jptw

Egyptian

Etymology

Plural form of tw.

Pronunciation

(modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /iptuː/
- Conventional anglicization: iptu

Determiner

f pl proximal, later vocative demonstrative determiner

(Old Egyptian) these
(Middle Egyptian, archaizing) O (vocative reference)

Usage notes

This demonstrative was originally a determiner but could later be used alone, like a pronoun. When used as a determiner it follows the noun it describes.

In Old Egyptian it forms a contrastive pair with the demonstrative jptf, in which jptw is proximal.

Its use in Middle Egyptian texts is an archaism.

In Old Egyptian this form is also used for the dual. Traditionally this is interpreted as a summary writing of a special dual form jptwj (attested as such only in archaizing Middle Egyptian texts). An alternative possible interpretation is that there simply was no distinction between the dual and plural demonstrative determiners.

Inflection

Old Egyptian demonstratives

	determiners						pronouns¹	adverbs
number	singular		dual		plural		unmarked
gender	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	unmarked
proximal to speaker	pn	tn	*jpnj	jptnj, jptntj	jpn	jptn	nn	—
distal	pf	tf	*jpfj	jptfj, jptftj	jpf	jptf	nf	—
proximal to spoken of	pj, pw, p	tj, tw	jpwj	jptwj, jptwtj	jpw	jptw, jptwt	nw	—
vocative	pꜣ	tꜣ	—	—	—	—	nꜣ	ꜥꜣ
Unmarked for number and gender, but treated syntactically as masculine plurals when used with participles and relative forms, and as feminine singulars when referred to by resumptive pronouns.

Middle Egyptian demonstratives

	determiners and pronouns			adverbs
number	singular		plural¹
gender	masculine	feminine	unmarked
proximal	pn	tn	nn	ꜥn
distal	pf, pfꜣ	tf, tfꜣ	nf, nfꜣ	ꜥf
‘copula’ and vocative	pw, pwy	tw, twy	nw	—
anaphoric	pꜣ	tꜣ	nꜣ	ꜥꜣ
Joined by n(j) to nouns they modify.

Late Egyptian demonstratives and articles

	masculine	feminine	plural	adverb
pronoun	pꜣw			dj
determiners and pronouns	pꜣj	tꜣj	nꜣj
possessive determiners¹	pꜣy	tꜣy	nꜣy
relational pronouns (‘possessive prefixes’)	p-n, pꜣ	t-nt, tꜣ	nꜣyw, nꜣ
definite articles	pꜣ	tꜣ	nꜣ²
indefinite articles	wꜥ²		nhꜣy²
Used with suffix pronouns. Originally joined by n(j) to nouns they modify; later without it.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jptw

jpṯw

[18th Dynasty]

References

“jptw (lemma ID 851263)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎^[1], Corpus issue 18, Web app version 2.1.5, Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning by order of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils by order of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 2004–26 July 2023
Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, page 70.2
Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 17
James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 55.
Edel, Elmar (1955-1964) Altägyptische Grammatik, volume 1, Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, § 182 et seq., page 83 et seq.
Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1929) The Plural and Dual in Old Egyptian, Bruxelles: Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, § 60, pages 61–62