Amritas links to my previous post, and tells me something I didn't know (I love when that happens!):
The ancient Egyptian name for Egypt was t-'-w-y (vowels unknown), literally 'two lands'. t-' was 'land' (masculine) and -w-y was the masculine dual ending.
The Hebrew word for Egypt, misrayim (מצרים) also has the the dual ending: -ayim. I imagine that this is a reference to the fact that Egypt as a whole is a union of two distinct regions, each with its own history, known to us as Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. This reminds me of the Hebrew name for Mesopotamia: Naharayim (נהרים), which means "two rivers" - referring to that land's major features: the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The only other place name with a dual ending, that I can think of, is the Hebrew name of Jerusalem - Y'rushalayim (ירושלים), whose meaning is obscure, but whose dual ending inspires the notion that there are two Jerusalems: one Earthly, the other Heavenly. (These words, like all geographical features in Hebrew, are grammatically feminine-singular, despite the dual ending.)
There is a folk-etymology for misrayim which derives it from the word sar (צר) - narrow. There could be something to it, for Egypt is a narrow land, hugging the banks of the Nile, surrounded by desert. The m- at the beginning would be part of the pattern, not the root, cf. misparayim (מספרים) - scissors. This begs the question: Is there any relationship between Egyptian t-' and Hebrew s-r? It is not inconceivable. Both languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic language group (of which Semitic is a sub-group). Looking at the consonant correspondences in this table, I could hypothesize that an original th > s in Hebrew while th > t in Egyptian. The r > ' is also not inconceivable. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Afro-Asiatic languages to know. I've looked for information on the web about the family, and turned up surprisingly little, considering that it's one of the world's oldest, largest and most important. Here's what wikipedia says:
The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia. Other names sometimes given to this family include "Afrasian", "Hamito-Semitic" (deprecated), "Lisramic" (Hodge 1972), "Erythraean" (Tucker 1966.)
The following language subfamilies are included:
- Berber languages
- Chadic languages
- Egyptian languages
- Semitic languages
- Cushitic languages
- Beja language (subclassification controversial; widely classified as part of Cushitic)
- Omotic languages (controversial; sometimes argued to be outside Afro-Asiatic)
Here's their list of characteristic Afro-Asiatic features:
- a two-gender system in the singular, with the feminine marked by the /t/ sound,
- VSO typology with SVO tendencies,
- a set of emphatic consonants, variously realized as glottalized, pharyngealized, or implosive, and
- a templatic morphology in which words inflect by internal changes as well as prefixes and suffixes.
Some cognates are:
- b-n- "build" (Ehret: *bĭn), attested in Chadic, Semitic (*bny), Cushitic (*mĭn/*măn "house") and Omotic (Dime bin- "build, create");
- m-t "die" (Ehret: *maaw), attested in Chadic (eg Hausa mutu), Egyptian (mwt, mt, Coptic mu), Berber (mmet, pr. yemmut), Semitic (*mwt), and Cushitic (Proto-Somali *umaaw/*-am-w(t)- "die")
- s-n "know", attested in Chadic, Berber, and Egyptian;
- l-s "tongue" (Ehret: *lis' "to lick"), attested in Semitic (*lasaan/lisaan), Egyptian (ns, Coptic las), Berber (iles), Chadic (eg Hausa harshe), and possibly Omotic (Dime lits'- "lick");
- s-m "name" (Ehret: *sŭm / *sĭm), attested in Semitic (*sm), Berber (isem), Chadic (eg Hausa suna), Cushitic, and Omotic (though the Berber form, isem, and the Omotic form, sunts, are sometimes argued to be Semitic loanwords.) The Egyptian smi "report, announce" may also be cognate.
- d-m "blood" (Ehret: *dîm / *dâm), attested in Berber (idammen), Semitic (*dam), Chadic, and arguably Omotic. Cushitic *dîm/*dâm, "red", may be cognate.
In the verbal system, Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic (including Beja) all provide evidence for a prefix conjugation:
English Arabic (Semitic) Kabyle (Berber) Saho (Cushitic; verb is "kill") Beja (verb is "arrive") he dies yamuutu yemmut yagdifé iktim she dies tamuutu temmut yagdifé tiktim they (m.) die yamuutuuna mmuten yagdifín iktimna you (m. sg.) die tamuutu temmuteḍ tagdifé tiktima you (m. pl.) die tamuutuuna temmutem tagdifín tiktimna I die ˀamuutu mmuteγ agdifé aktim we die namuutu nemmut nagdifé niktim
A causative affix s is widespread (found in all its subfamilies), but is also found in other groups, such as the Niger-Congo languages.The possessive pronoun suffixes are supported by Semitic, Berber, Cushitic (including Beja), and Chadic.
The Hebrew word sar, in addition to meaning 'narrow', also means 'trouble'. Egypt was a place in which the Jews had some notable troubles. You might be more familiar with the word by way of the Yiddish 'tzuris' - troubles, from the Hebrew sarot (צרות), with the same meaning. In English, we use the word 'straits' in a similar fashion, e.g. 'dire straits' (a strait is a narrow body of water). 'Strait' in Hebrew is meysar (מיצר), from the same root, and in Hebrew it also symbolizes trouble.
UPDATE: I just realized that there could be a connection between sar (צר) - narrow and eres (ארץ) - land, linking it semantically with Egyptian t-'. Metathesis (switching letters, or parts, of words) is quite common in Semitic languages, probably the result of the root-and-pattern morphology, which can easily create unusual sound combinations. I was looking for this kind of relationship back when Amritas was talking about 'adam' and 'dam', without success at the time. Perhaps now I have found it? Of course, there's a problem: The lack of semantic relationship between 'narrow' and 'land'. Oh, well.
UPDATE: Now, several hours later, it occurs to me that the word sura (צורה) could be the missing link: it means 'shape' or 'form'. Although its root is s-w-r, roots are often related in this way. Also sur (צור) means 'rock', siyur (ציור) means 'drawing', 'picture', sir (ציר) means 'axis'. There seem to be a host of ways that sar and eres could be related.
UPDATE: Amritas responds, and confirms my guess as to the meaning of t-'-w-y!
Posted by David Boxenhorn at December 13, 2004 11:43 AM