,ako,ake, ahyja; adikna, adintu, ahom, adyk, adyky, adyk, ady ha; adyna, ady- ku7n, adyhum, myn, e, is, aij, md, elly, min. na/s, zdt, '^en. ba^'d.

ana we inta. ana Mdir. hyja hena. riX\\ inta! ihna binitkalHm. intu gy'anyn? hiiwa '^Hm kebyr. hyja ^aijana. ihna muslimyn, hum nasira. inty ti'mily ^? inty zi'ilty? ana ma suftis di abadan.

The Egyptian Alphabet 59

iskutu intu! hyja q^let. q^l hiiwa. ana ""auz ar{ih es saraja. htiwa mes^fir fy tirubbi,. hum inhazamu. r^hu humma we ashabhum. abadet el ^M hyja. baM^n tili''t ana. daljalu humma el etn^n.

many^ f^kir. manys gany. mantys ''agtiza. mahlii^ lissa mil^zim. mahy^ mit'^a^^yja el l^la di. mahyj^^ ^^jifa hadd. mahna^ ^^rifyn maqslidoh. mahumm^^ arwi,m, humma sawam.

er r^gil da. el mir^ja di. el g^m^ dukhauwa. en nah^r da. el h^g^t d61. el kutub dola betd*" myn? el bijtit dukhamma. el hudUm bettl^ak d61. di t di ^, ja sydy? imsik el kubbaja di ! e^ ^abb da qa'^ad mudda fil azhar. da bet^^y we dikha be- t^^'ak. d61 mu^ kutaba. da m^ jisahhi§. mustal}- dimyn el dyw^n d61. es sagara dikhaija.

ady fiqy taijib. ady husany. ady t^ladak. Ijod ady qir^^n. adinty g^ty. el b^t beta'y aho. es seggMa beti,'et el baw^ga ahe. aho es sirdar, adyk aho ^uftoh. adyku siribtu el qez^za kullaha. hum hena ahom. adyha r^het b^tha. adyna inbasatna. adyny katabt li abilk.

» htiwa myn? akallim myn? myn g^boh hena? myn balla^ak? inta futt ed dukkan li myn? ""ala myn ed d6r? myn el malik 'ala bilM el falamank? ^'auz ^? absar ^? "auz minny ^? ''ala ^^n t darabak el me^'allim? ti'mil ^ fy masr? tk 'andak? ^s qal lak? li aij nahja? aij dukkan dukkctnak? el haryqa fy aij ^^ri^? inta min aij balad? m^ loh? we ana m§, ly we m^ loh ? m^ lil mara di ?^ ana m^ ly!

elly 'at^^n ji^rab. elly batnoh wig'ah m^ j^kul^. htiwa elly ^'amal kida r^gil battel, hyja elly qa'ida

6o The Egyptian Alphabet

biti^hat fy es sikka maskyna faqyra. hum elly gum hena aglabhum nass^hyn. warryny elly hatt^toh fy g^bak da ^ ? body ek kys da we elly fyh. elly min qismetak, meharram ^ala g^rak. el markib elly fyha rays^n tigraq. el b^sa elly m^t fy el b^rttim ismoh gord6n. ]% myn jehibbiny jigy 'andy. .,

''auz a^^wir nafsy. el mufattis g^y lak bi nafsoh. humma qMu fy nafsuhum. htlwa bi^iif nafsoh taijib. ""^nak ma liha. el balad z^tha m^ birbits. el wabiir zitoh elly s^fir boh. biddy et tarab^za "^nha. el kutaba d61 jimdahu rdhhum.

qalu li ba'duhum. sallimu ''ala ba'duhum. bijid- haku waja baMuhum. . itbaniqu waja ba'd. r^hu jidrabu ba'd. istak^na min ba'd. htiwa elly 'irif.

inta min enhy balad? el qumels da min enhu gins? enhyja kutuby? enhum tlladak?

batty f}, batty fpa; baqar, baqara; bed, beda ; tibuy tibna ; tab I, tab la ; Ipabt, fpabta; Ipass, fpassa; zahr, zahra; ^adm, ^adfna; ^ankabut, ^ankabuta; qauwun, qauwuna ; kabryt, kabryta; na?nl, namla.

humdr, humdra; fpadddm, Ipadddma; f^anzyr,^an- zyra; sultan, sultana ; ^a?nm,^amma; malik, malika; me^allimj me'^allima; ivizz, wizza, sahib, sdhiba; ^dlim, ^dlma. ab, umm ; a^, ulpt; gamal, ndqa ; husdn, far as ; fparuf, na'ga; dyk, farfj^a; rdgil, mara; walad, bint.

alf, alfeii; yd, yden; qirs, qirsen; kitdb, ki- tdben ; jom, jomen, batt, batteten ; sa^a, sa^aten;

The Egyptian Alphabet 6i

kilma, kilmeten; niara^ maraten; marra, marraten, ab^abben; etnin; ^asanen; haramen,

tabbdfp, tabbdl^yn; sauwdq^ sauwdqyn ; farrdi, farrdsyn; falldh^ falldhyn; nahhds, nahhdsyn; ^dbid, ^abdyn. sana, senyn, suddny. suddnyjyn ; megdimr^ megdwirjyn; mekkdwy, makkdwyjyn,

bantalon, bantalondt ; tahryr, tahryrdt; talagrdf^ talagrafdt; harym, ^arymdt ; hammdm, hammdmdt ; ^asara, ""asardt ; ^aldma, ^aldmdt ; kilma, ktlmdt; 77 ds, ndsdt; wabuVy waburdt, aga, agawdt ; usta, ustawdt; bdsa, bdsawdt ; be, behawdt ; zdt, zawdt; sama, sa- mawdt, bintu, bintijdt; afandy, afandyjdt, ab, abba- hdt ; a^, ufpimt ; umm, ummahdt, bint, bandt,

tobgy, tobgyja ; haldwdny, haldwdnyja ; qahwagy, qahwagyja; menddy, me?iddyja,

ibn, abna; bina, abnyja; ta^wyr, tasdwyr ; tdgir, tuggdr ; gdr, gyrdn; gezyra, gezdir; goz, igwdz; gafyr, gufara; hedyja, haddja; hakym, hukama; humdr, himyr ; dywdn, dewdwyn; dufda"", dafddt ; rdhib, ruhbdn ; sikka, sikak ; sahr, ushur ; ^ura, suwar ; fatwa, fatdwy ; qalb, qulub ; qdlib, qawdlib ; kuttdb, katatyb ; medyna, niudun ; maldk, maldika.

^'andak waraq? iddyny waraqa. en nabl da mu§ ^'^ly qawy, lakin en nabla bet^'^etna a^la. er rumm^n taijib, ^auz rumm^na.

hfiwa baija'' fM, hyja baij^^et tirmis. laq^t el fall^h bijihrit, we el fall§,ha bitimla el ball^s. el ab we el ubt birtihu el madrasa. i^tar^t gidy we waj^h mi^za.

62 The Egyptian Alphabet

el insan loh yd^n etn^n, we rigl^n etn^n, lakin el haiw^n loh arba^ rigl^n. kunt ""andoh n6bt^n. g6z^n asawir bass, sarafu myt^n tazkara. salla rak'at^n. es sagara ba^'yda ^an el h^t bi mitr^n. darbet^n fy er r^s t(iga'.

es sittat we el badd§,myn. el gin^h^t el masry agla min el gin^hat el inglyzy. el ^arbagyja h^\<^ el bimba^yja. §tlft el haw^gat d61 min senyn. hattu el mebadd^t ""ala el dywan^t. el ban^t es sUdanyjyn. d61 ""al^m^t betfi"" el qiraja. htiwa hatyb el muslimyn. fa'^al kida hamas marrat. ugret el ""arabyja liamas ^ilinat. ""al^hum barakat all^h.

el hukama taijibu ban^t es s^jih el frans^wy. fy a^jM el muslimyn ji^'allaqu faw^nys ketyra fy es sikak. el hadcldy lamma tetyr tiftah agnihetha. b^n el jtinan el qudam k^n fyh fel^sifa ketyr kub^r, minhum afl^tlln we aristotalys. es san^jir d61 talj^nyja. fy asja buhUr ketyra minhum el fur^t we ed dagla jesubbu fy bahr el ""agam. salatyn bugdad kan ''anduhum zaman gij(is kebyra. uwad el 'asakir sugaijara qawy. el nawMir elly hak^ha ahUja qaraha fy kit^b alf Ida we tela, sab^h el qurtld wala sab^h el agr{id. el kutubh^na el masryja fyha kutub ketyr matbil^'a we batt jadd minha nusab ''azyma myn el quran. huttit el kutaba d61 ^'azyma qawy. 'and banyhasan qubfir masryja ""agyba qadyma maqtli^'a fy es stihur. wustis el kit§,b da menammara bil galat. myn talab el 'ula sihir el lejlly.

The Egyptian Alphabet

63

	t	/•
dawdja	safary	higdby	hably
dawdk	safarak	higdbak	J^ablak
dawdky	safarik	higdbik	hablik
dawdh	safaroh	higdboh	habloh
dawdha	safarha	higdbha	hablaha
dawdna	safarna	higdbna	hablina
dawdkum	safarku7n	higdbkum	hablukum
dawdhum	safarhum	higdbhum	habluhum

sdhby, ^dhbak, sdhbik, sdhboh, sdhibha; sdhibna, sdhibkum, sdhibhum, hdrty, hdrtak, hdrtik, hdrtoh^ hdretha ; hdretna, hdretkum, hdrethum. rigleja, rig- lek, rigleky^ rigleh, rigleha; riglena, riglenkum, rig- lenhum. naggdry?iy, naggdrynak, naggdrynik, nagga- rynoh, naggdrynha ; naggdrynna, naggdrynkum, nag- gdrynhum. kutuby, kutubak, kutubik, kutuboh, kutubha ; kuticbna, kutubkum, kutubkum. abuja^ abuk, abuky, abtih, abuha; abtina, abukum^ abuhum.

byja by bak bik	'aleja 'alek 'aleky
biky boh biha	"aleh 'aleha
bina bukum buhum	'alena 'alekum
byhum	'alehum

fyja fyk fyky fyh	lyja ly	minny minnak
lak liky loh	minnik minnoh viinha
fyha	laha
fyna	Una	minna minnina
fykum	lukuni	minkum
fyhum	luhum	minhum

64 The Egyptian Alphabet

ba^dy, ba^dak, bd'dik, ba^doh, badaha; badina^ ba'^dukum, bd^duhum, baldja, baldk, baldky, baldh, baldha; baldna, baldkum, baldhum, betd'y, betd^ak^ beta'ik, betd'^oh, betd'^ha; betd'ty, betd^tak, betd^tik, betd'toh, betd'^ha; betuy, betuak, betuik, betuoh^ betuha; betuna, betukum, betuhu^n, ^ala sdfiy, "ala sdnak, ^ala sdnik, ^ala sdnoh, ^ala sdnha ; "ala sdnna, ^ala Mnkum, ^ala idnhum. ^anny^ ^annak, ^annik, ''annoh, '^anha; ^anna, ^ankum, ^anhum. ^andy, ^andak, ^andik, ^andoh, ^andaha; ^andina, ^andukum, ^anduhuTU. wajdja, wajdk, wajdky, wajdh, wajdha ; wajdna, wajd- kum^ wajdhum, beny,benak; benna, benkum. biddly, biddlak ; biddlna, biddlkum. tahty, tahtak ; tahtina, tahtukum, gamby, gambak; gambina, gambukum. hawdleny, hawdlenak ; hawdlenna, hawdlenkum. fogy, foqak; fogna, fogkum. gably, gablak ; gablma, gab- lukum, gusddy, gusddak ; gusddna, gusddhum, qud- ddmy, gudddmak; gudddmna^ gudddmkum. may^ md'dk; mi'dja, midk; mtdna^ midkum; wardja, ivardh, wustina, wustukum, wustuhum.

ezzajy, ezzajak, ezzajik, ezzajoh, ezsajaha; ezzajina, ezzajukuTfiy ezzajuhum. ikminny, ikminnak ; ikfnin- nina, ikfninnukum. inny, innak ; innina, innuhum. bar dy, bur dak; bardina, bardukum, gamy^na,gamy^kum. zajy, zajak. gery, gerak ; gerna, gerku?n, gaddy, gaddak ; gaddina, gaddukum^ kully, kullak ; kullina, kullukum. wahdy, wahdak ; wahdina, wahdukum. jd retny, jd retak ; jd retna, jd retkum.

^if^h kan 'ala yd el hakym el {irubbawy. talabak t ? kal^mha kuwaijis. fy dulaby hudtim ask^l. suglu-

The Egyptian Alphabet 65

hum mus suglina. qalbaha q^sy. naharak sa^'yd! l^ltak sa'^yda! kan biddoh jistery loh kalb. biddaha titgauwiz. bidduhum jirauwahu. kan fy ydoh kurbag siidany. ydeh fy gijClboh. sallim ydek! sufrat^nkum gud^d. dahabyj^t en nyl fyha tabbab- ynha. bigclly asluhum min es sa^'yd. kattar b^rik, ja sitt! ab^'idhum fy mudyryjet el faij^im. da mal- ""ilbak? gen^nety we gen^net aljiih. ibrahym ba^a dabal dimisq bi ""asakiroh sanet 1832 myladyja. mu- fattisyn er raj jiVafu asgalhum taijib. ba' ty ranch we baqaroh bi taman taijib. bod n^ibak we n^iboh. misku hudiimna we hudiimkum.

tiktib boh. firih boh. safir bina ""ala iskandaryja. dabil ''al^ja ibn sahby. saal 'al^h we ''al^hum. fattis 'al^ha. siif lina matrah nuq'ud fyh. all^h jebarik fyk ! ma fyhs fulils. intu m^ fykums b^r. m^ fyhs fyh 'eb. indah ly ab^ik. lyja ^andak qir^^n. ana lyja ^'andoh arb^'^yn gin^. manys qa^'id lak hen^k. i^taka minnak we minnoh. biddaha hadd minhum jertlh wajaha. ana a'^mil aktar minkum. ba'daha misy el wazyr we el malik. ruht baMuhum. b^rag min et te^tro balahum. el habl bet^^'y gamid. el berins talla'ha es seraja beta'toh. biddina ni^tery el hemyr betil^kum. eg genain betti^'hum kebyra we kuwaijisa. kallimtoh ""ala ^anak. riih ''anny! m.% aruhs ^andoh. hatt el h^g^t 'andaha. 'andukum t min el kutub el ^araby? ana ""andy mandyl ibny. ly waj^k Sana, ana lyja abiija wajija hena. mi fyh^ za'al b^ny we benoh. humma bistagalu bidMna. mus 'ala et tarab^za, lakin tahtaha. bally el bfiga gambak. el b^t we el ard elly hawalenoh. mi^y warihum 'alal qarafa. allih jektln mi'ik. mi'aja

66 The Egyptia7i Alphabet

talat sanadyq. ady 16kanda we el gen^na qudd^mha. sand<iq ed d^n we el b6sta qusadoh.

ezz3i]ak, ja sydy ? azunn innoh es safyr et taljany. Ijammin 'ala innuhum rahyn ja^du minnoh el b^d. h{iwa bardoh sakin fil b^t da. el ful{is gamy'ha. 'azamny 'alal gada zajukum. g^rak jitlub frank^n bass, sufna n^s ketyr g^rhum. iddy loh qaddoh. simi' gun^hum kulloh. d61 kulluhum ntltyja. rat- tibu el kutub d61 kullaha. titla*" we teftit ed dukkan li wahdaha. hyja wahdaha fil bustan. j^ r^thum ma giXs ""andina.

taijib , taijiba ; gasu r, gasu ra ; sugaijar^ sugaijara ; "atsdn^ ^atsdna; ^aguz, ^aguzd; ^azym, ^azyma; kas- Idn^kasldna; kebyr,kebyra; maktub,maktuba; mead- dib, meaddiba; maskyn, maskyna ; murr^ murra ; /aqyr, /aqyra. tdhir, tdhra; gdly, gdlja ; fddil, fdcila; kdmil, kdmla. gdny, ganyja; mesdfir^ me- sdfra; turky, turkyja: surjdny, surjdnyja; qibly, qiblyja; masry, masryja; mestau/y,mestau/yja, abjad^ be da; atras, tarsa; ahwal, hola; aszval, sola ; a^/ar, sa/ra ; arag^ "arga ; akta ^ kafa; iswid, soda; rdfi^ar^ r ultra.

baftdl, battdlyn; barrdny, barrdnyjyn ; sugaijar, sugaijaryn ; kuwaijis, kuwaijisyn; maijify maijityn; maljdUy maljdnyn, gdly , gdljyn ; sdtir, sdtryn ; ^dri/^ "dr/yn; kdtib, kdtbyn, abjad^ byd; ahmar, humr ; azraq^ zurq ; a^/ar, su/r ; a ma, ^imy, ^hnjdn ; iswid, sud ; bafpyl, bulpala; tawyl, tuwdl ; gedyd, guddd ; galbdn, galdba ; gany^agnija; raky^, ru^ds ;

The Egyptian Alphahet 67

zaryf^ zurdf ; ^ugaijar, ^ugdr ; ^azym, ''uzdm ; faqyr , fuqara ; gadym, qudm ; kebyr, kubdr ; ketyr, kutdr ; kerym, kurdm ; latyf, lutdf ; maskyn, masdkyn.

gdly, agia; rafiys, arJ}as ; stigaijar, asgar ; ke- byr, akbar ; ketyr, aktar ; galyl, aqall ; nedy/, andaf ; imsi , ansa ; ivikis, auhoA. taijib, ahsan ; mukimm, ahamm.

r^gil taijib, mara taijiba. htiwa el gany, hyja el faqyra. el bint eg gamyla. abtih 'agClz, lakin ummoh mus ^agliza. hadyd el mihrat el gedyd. hus^n el "arabya el kuwaijisa. es sultan waqtaha k^n ""aijan. indah HI hakym, ujjty ""aij^na. el bur- n^ta galja bil taman da. el badd^ma ^aqla, l^kin el baddam mus '^qil. el fall^ha el masryja elly tiby' el b^d. qara embareh gurnal masry. el kit^ba bet^^'tak mestaufyja. es sarkasy abjad we es siida- nyja s6da. el fall^h el masry asmar. ard el gibal samra. el walad aVag, l^kin ubtoh mu^ 'arga. hyja rubra mes^fra. sikkynet el ahl metallima.

e^ ^aijalyn et ta'banyn. suf es sagarat d61 'alyjyn. ballyna nitfarrag 'alal har^t et t^nyjyn. es sittat el ma^'ziimyn ^auwaqu. ""auz myt maqtaf malj^nyn tiffah. battybten mistiwyjyn ketyr. mu^ kull en nas satryn wala mit^allimyn. es stlah el me- safryn dabalu el wabHr. el ward^t elly fy ydak zurq we byd. er rigal d61 el masdkyn 'org we ^imy. fy masr es ser^jat kubar we qudm. htiwa faqyr, l^kin humma fuqara ""annoh. en ntity kebyr fil ""omr, sugaijar fil 'aql. el 'araby da tawyl el q^ma, 'aryd

68 The Egyptian Alphabet

el iktaf, galyd es saq^n, kebyr ed daqn. el bint latyfa we meaddiba. ed dinja finja. ij^tara nusha ^azyma, qadyma, mesahhaha we megallida by qatyfa hamra. ibrymy j^ balah ! seggadat hegazy we bafta hindy. ""auz lak '^s stlqy wala '^s b^ty? ha- wagibik sUd we maqrllna. ""auz tarab^zat medau- waryn, mus murabba'yn. es sahid elly qal kida mu^ mu^'tamad. jatara ana maslil ""annoh? kitabet el kutub ^ugl mut'ib. ma tiqdar^ testif en nuzz^r; humma ma^gMyn dilwaqt. el 'asakir el masryjyn d61 sidad we sug^an. el 1^1 fy es s6f aqsar min el 1^1 fy e^ sita. 1^ hissoh ma k^ns masmfi"? hedy- jetak maqbtlla. hiss el mazzyka met kans masmli' barra eg gen^na. kan qabla jasyr l;^kinnoh dilwaqt hurr. inta 1^ mus mabsiit zajoh?

rijil^n ahsan min rijal. en nahar da ahsan min bukra. el gamal da mehammil aktar min dikha. ^asfllr fil yd ahsan min ^asara ""alal sagara. wissoh ausab min rigloh. wazyfetoh ahamm min wazyfetak. el birka di sugaijara, we di asgar minha, lakin dukhaija asgar min el kull. safyqa asgar el ban^t. hfiwa akbarhum. aglabhum fuqara. htiwa ahsan en n^s. aqra' we nuzahy. akbar minnak bi j6m, ji'raf'annak bi sana. elly fy ydak aqrab min elly fy g^bak. 'arga ^ala maksiira.

		6
/	wdhid			taldta
	wdhda		4	arbd"
2	etnhi			arbd'a
3	taldt			arbat

The Egyptian Alphabet

69

5	/jamsa	80 tamdfiyn
	llamas	go tls'yn
	fpa?nast	100 myja
6	sitta	myt
	sitt	10 1 myja ive wdhid
7	sab'a	200 my ten
	sabat	joo tultemyja
8	tamanja	tultemyt
	tama7i	400 rub'emyja
	tamant	rub^emyt
9	tis'a	^00 fptwisemyja
	tis'at	dumsemyt
10	^a^ara	600 suttemyja
	^asarat	suttemyt
II	hlddsar	yoo sub'emyja
12	etndsar	sub^emyt
^3	talattdsar	800 tumnemyja
H	arbatdsar	tu7n7iemyt
15	/jamastdsar	goo tus'emyja
16	sittdsar	tus^emyt
17	sabatdsar	1. 000 alf
18	taniantdsar	i.oio alf zve ^asara
19	tisatdsar	2.000 alfen
20	^isryn	j.ooo taldt did/
21	wdhid we ^isryn	10.000 ''asarat did/
22	etnen we ^Uryn	11.000 hiddsar alf
30	taldtyn	100.000 myt al/
40	arbtyn	200.000 my ten alf
50	Ipamsyn	1. 000.000 maljun
60	sittyn	2.000.000 etnen maljUn
70	sab'' y 11

70 The Egyptian Alphabet

hagar w^hid. bortuq^na wahda. arba' lamiin^t we hid^sar lamiina. sitt fal^ik we sitta we 'isryn feliika. el buluk fyh myja we 'isryn 'askary. fy eg gin6 alf milj^m. min masr li iskandaryja myja te- manja we ^ii^ryn myl, au myt^n kylometr taqryban. teby' ly el get da bi alf we myt^n we afba'a we sittyn (1264) frank? es sana di alf we tultemyja we 'asara (13 10) higryja, we alf we tumnemyja we etn^n we tis'yn (1892) mylMyja. kull saba't aijam gum'a, we kull arba' guma' sahr, we kull etn^^ar sahr sana. kull tultemyja we hamsa we sittyn (365) j6m sana. bamsyn we sittyn jibqu myja we 'a^ara (50 + 60= 1 10). talatyn min etn^n we hamsyn jibqa etn^n we 'i^ryn (52 — 50 = 22). hamsa we talatyn fy arba'a jibqu myja we arb^'yn (35x4= 140). arb^'yn 'ala hamsa jibqa tamanja (40-^5 = 8). taman mal^jyn we tultemyja sitta we arb^'yn alf we myja bamsa we tam^nyn (8, 346, 185). ""omraha saba'ta^ar sana we sitt u^hur. lamma kan 'omroh talatt^sar sana k^n ji'raf el gam*" we et tarh we ed darb we el qisma. es si'^a etn^n we nuss. el wabtir jeqtlm es s^^'a sitta ^ala franka. li es sa^'a arba'a min el 1^1 nizilu Ijan el halyly. hflwa k^n fy masr j6m et talat sab^'a we ^isryn min es sahr. gi tis'^a we ^isryn min es ^ahr elly fat. ma ma^ys talat qurtas. istara minnoh arba"" sag^gyd, wahda bi etn^n bintu we talata bi etn^n gin^. en niity et taljany kolombo iktasaf ameryka fy sanet alf we rub*"- emyja we etn^n we tis^yn (1492) myladyja; we kanet ameryka qabl zamanoh mu^ ma'rilfa bil kullyja. fy sanet alf we tultemyja we tis^a (1309) higryja itwaffa fy helw^n afandyna mehammad taufyq el auwil et taijib ez zikr.

The E^yptia7i Alphabet

71

el auwil	er- rdbi		et tdst
autvila	rdb'a		tds'a
ula	el l^d?nis		el 'dsir
auivlldfiy	hdmsa		^dsra
autmldnyja	es sddis		el hiddsar
auimldnyjyn	sddsa		el etnd§ar
et tdny	es sdb'i		el ^i^ryn
tdnja	sdb^a		el wdhid ive ^iiryn
et tdlit	et tdmin		el my/a
idlta	tdmna		el alf
jom eg gurna	; es sabt ; el hadd ; el etfien ; et
ialdt ; el arba ;	el Ipamys, es	subu\ nuss, insds ;
tult, tulten, itldt;	rub\ irba ;	Ipums, ifpmds ; suds,
is (ids ; sub'^ ^ isba" ;	tumn, itmdn;	tus	\ itsa ; "o.<r, asdr.

hHwa dabal el auwil. el bint di el iila fy es saff. el auwilany abr^ny, we el abr^ny auwil^ny. es sarr§,f istara el b^t el auwilany, we et tany we el hid^^ar, we el etn^n we 'i^ryn fy darb el gamamyz. min el arba"" himyr d61 ana afaddal el humar el auwilany we el humar et talit. jtisif ""andoh taman rumm^nat; balla banisa li nafsoh, we idda es Scldsa we es s^b'a li ^aly we et t^mna lyja. el ^asar riggala el auwi- lanyjyn elly qabilhum fy izmyr k^nu kulluhum turk. gaw^bak el mHarrab arba^a jtllja wisilny auwil em- bareh. taqryroh el auwilany k^n t^ryboh sitt^^ar n6fembar. es s^^'a wahda we nuss. es sa'^a tal^ta we rub", es s^^'a tis'a ilia rub\ nitq^bil j6m el bamys es sa'^a sab'a ilia etn^sar deqyqa. ga ly j6m el hadd es Scl'^a etn^^ar we ^i^ryn deqyqa. aktjln hen^k es si^'a etn^n tamam. e^ ^ams titla*" bukra

72

The Egyptian Alphabet

es s^'a sitta we rub^ nuss we rub' jibqu tal^t irba' G + - = -)• baragna wahid walhid. saija' ga- w^b^ty auwil bauwil. el ""as^kir misju etn^n etn^n.

	7'
ana darabt	huwa jidrab	intu bitidrabu
inta darabt	hyja tidrab	hum bijidrabu
inty darabty	ihna nidrab
huwa darab	intu tidrabu	idrab
hyja darabet	hum jidrabu	idraby
ihna darabna		idrabu
intu darab tu	ana badrab
hum darabu	inta bitidrab	ddrib
	inty bitidraby	madrub
a?ia adrab	huzva bijidrab
i7ita iidrab	hyja bitidrab	darb
inty tidraby	ihna binidrab

darab ^ jidrab ; madrub^ darb, dalpal^ jid/jul; mad- ^ul, dui^ul. "amal, jimil ; ma^mul, "amal. fatah^ jiftah ; maftuh, fath, katab, jiktib ; maktub, kit aba. kasar, jiksar ; maksur, kasr.

ana daljalt ; inta dahalt ; inty dahalty ; htiwa da^al hum daljalu. ana 'amalt; hyja 'amalet ; htlwa "amal ihna ^amalna ; intu 'amaltu. ana fataht ; h{iwa fatah hum fatahu. ana katabt ; inta katabt. ana kasart inty kasarty. ana adhul; inta tidhul; hfiwa jidhul ihna nidh.ul; hum jidhulu. ana a^'mil, inty ti'mily htlwa ji'mil; intu ti'milu. ana aktib ; inta tiktib; hum

The Egyptian Alphabet

73

jiktibu. ana aksar; hfiwa jiksar. ana badbul ; htiwa bijidbul; ihna binidbul ; hum bijidbulu. ana ba'mil; huwa biji'mil. ana baftah ; inty bitiftahy. ana baktib ; inta bitiktib; h(iwa bijiktib; ihna biniktib ; intu bitik- tibu. ana baksar; inty bitiksary; htlwa bijiksar ; hum bijiksaru. idbul ! i'mil inta ! iftah ! iktiby inty! iksaru ! ana darabt el gamal. h^wa jidrab ibnoh. ihna darabna a^'d^na. hyja dabalet el b^t, hiiwa j idbul el gami^ humma jidbulu el balad. er r%il bijidbul we ana babrug. inta biti'mil kida 1^? ana ba'miloh ^ala sanak. hyja ""amalet b^tha 16kanda. i^'mil zaj m^ baqtll lak. ""amalna suglina biFagal. iftah el bab ! ana fataht e:^ ^ibb^k. ihna fatahna es sandiiq walla la? ihna biniftah es sandtiq, ana baktib gaw^b. myn katab el kitab da? hdwa kasar el kubbaja. bitiksar el qulla 1^? el gaw^b kan maktfib lamma g^t. el walad da madrllb 'alqa. el bab kan maMh. kasr e^ ^ibb^k da kan bil qada we bil qadar. idbul we iqfil el bab ! madbtiloh myt^n gin^ fy es sana. jom eg gum^'a k^n katb kitaboh. el 'amal da fy mahalloh. dabalu min g^r ma jeqtilu li hadd. darb el walad da k^n ""ala ^^n ma saraq h^get abtih. nidbul el wabtir qabl ma jisafir. isbitta b^, 'alim almany, katab kit^b 'azym ""alal lis^n el ""araby ed d^rig.

?nd darabtis

?nd darabtis

ma darabtys

md darabs

ma darabets

md darabnds

md darabtus

?nd tidrabs ?nd tidraby^ md jidrabs m.d tidrabs md nidrabs md tidrabus md jidrabus

md bitidrabys md bijidrabs md bitidrabs md bifiidrabs md bitidrabu^ md bijidrabu^

10

74

The Egyptian Alphabet

ma darabus

?nd adrabs

ma badrabs ma bitidrabs

ma tidrabs 77td tidrabys ma tidrabus

sirlby jisrab ; fnasrub, surb. /ihim, jl/ham ; maf- hum, fahm. misik, jimsik ; inamsuk^ mask.

ana ma darabtis el fallah. ihna ma nidrabs hadd. inta m^ bitidrabs el haramy 16? ma tidrabys ! ma dahalets el b^t ilia ba'd ma harag. ma tisrabs maija we inta 'arqan. ma jisrablis haga. da mus masriib taijib. surb en nebyt ketyr mus taijib. ma timsik^ el qalam da li hadd ma agy. el 'askary ma misik^ el nassal. ana m^ 'amaltis kida abadan. ma tiftahtis el gawabat ! inty ma fatahtys es sandtiq. ma fihim- tiis 16? ana mu^ fahim, 'auz 6? m^ afhams turky. htlwa ma kasar^ el qalam. intu m^ kasartHs el b^b? ana ma katabti^ el kitab el farsy. m^ tiktibs h^ga ! m^ katabll^ lissa. ma tiksarys el ''^s qabl ma jigy ! met k^ns madrilb bi sikkyn, kan madriib bi rus^sa. el gawab ma kans makt{ib. ma ji'mils haga. hllwa m^ biji'mils haga. el qatil katab iqraroh.

darabtiny tidrabny bitidrabny

darabtak tidrabak bitidrabak

darabtik tidrabik bitidrabik

darabtoh tidraboh bitidraboh

darabtaha tidrabha bitidrabha

darabtina

darabtukum

darabtuhum

tidrabjia

tidrabkum

tidrabhum

bitldrabna

bitidrabkum

bitidrabhum

The Egyptian Alphabet

75

idrabhum

tidrabyha

tidrabuh

harnal^ jihmil ; mahmul, hamL ^adam, jifpdim; 7na/jdu9n, Ipidma, qatal, jiqtil ; magtul, qatl.

inta darabtiny. ana darabtak. darabtoh ana? inte darabtina. inta tidrabny. ana badrabik ; inta bitidrabny. hyja bitidrabna. hyja bitidrabkum. inta tidrabhum 1^? myn darabik? htlwa bijidrabkum 1^? ihna darabna el kaslan. ihna darabn^ky. intu da- rabttlny bil qawy. intu tidrabtlha bil ""asSja le? humma darabfihum fil h^ra. hum jidrabiih lamma jitkallim. darabtyha imta? inty darabtyhum ba^'d^n. di el 6da elly dabaltaha. di el fetyra elly ^'amaletha. el "amal da humma ""amaltih. ^iribtyha kullaha? si- ribnah qabl el akl. imsikha min ydha! H^u timsi- ktihum. fihimtak we inta bitkallimoh. fihimn^ha ^as^n kalamha mafhiim. ana hamaltoh li hadd el b^t. ana bahmiloh kuU j6m ""ala dahry. ana abdimak zaj el lazim. ha-damtlna lamma kunna ""anduhum fy iskan- daryja. myn jibdimhum lamma familjathum tis^fir? es sfidany b^damny taijib. hum qataliih. 1^ qatalha? qatahihum ''an ^birhum.

md darabtinys

nid darabtaks

md darabtiks

md darabtohs

md darabtahds

md darabtinds

md darabtukum^

md darabtuhu?ns

md tidrabnys

md tidrabak§

md tidrabik^

md tidrabohs

md tidrabhds

md tidrabnd^

md tidrabkum^

md tidrabhums

md bitidrabnys md bitidrabaks md bitidrabiks md bitidrabohs md bitidrabhds

md bitidrabnds md bitidrabkum^ md bitidrabhums

76

The Egyptian Alphabet

inta ma darabtinys. inta m^ darabtohs. ana ma darabtukums. hyja ma tidrabny^. inta ma tidrab- has. inta ma tidrabhums. hyja ma tidrabohs? inta ma bitidrabny^? hyja ma bitidrabaks. ma bi- tidrabn^s inta? hfiwa ma darabna^ emb^reh. ihna m^ darabnahums. m^ darabHh^. ihna m^ nidrabohs. er ragil ma jidrabaks 1^? htlwa m^ bijidrabnys. ana ma asrabohs. ana ma afhamaks. h{iwa m^ bijif- hamnys. inta ma tifhamhtims 1^? m^ timsikhas! hum ma misktihums. el walad ma misikiks. htiwa m^ qatalohs. hyja m^ qatalethas. el har^myja ma jiqtiliikums. hiawa ma ji^dimny^. hum m^ jibdi- mtihs. ana ma ahmilaks. inty ma tihmilyhas. intu m^ bitihmihlhs? saf el gawab lakin ma katabohs htawa. ma biddys aqraha ilia quddamkum. el haddad ^amal el muftah lakin ma kasarohs. ahuha hamalha we misy ""alal mad rasa, et taljanyja jifhamu el lisan el esbanj61y l^kin ma jiqrilhs. inta ma bitiljdimnys zaj ma quit.

kattibt	akaitib	. bakattib	kattib
kattibt	tikattib	bitkattib	kattiby
kattibty	tikattiby	bitkattiby	kattibu
kattib	jikattib	bikattib
kattibet	tikattib	bitkattib	mekattib
kattlbiia	nikattib	binkattib
kattibtu	tikattibu	bitkattibu	taktyb
kattibu	ji kattibu	bi kattibu

rattib, jirattib ; merattib, tarty b. sallim, jisallim; mesallim, taslym. saddag, jisaddaq ; mesaddaq ; tasdyq. kassar , jikassar ; mekassar, taksyr, said,jisaid; mu- said, musada. sdfir, jisdfir ; niesdjir, safar, qdbil,

The Egyptian Alphabet 77

jiqdbil ; meqdbil^ mugdb/a. afab^ jifib; mafub, ifdb. a/}bar, jilibir ; mul}bir, i/pbdr, f}abar, amkan, jimkin ; mumkin, imkdn.

htiwa kattibny el wasl. ana akattib el wilad. ana kattibtaha loh. kattibny gaw^b^n li ab<ih. tikattibha el wi^^ kulloh. jikattibak tfil en nahar. kattiboh loh ! many^ mekattibha dilwaqt. taktybak loh el gaw^b da min g^r luzlim. ana rattibt asgalhum. hum jirattibu b^thum qabl el farah. ma tirattib^ haget abtik 1^? rattibhum zaj m^ k^nu. el kutub fil ku- tubb^na el masryja merattiba taijib. sallim ly ^ala ummak! m^ sallimti^ 'al^hum 1^ zaj m^ quit lak? ablija jisallim ''al^k. qalu ly asallim ^ala kull ashab- hum. . bitsallim ''al^h ubty. ma tisaddaq^ kalamy 1^ ? saddaq el kadd§,b li hadd bab ed d^r ! et tasdyq qawam mus tamally taijib. kassar rasoh bi hagar. kassarna kull ma kan fy taryqna. iza safuhum jikas- sarl^hum. kassar zaj m^ baqM lak ! es sukkar mekassar. ma tit'^ibnys baqa? tdl el 161 jit^ibny. asgalhum at^abetna ketyr qawy. m^ biddy^ at^ibak fil masala di. myn elly abbarak? ibbirhum bi elly tisma'oh ! m^ abbart{ina^ \t min badry ? hum jibbir- tihum bil kidb. el babar 6? m^ jimkinny^ agy bukra. jimkinha tiktib li abtlha bi elly gara. amkanhum jidbulu el bet. mus fy imkany a'mil kida. mus mumkin aktib loh bil b6sta di. sa'idny fy e^ ^ugl da! ma tisa'idnas 16 ? sa'idnahum lamma kanu bijistaga- lu. inta sa'idtiny we ana mamntin lak. safir auwil embareh. m% safir{i^ sawa. tis^firu imta? nis^fir lamma jigy abtlna. es safar kuwaijis fy es s6f. sa- firet waja ubtaha. imta qabiltoh? q^bilny es sa'^a

78

The Egyptian Alphabet

arba^a min en nahar. humma itqibilu sawa ba'd ed duhr. qabiltiny 'and ed dyw^n.

ifallimt if al Unit ifallinity ifallim ifallimt

ifallivma nifalli?n

ifallimtu tifallimu

ifallimu jifallimu

ifallim, ifallimy, ifallimu.

afallim

tifallim

tifallimy

jifallim

tifallim

bafallim

bitifallim

bitifallimy

bijifallim

bitifallim

binifaltim bitifallimu bijif allimti

mifallifji. td'lyfjt.

itai}lpar, jitaf^f^ar ; metaf^f^ar, tdfiyr. itkallim, jit- kallim ; metkallim, taklym. ^inbaat, jinbiit; inab^ut, ib'dt. indarab, jindirib ; mindirib, inkasar, jinkisir ; minkisir, inkisdr, imtahan, jimtihin ; imtihdn, ih- m,arr, jihmarr ; mihmirr ; ihmirdr, istalam, jistilim; m^istilim, istildm, iUagal, jistagal ; miUigil.

inta tit'allim. ihna nit'allim. bijit'allim htlwa? inty it'allimty. intu it'allimtu t ? ana bat'allim his^b. humma bijit'allimu el kit^ba 1^? it'allimy taijib! htiwa mit'allim fy madraset el myry. ta'lym el ma- drasa di mus taijib. bijit'allim rllmy fy atyna. hliwa it'allim el lisan el inglyzy lamma k^n fil sk61a. ma biddah^s tit'^allim ""araby. hum bijit'^allimu talj^ny. itahljar suwaija! kull j6m titahhar? ita^b^ru ""an sugluhum. ana r^jih atabb^r Suwaija. ana batkallim waja abtlh. biddukum titkallimu sawa? kunt bitit- kallim waja myn lamma q^biltak? titkallim ""araby? atkallim 'araby Suwaija. myn 'allimak titkallim farsy?

The Egyptian Alphabet

79

me^'allimy ibrahym el bugdady. hyja inba'atet 'and garetha. ma inba'atHs ilia lamma talabUhum. in- ba'at fy mamtaryja. hdwa indarab ""alqa. indarabna 'ala ^an ma ruhn^s el madrasa. abtih indarab 'asan sikir. el 'arabyja inkasaret boh. inkasaru fy es sikka. iza wiqi^'t min es sibb^k tinkisir. imtahantiha qud- dam en nas. imtihinny lamma ablas. imtahaniih laq(ih jiVaf. 16 ma qidirs jiqaddim el imtihan fy dywan el harbyja? ihmarr min el haja. m^ ihmar- rt^^ min en nar. ihmarret lamma ga. istalam el wardyja es sa'a 'a^ara min el 161. rajih jistilim min- noh el fultls. istilim minha el gawab. istilam el m^l kan 'ala ydoh. es sarraf htlwa elly mistilim en naqdyja. h{iwa ji^tagal fy dywan el ma^'^rif. kull j6m jistagalu fil b6t. istagalna li hadd ma s^firna. el muhandis bijistagal dilwaqt fy maslahet er raj. balas i^tigala es sa'a di ahsan ''andy kitaba ketyra. hHwa mi^tigil dilwaqt fy h^ga tanja.

habbet	ahibb	bahibb
habbet	tehibb	bitJpibb
habbety	tehibby	bithibby
habb	jehibb	bihibb
habbet	tehibb	bithibb
habbena	nehibb	bi7iJ}ibb
habbetu	tehibbu	bithibbu
habbic	jehibbu	bihibbti

hibb, hibby, hibbu, hdbib, mahbub, hubb.

bass, jebuss ; bdsi^, ^att, jehutt ; hat it, mahfuf. zann, jezunn; zdnin, maznun, zann, sahh je^ahh. sadd, jesidd ; sddid, masdud, sadd.

8o

The Eo^yptian Alphabet

hiiwa jehibbiny we ana ahibboh. kull w^hid jehibb ummoh. hyja habbet myn? ana ma ahibbis ^urb ed dubbin, humma habbu kida. d61 nas m^ jehibblls ilia nafsuhum. tehibby el bint di? haby- bik f^n? habb^naha ""asan hatir abUha. buss min e^ sibb^k ti^t^foh. biddak tebuss ""al^h lammajeftit? m^ bass^ti^ ''al^ha lamma haraget. kunt b^sis wajak. hyja m^ tebussis abadan 'ala hadd min et t^qa. hutt el fuliis fy g^bak! hyja tehutt ibnaha 'and wahid naggar. hattCihum fy es sandtlq li hadd m^ jiby^tlhum. el kutub k^net mahtfita 'ala et tarab^za. azunn innoh m^ jigy^ hena es sana di. zannak mus fy mahalloh. bizunn innaha mus hena. zannu ana ma aVafhums. kunt zanin en nahar da abir es sahr. m^ jesahhis teftitoh we tis^fir. 'adam es sihha ^? rigloh elly k^net maksiira sahhet. hum jesahhu mu- handisyn. sidd el habl suwaija! m^ tesiddis bil qawy! hyja saddetoh min dira'oh. r^jihyn nesidd ek kursy li hena. el habl masdiid taijib.

imyt	aua	baua	ua
ivl^yt	tua	bitua	uy
wiyty	tuy	bituy	uu
luiy	jua	bijua
wi'yet	tua	bitua
wiy?ia	nua	binua	imy
wiytu	tuu	bituu	way
wiyu	juu	bijuu
wisil^ jusal; usal, usaly	usalu; was it; usul. wigi ^
juqa ; uga, ugay, ugau;	wdgi. wigi/, jugaf; ugaf,
uga/y, ugafu	; wdgif; uguj	r

The Egyptian Alphabet

8i

^2i loh min es sikka! ti^'a j^ baw^ga riglak! m^ wi^'yti^ loh 1^? ]^m lamma jigarrab. mu^ ""auza tti^'y? manys w^Y- wisilna el balad ""and el magrib. <isal qaw^m we ta^^la! t^isaly li hadd f^n? we htiwa masy wiqi^ wiq^'et min et t^qa. auqa*" fil byr. m^ tllqafi^ we inta g^y ! lamma jidljul <lqaf ""ala li6- lak! el wabtir^t wiqfu 'and es su^s.

ana quit inta quit inty qulty huwa qdl hyja qdlet ihna qulna intu qultu hum qdlu

qui quly

ana aqul inta tequl inty tequly huwa jequl hyja tequl ihna nequl intu tequlu hum jequlu

qulu

ana

baqul inta bitqul inty bitquly huwa biqul hyja bitqul ihna binqul intu bitqulu hum biqulu

qdjil qoL

rdh, jeruJp ; rdjih, mirwdh. sd/y je^uf; Mji/, sofa, '^dZyje'^uz; ^auz, ^6z, kdn, jekun; kon, bd^^^jeby^ ; bdji" ^ bt, gdb, jegyb; gdib, megyba. ndm, jendm; ndjim, nom.

jeq<il laha. qM ly! m^ baqM^ lak. q{il lina! qalet loh ^? humma biq^ilu liky. q{ilu ly 'auzyn 6? m^ qulti^ laha h%a. 'aly qil ly kida emb^reh. biqM ^? s^hbak jeqM ^? q^let ly innaha ma tiq- dar^ tigy. ihna m^ neqM^ haga. hiiwa ma k^n^ q^jil kida. k^nu q^jilyn ^? q61ak da mu^ fy mahalloh. rah f6n? m^ nertlh^ waj^h. inta 'auz teqtlm we tertih ? tertlhu f6n ? rath 'and ummoh. biddoh jeriih el madrasa. jeriihu imta? r^het wajaja. hyja bit-

82 The Egyptian Alphabet

rtlh el kenysa. rajih ji^rab. ana rajih anzil. el bint r^jiha teztlr el ihr^m. r^jih awaddyk henak. rajihyn jidrabu el kalb. inta suftoh fi^n? stlf el bint dil m^ sufti^ wala marra. ana ^^jifak z^lkn. safetha qabl ma matet.V ana suftak. ne^tifak f^n? s^jif bi ^^n- ak? inta s^jif el ""amM da? di s6fa wih^a. 'auz ^? hliwa mus ''auz minnak ^^s, lakin ^'auz fulHs. hyja ^auza 6? er rigg^la d61 mus ""auzynak. hummaje^'uzu hibr we waraq. hyja te'^tizak qabl ma tihrug. lam- ma ''uzn^k m^ laq^naks. ""uzn^hum auwil emb^reh. ""auzyn ^? inta 'auz taljod b^t bil ugra? 1^, mu^ ''auz. hiiwa kan hena. kunt bakul lamma ga. ana ak(in tamally fil b^t. kunna bin'azzil. ana kunt hen^k. inty tektiny f^n ? hum biktinu ^and abfihum. kiin hena bukra! kan ^'andina lamma suftoh. kunt 'and myn embareh bil 1^1? hyja kinet maskyna. hum jektinu fy ed dyw^n.. ana aklln 'andak qabl m^ tisaiir. ma kunti^ ashat minnak in m^ kunti^ faqyr. k^nu hassalu et te^tro. k^n fil waqt da es s^^'a s^ret arba'a. k^n gara ^ fil b^t? kan abu el bint gahhiz el far^. lamma tigy henak neklin ihna rau- wahna. bi't b^tak li myn? bi'toh bi myt^n gin^. teby' laha el qalam da? bi'tah 1^? by' we ihlas ! by' loh dil- mi, aby's higa. agyb lak kutubak bukra. jegybu Uladak we jigu. gyboh hena! m^ gibtah^^ 'and abliha 1^? bidduhum jegybtlk 'alal madrasa. gibniha we bi'naha. humma mu^ g^ibyn banithum wajahum. ° ma nimnis taijib el l^la di. mu^ 'auzyn jenimu 'andina. en n6m el ketyr 'alima 'ala ek kasal. nimt ba'd el gada. nimtu 'and myn el 161a elly fitet? nim fil 16kanda. n^m baqa!

The Egyptia7i Alphabet

83

ana malet		amla	bamla
inta malet		timla	bitimla
inty malety		timly	bitimly
htlwa mala		jimla	bijimla
hyja malet		timla	biti7nla
ihna malhia		nimla	. binimla
intu maletu		timlu	bitimlu
hum 7nalu		. jimlu	bijimlu
imla,	imly	, imlu. mdly, Tnaljdn^ maly
ana giryt.		agry	bagry
inta giryt		tigry	bitigry
inty giryty		tigry	bitigry
huwa giry		jigry	bijigry
hyja girjet		tigry ■	bitigry
ihna giryna		nigry	binigry
intu girytu		tigru	bitigru
hum girju		jigru	bijigru

tgry, tgru, gary, gary

bag a, jibqa; bdqy, baqa, laga, jilqa; Idqy, laqy. bana, jibny ; bdny, mabny, bina, haka, j'ihky ; I^dky^ haky . giry, jigry ; gdry, gary, misy, jimsy ; mdsy, ma- sy. ridy, jirda; rddy, rida, sihy, ji§ha ; salty, ^uhjdn.

hliwa jimla ek kiXz. bijimlu el markib bud^^'a. mala el b^t n^s. ed dukk^n k§,net malj^na san^dyq.

84

The Egyptian Alphabet

jimlu el byr min el bahr. imlyha nebyt ! mal6tuha 16? laq^toh fy es sikka. jilqtlna ni^rab duhh^n. nilqaha tirab el k6ra. laq^ttlhum f^n ? jilqah waj^k. laq^t el gumla di fy enhy kitclb. k^n laqyh fy es sikka. banet loh b6t. ibny lak b^t latyf! banu luhum ''issa gamb el gen^na. m^ jibntl^ ilia baM m^ jigyhum fulHs. rajiha tibny ba'd el ""yd. humma bijibnu luhum ser^ja. haka loh 6? jihky loh kull kt. ihky waj^h lamma te^tifoh. m^ tihkys li hadd! hyja tihky lak baM^n. k^nu h^kyjyn il kalclm da 16? ana giryt ketyr. girytu qawy, istaraijahu hena ! igry b6tak qawam ! girjet ttll es sikka. bidduhum jigru 'a^cln jihassalu el wabHr. girytu wara el ""arabyja. m^ bitigry^ biFagal. im^y min hena, ji walad! mi^yt lamma ti'ibt. m^ mi^yti^ abadan qadd en na- h^r da. misyna sawa ttll el 161. hyja misjet min b6tha 111 hamm^m. el ma^y fy es subh mufyd. ma biddak^ tim^y min hena? htiwa m^ jirdcls jeby"" ly hus^noh. tirda tiljdim ''andy. m^ tird^^ tim^y. ridju emb^reh. nirda bil taman da. isha baqa bala n6m ! sihju es subh badry. hyja tisha es s^^a sitta. sihytu imta? d61 m^ jisM^ badry.

iddet	get	akalt {kalt)	ahatt (jpatt)
iddet	get	akalt (kalt)	afpatt {(patt)
iddety	gety	akatty (kalty)	akatty {(patty)
idda	g^	akal (kal)	abad [bad)
iddet	gat	akalet {kalet)	a^adet {fpadet)
iddena	gena	akalna {kalnd)	afpadna ijpadna)
iddetu	getu	akaltu (kaltu)	alpattu (Jpattu)
iddu	gu	akalu {kalu)	a^adu (fpadu)

The Egyptian Alphabet

85

addy	agy	dkul	dhod
tiddy	tigy	tdkul	tdi-od
tiddy	tigy	tdkly	tdfpdy
jiddy	jigy	jdkul	jdf}od
tiddy	tigy	tdkul	tdljod
niddy	nigy	ndkul	ndlpod
tiddu	tigu	tdklu	td^du
jiddu	jigu	jdklu	jdfpdu
baddy	bagy	bdkul	bdbod
bitiddy	bitigy	bitdkul	bitdfpod
bitiddy	bitigy	bitdkly	bitdhdy
bijiddy	bijigy	bijdkul	bijdfpod
bitiddy	bitigy	bitdkul	bitdhod
biniddy	binigy	bindkul	bind^od
bitiddu	bitigu	bitdklu	bitd^du
bijiddu	bijigu	bijdklu	bijdipdu
iddy	ta'^dla	kul	hod
iddu	tadly	kuly	hody
	tadlu	kulu	h,odu
middy	gay
	magy	ivdkil akl	wdfpid afpd

idd^t 'af^ak li myn? iddy loh qir^^n we ana addyhum lak ba'd^n ! iddyny sikkyna! kull m^ jib- dimiina biniddyhum baq^y^. m^ bijiddy^ hadd b^ga.

86 The Egyptian Alphabet

ga je^llf ummoh we jirga'' tany. bagy ^anduhum kuU j6m. gay jabdak. bijigu hena ji^'milu ^? m^ lohs magy hena. ah{ik baqa loh sana ma g^s hena. akal kull m^l abllh. jaklu lamma jisba'^u. kul, ma tistan- n^k hadd! akalna we sibi'na. taklu 6 fy ed duhr? kull ma jiktib wis^ j^hod frank^n. lamma suftoh k^n w^hid minny kull elly wajija. ahadn^hum ^alal ob^ra. hod es surM body da we r<ihy baqa!

intaq biFagal! el masgiinyn ma nataqlis wala kilma quddam el qady. zi'^lit elly m^ ruhti^ ab^rik laha. jisahh tiz^alu min sahibkum? lamma jiz^'al jisfarr. sUf el miraja bitilma' ezzai ! hallu el qezaz jilma"" qawy. lama'anoh m^ jedHms. el haryr da mu^ magzM taijib. gazalu el qutn hytg-n rufaija'a. iktim sirr habybak! katamna el habar ma qulnas li hadd, m^ jiktims es sirr j6m6n. iqtum hitta we iddy loh el bciqy! qatamu fil hij^r zaj el mag^nyn. ihlas baqa! mu^ r^jih tihlas en nahar da? hilsu min sa'a. ma nihlass qabl ed duhr. k^n balis lamma talabtoh.

rajih afda baM nuss sa'a. inta fMy es sa^a di? lamma jifdu jigu 'ala ed dywan. fidjet min suglaha. dira'oh wirim min qarset ed dabbilr. el waram rah min dawa el hakym. hudtidha wirmet. ilzin es san- dtiq da qabl ma tertih ! ntizin fy en nahar alf barmyl. wazantih laqHh teqyl qawy. ^'idny innak tesiif el qadyja di ! k^n mau'tid bi hidma. ana ma wa'adtti^ bi haga. wiq'et min es sibbak. la'a tliqa' ! suftoh waqi' min foq li taht. kan rajih jtiqa^

m^ tibtidys ilia lamma aqtil lak ! ibtad^na ni^- rab dubbin we ihna <ilad. ibtidy fil akl ! ii^tara loh s^'^a we katyna. jistiru luhum tarab^zat we kar^sy. biddy a^tiry hag^t ketyr lamma jigy ly fuhis. istiry

The Egyptian Alphabet 87

lak gurn^l tiqr^h fil wabtlrl inta ^nistina en nah^r da. uq^'ud ^nis ash^bak ^uwaija. hyja tiVaf ti^nis en n^s. auha^tina min zam^n. lamma tisafiru tti- ba^iina qawy. auha^tina, ]% baw%a ! ballyk 'andina suwaija ! ball^hum ''and abtihum we s^fir. mus rady jiballyh fil balad.

el bslb inqafal ''al^ja. e^ ^ibb^k mi jinqifil^ ilia min gtiwa. el 'ilba di tinqifil bil muMh jatara t elly imbi*" min el budi^'a di ? mi imbi^s minha wala haga. el fars da jimbi*" fil kanto. timba' lamma jigy sihibha.

bijinMu ""alal ^^k er ragyf bi ^e^ryn fadda. nadet fy es sfiq ^ala et tirmis. inhy el qadyja di we iblas ! es si^'a di tisiwy kim fy ed dilila? jisiwu ""e^ryn ferank. rabby ibnak we ihsin adaboh 1 jirabby firab we jeby^hum. rabb^nahum ^alal ^\zz, b^bbyh dil- waqt! biddoh jibabbyny ""andoh. babbu fultlshum taht el ard. mi tibabby^ minnoh higa^

mi^y ji^arsar fil ard. sar^aru ^al^h. wadda tili- doh jifarfishum kim j6m fy er ryf. kaskis el ""ara- byja li wara ! jikaskisu el husin ahsan je^'udd el bint, lagllghum min el \bi, jilagligtihum lil kalam. ta- mally jitlaglig lamma jitkallim. mi tilagligiis fil ka- lim ! inta lagligtiny ketyr.

ana mit'auwid ""alal masy ek ketyr. it'auwidet min sugraha ''alal qirija. humma bijit^'auwidu ^ala ruklib el b^l- tiVaf tithagga inglyzy? ithagga ly el kilma di! et talimyz mi jiVaftis jithaggu lissa. lizim titnaddaf, ji walad ! qtllu li ummukum tinad- dafkum qabl mi tigu el madrasa. qtil lil baddimyn jinaddafu es sila ! baddimak ithabas ^ahr fil zabtyja. in mi dafa'tti^ elly ''al^kum titbibsu. el maglis ba-

88 The Egyptian Alphabet

karn innuhum jithibsu. m% titfaddaltis ti^rabu qahwa ""andina el 1^1 di? itfaddalu istaraijahul ma bid- duhums jitfaddalu fy bgtak? el malik jitna^'am fil akl we e^ ^urb. humma mitna^amyn fy Y^ethum. biddy atna"am fy b^tna. el habl elly k^n el humar marbtlt byh itfakk. iza sadd^toh jeqtim jitfakk. h<iwa r%il mitrabby taijib. ban^tha mitrabbyjyn fil ma- diris. ubw^tak jitrabbu fy enhy kuttab?

es sandllq itmasmar bi masamyr hadyd. mas- maru bab el b^t qabl met safiru. ana mit^'aggib min k6nak lissa ma Ijulustis. it'aggibu min kutr en nals. jit'aggibu elly safirt waj^h. el b^t itwaddab qabl el ''uzHma. ahwalhum itwaddabet taijib el aijam di. 'da r%il mu^ mitmaddin abadan. itmaddinu lamma it'^al- limu fil madaris. d61 nas mitmaddinyn.

nazzil ''afsak fil markib ! mus ""auzyn jinazzilu hadd waj^hum. hiiwa gallid kutuboh bi gild ahmar. kit^b as^ar el fardtlsy e^ i^cl^'ir el farsy itgallid kuwaijis qawy. farragny 'ala m^ ""andak ! bukra jifarragtina ^alal buda'a el gedyda. sarrafny fulUs ketyr qawy. jisarrafdh aktar min el lazim. hyja wakkiletny fil mas^la di. myn elly jiwakkilak 'annoh? htlwa m^ addib^ ibnoh zaj el Islzim. el me^'allimyn jiaddibCih bid^l abUh.

akkidu ly innuhum m^ jis^firfis min g^ry. el ha- bar da mus muakkad. dawaha taijibny. el hukama ma ""irftis jitaijibu el ""aij^n. Ijaijatet ly qamys we libi,s. jiVaf jihaijat bantal6nat taijib. warryny ydak ! el ban^t jiwarrlina asgalhum fil imtih^n. waddy el wa- lad b^toh ! bidduhum jiwaddiina el madrasa bil z{ir.

el qMy simi' loh. m^ biddak^ tisma"" biqfil ^? istaksifu ''ala mahall gedyd. safir bahr barra jistak-

The Egyptian Alphabet 89

^if ""ala bilM gedyda. ana istaswibt ""adam es safar. jistaswibu innak m^ terHh^ waj^hum, istahsinet ka- l^m abliha. t elly tistahsintlh ? biddak ti§tM samak ? istadu gaz^l^n min eg gabal. istanniina lamma nigy ! kunt tistanna myn lamma ^uftak? istanadu ^'ala ed darabzyn. biddak tistinid ""ala kal^m mazbtit. quss ^aVak ahsan tawyl qawy ! qass^na el qumcl^ ""ala qadd el luz<im. midd riglak ""ala qadd hasyrtak ! inta bitmidd fil masy. lammet hudtimha we b^i'^get. m^ jelimmtli^ ^afsuhum ilia ba'^d m^ jertih. nimna "^ala es suttlh. ten^mu fy enhy 16kanda? sadd e^ ^ibbak ^a^^n ma haddi^ jebuss minnoh. es sikka di masdHda. fidil jekidd tM en nahar. kadd^t min es subh HI magrib. el mas^jib ''ammetna. ma azunni^ in el hawa el asfar je'imm el bilM kuUaha.

q^l el jahtidy: aqul lak, j^ nusr^ny? qal loh: qui ly, j^ jahfidy! ana ^^lim min ^ulama el ""agam, we m^ haddi^ jiqdar jib^hisny fil ''ilm. mu^ es suMn amar bi istihkam istambill? ]% sijMy, elly tiwahhidu all^h! da ^t ""omrak ma kaltoh. m^ lohi^ ab wala ubt. ihna m^ fihimn^^ 1^ es su^l wala el gaw^b. inta in ^irift m^ tequl^ li hadd 1^ el qaryb wala el garyb. qi,bilt hasan b^ mahmild, wakyl el auqaf. in kan kallimn^h kida, jiz'al. iza ga, ariih waj^h; m^ g^^, afdal fy b^ty. lau kunna neriih, jinbisit. iza kunt tidfa' dijtinak, teriih; m^ tidfa'^ r^h tinhibis.

go The Egyptian Alphabet

V. Proverbs and Sentences.

(gumal).

et tdlym fy es sugr zaj e7i nags ^alal hagar, el hurub nuss es saga a, ^and ed dyq jinirif e^ saddyq, myn talab el ^ula sihir el lajdly. hus min fummak jetul kummak, qabl fnd tlmsy silf rdjih tehott riglak Jen. myn tanna ndl md jitjnanna, in kdn lak ^and el kalb hdga, qui loh jd sydy, jifty ^alalibra^ we jibla el midra, et tijur "ala askdlha tuqa" , jom ""asal we joTfi basal, iza md kuntis tiqdar tit has sal ^ala md te- ryd, ryd elly tiqdar tithassal ^aleh, in suft en nuguni fy ed duhr. bany ddam md jimlds ^enoh ilia et turdb, ihna/y et ta/kyr loe er rabb fy et tadbyr, ez zar ai^dar we en nds aipbar, el hasud Id jesud, sahib el haqq loh fnaqdm. el qijdma my'' ad we er 7' abb jihkum. es sugl elly tibtidyh taijib, taqryban ipulus, 9nyn gdwir el hadddd jithiriq bi ndroh. elly 7na jehim^mak wassy ^aleh goz U7nm.ak. ndkul we 7iisrab we bukra nemut. sahib bdlen kadddb. qdlu HI gindy ^azzil rama tartu- roh miTt es sibbdk, jehibb el ^ttla we lau ^ala l^dzuq, itlub eg gdr qabl ed ddr, ive el rafyq qabl et taryq, el qird ^and timmoh gazdl. basal bi ^amsa ive bi fiamsa basal, el aivar be7i el ^imy sultdn,

md fhys gawdbdt fil bos fa, el gawdb Tnin masr It ameryka ^aleh qirs ivdhid, fy lak gawdb mesogar fil bosta. ""auz waraqten bosia kull zvahda bi qirsen. el bosta tigy imtaf ugret el bosta ^ala el gurndldt li bi-

The Egyptian Alphabet 91

lad el if rang etnen miljem. tiqdar tisaija et tard min el bosta el gedyda fy masr, ittihdd el bosta el ""omumy jidfpul fyh dilwaqt hull ed dinja taqryban, wabur ed daqahlyja jisdfir bil bosta ^ala bildd er rum jdvi el arbd e^ §ubh es sd^a "^asara. wisihiy gawdboh embdreh, we arudd ^aleh dilwaqt. ugret el bosta ^ala et turud li bildd el if rang hiddsar qirs, fyh nds ketyr jigmau waraq bosta. we jilazzaquh fy dafdtir, we bad ed dafdtir di iza kdnet kdmilah laha qyma ^azyma ^asdn ketyr min el ivaraq el qadym nadir qaivy. ugret tele- grdf ^asar kilmdt ddfpil masr qirsen we nuss, tiqdar tiktib telegrdfak bil ^araby wala bil ifrangy, md fyhs telegrdf ^asdnak lissa. telegrdfat ruter we hawds jegybu Una alpbdr bildd el if rang hull jom, ugret tazkaret es sikka el hadyd min masr li asjut etnen giyie fil brymo, we etnen bintu fil sekondo. zvabur el eksebres juqaf ^ala taldt mahattdt bass,

ism fpedewy masr ^abbds bdsa et tdny. mehammad taufyq el fpedewy es sdbiq kdn jehibb masr we jehibb d^erha ; ive ivafdtoh ^ibit ^alal masryjyn kulluhum. masr min qadym el azal maqsuma li qismen, bahary we qibly. fy kull qism saba mudyryjdt. mudyryjdt bahry hyja: qaljubyja, daqahlyja, garbyja, sarqyja, be- tter a, menufyja; ive ?nudyryjdt qibly hyja: el gyza, ba- nysuef el faijum, minja, asjut, girga, qena we mudy- ryjet el aswdn. saqqdra, elly kd7i ismaha zamdn menf, kdnet auwal talit li bildd masr ; baden luqsor, elly kdnu el jundn jisammuha t^bes, baqet tafpt ma^r ; we bad luqsor baqet iskandaryja et taht, el ^agam dafpalu masr min aktar min alfen sana we hakamuha muddet my ten sana taqryban, fy aijdm er rumdii (et talja- nyjyn el quddni) zve el jundn, iskandaryja kdnet hyja

92 The Egyptian Alphabet

taf},t masr, fnasr el qdhira ismaha bil almdny kairo. iskandar el kebyr, malik er rum, bana medynet iskan- daryja zve indafan fyha. el luga el qibtyja kd7iu jista- miluha fy masr fil kitdba we el kaldm qabl du^ul el islam; fy kutubfpdndt bildd el if rang kutub ketyra maktuba bil lisdn el qibty, el bahr el abjad we el bahr el azraq jingim'u sazva ^and el Ipartum fy wast afryqa, we min hendk jibtidy bahr en nyl,

hdlet el mdlyja el masryja fy aijdm ^abbds bdsa et tdny ger hdletha fy aijdm. ism.a'yl bdsa, el f^att el ge- dyd min as jut li girga infatah ^an qaryb, we bad su- waija jemidduh ^ala en nyl li hadd qe7ia. jatara el qudbdn betu es sikka el hadyd ^alal f^att et tdny haf- tuha wala lissa f es sikak el gedyda fy mudyryjet el behera tifplas bd'd suwaija, hisdbdt ""amal eg guz et tdny fnin es sikka el hadyd Idzim taqdymha hdlan, el mdlyja rdjiha tirfa darybet el ard di ^asdn in dywdn el asgdl a^adha HI mandf el ^om^umyja. el ard di tidfa mdl qadd if mandub el mdlyja rdjih jihdar HI mudyryja ^asdn jehaqqaq el masdla elly katabet "atiha min jomen. el mufattis biqul el maija ketyr fy et tira dilwaqt ; huwa amar bi fath el qantara di bad hamast yjdm, et tira di rdjihyn jitahharuha bad gunia. el arddy el ^dlja elly kdnet qabla tamally sardqy rawdha el mufattis es sana di,

bildd eg gezdir fil waqt el hddir tdb^a li fransa ; we hyja wdq^a ben mardkis we tunis, el lisdn elly jitkallimuh aktar min geroh fy afryqa huwa el lisdn el ^araby. nyu jork akbar balad fy ameryka, Id kin tafpt el hukuma fy wasinton. asdmy hukkdm urubba: bildd el inglyz, edward es sdbt" , malik zve sultdn; almdn- je, wilhelm et tdny ; itdlja,fikt6r ^ammanuel et tdlit ; bi-

The Egyptian Alphabet 93

lad en nemsa, fransys jUsif ; bildd el moskof^ niqula et tdny ; /ransa, lube; bildd er rum, g'^f^gy / w^^ bildd et ttirk, ^abd el hamyd fpdn. fy aktar bildd el /rang magdlis a ddhum jt aiji7ihum el ahdly, zaj maglis ^aura el qawdnyn fy masr. ahsan bindjdt el isldm qa^r el hamra, elly el esbanjol jisammuh alhambra, fy ge- ranada min bildd esbdnja, eg ges el almdny aqwa ges fy ed dinja, el gabal el abjad a la gabal fy urubba; huwa wdhid min el gibdl el mcirufa bi ism el alb.

fyh madrasa fy masr jiallimu fyha el muhandisyn we el mimdrgyja. el fotogrdfdt ^uwar jdl^duha bi nur es sams, inta bitifalUm ""ilm en nabdtdt we ^ilm el bajdtra fy madraset ez zira'a f tiqdar ti^raf ketyr ^an ""ilm en nabdtdt min genenet el azbakyja, ^asdn fyha asgdr ketyra min wast afryqa we min bildd el hind we bildd tdnja. el ard medauwara, mus mebattata, hyja tedur haivalen es sams, we mus es sams elly tedur hawalen el ard, el qamar jedur hawalen el ard kull talatyn jom marra, ^usuf e^ sams jihsal min migy el qamar ben el ard we e§ sams ; we fpusuf el qamar jihsal min migy el ard ben el qamar we es sams lamma dill el ard juqa" ^alal qamar. ism el feldsuf elly il}tara en nadddra elly jesufu biha en nugum kdn ga- lyleo ; huwa mdt sanet 1642 mylddyja we indafan fy felorensa, el kitdb elly kataboh baflymos, el feldsuf er rumy, ^ala en nugum targimoh bil ^araby el Jergdny, el gabr ^ilm hisdb a^la, jistd^milu fyh el huruf biddl el addd, el kymja ""ilm jtrafu boh gins el agza elly mitrakkiba minha el asjdt. el wabur jim^y bil buf}dr ; we el bufpdr jitla min el maija es sufpna, Idkin fyh waburdt timiy bi hdga tdnja ger el bu^dr ismaha el kahrabayja. el kahramdn jitla min borussia we min

94 ^'^^ Egyptian Alphabet

barr el anadol. el gdz elly jinaiiwaru byh sikak el bildd, we il gdz elly jiwalla'uh fil lambdt fil bijut, jit- la" u min el fahm el kagar, darivyfi, el "dlim el in- glyzy fy et taby^a, iktasaf el asl el haqyqy HI insdn we el mafpluqat et tdnja. afkdroh "a?i el masdld di Tnd'rufa fil waqt el hddir bi ism asl el mahltiqit, we ketyr min el "ulania el kubdr qiblu el afkdr di.

auwal kitdb taba^uh kdn fy germdnja min rub^emyja we ii-amsyn sana. min qablaha kdnet el kutub kullaha maktuba bil i^att. akbar feldsifet el "arab ibn syna el maruf "and el ifrang bi ism avisenna, we ibn rusd, el maruf "anduhum bi ism averrhoes. ibn syna in- walad fy bu^dra sanet j^8 higryja^ tve ibn rusd in- walad fy bildd esbdnja sanet ^20 higryja. el maqryzy mat sanet 81 g higryja; huiva katab gogrdfyjet masr elly intaba"et fy matbaet buldq ; we ab el m^ahdsin katab tdryfp masr m.in aijdm el ^alyfa "oniar li hadd mot el meallif sanet 8 4^ higryja, ibn Ipaldun kdn min a lam el masryjyn, zve katab tdryfp tawyl li masr, qa- ritis dywdn el buhtury es mir el mashurf es sefp ndsyf el jdzgy katab kitdb "azym ismoh magma'' el bahr^n. arba riwdjdt 7nin riwdjdt moljer es mir el fransdwy ittargimu bil "araby ed ddrig targima "azyma we intabau fy masr,

jifalUm "ilm el luga, "andak qdrntls "araby we in- glyzyf tiqdar tequl ly enhy agriimyja "araby ahsan min el kullf qaretis el maqdla "alal "araby ed dd- rig bi huruf frangyja fy gurndl el moqattam beta" embdrehf el falldh el masry mu§ mifalUm. lef "asdn innohjiltizimjifallim alifbe sa"ba qawy, we lamma ifallim el alifbe di jildqyha md tin/a" us fil "araby elly dijitkallimoh, huwa "auz jifallim el lisdn elly jitkal-

The Egyptian Alphabei * ' 95

limuh en nahdr da, mus el lisdn elly ifkallifnuk min muddet humsemyt sana, eg gardnyl fy ma^r matbua bi luga aktar en nds ma jirafuhds; el luga elly el gurndlgyja dol jiktibuha mu^ lugat el ^arab betu za- mdn, wala betu dilwaqt, el watan el gurndl el ^araby el qibty el wdhyd fy masr, ibn sdhby kdn fatah duk- kdn jiby"" fyha hardjir ive hatt ildndt fy arba"" gur- ndldt ; Idkin qaret ^an motoh fy el ahr^m en na- hdr da,

jd abulhol! intaq zve qui Una ^an tdryfp masr el qadym we ""an mulukha we hurubha zve turabha! es sams tisriq we tigrib ; we er ryh jitlu we jiskut ; we e7i nyl jezyd we jinqas ; Idkin ahrdm eg gyzafddila zaj m,d hyja. ^ijun habyby sud zaj el lei, we (pudud habyby homr zaj el ward ; sotha zaj sot el bulbul ; we hanakha zaj Ipdtim selymdn. sahyh inny tamally asdfir fy ed dinja, bahary we qibly, Idkin qalby dai- Tnan ""and habyby. ^and habyby ddjy we '^and habyby kamd7i dawdy. dfiir el kitdb zaj dfj-ir es safar fil bahr ; lamma tusal el markib li dfpir es safar, e mardkbyja zve el mesdfryn jinbistu.

VI. Punctuation and Other Signs.

i^aldmdt HI qirdja we HI hisdb).

, damma (waqf b^fyf).

; damma we noqta (waqf atwal).

noqta (waqf tim).

: noqtet^n (ma'n^ha zaj ; hag^t zaj d61 ; d61).

? 'aMmet istifh^m.

! ^al^met ta'^aggub we 'al^met amr.

( ) q6s^n (el kal^m elly b^nhum tafsyr el kal^m elly fat).

* nigma (^t^f fy giha tinja!).

-{- zajid, we (gam*"). — n^qis (tarh). X fy, marrat (darb). ^ ""ala (qisma). = jis^wy.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY

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