The focus of this paper concerns different verbal expressions found within the ancient Egyptian historical and archaeological record that describes the act of playing different instruments. This paper sheds light on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic terminology by presenting the corresponding translations and transliterations from the Pharaonic Period. A discussion is carried out concerning whether or not the terms in question have any polysemic meanings as well as any traceable etymology or developmental aspects. Tomb scenes with captions of expressions on how to play musical instruments are the primary sources for this paper to demonstrate the different variations of the terminology.

The writing system used by the ancient Maya civilization has intrigued researchers and aficionados for centuries. Now that it has mostly been deciphered, the emphasis in the field of Mayan epigraphy has shifted to a study of the system of phonological, morphological, and grammatical rules that once governed the language that the hieroglyphs encode. One of the most important resources for linguistic study of this type is a comprehensive, electronic corpus of texts to investigate phraseology, frequency information, and collocations. Because Mayan linguistic epigraphy is in the early stages, a publicly available, editable corpus would be an invaluable resource in arriving at consensual readings. Unfortunately, no such corpus currently exists. The purpose of this project is to present MayanWiki as a relational database of hieroglyphic transcriptions and transliterations with a wiki frontend that includes advanced search functionality that meets the aforementioned criteria. The principle behind the wiki is to accelerate the convergence of readings to the "truth". Once the database is fully populated by users, it will become a valuable tool allowing them to manipulate data in ways that will facilitate scientific discovery of new and interesting linguistic patterns.

L’objectif du travail de recherche est de présenter une analyse du système d’écriture hiéroglyphique anatolien entre la moitié du IIe millénaire av. J.-C. – quand des symboles graphiques déjà connus et employés en milieu anatolien commencent à s’organiser en système – et les premiers siècles du Ier millénaire av. J.-C. Le corpus pris en considération est constitué essentiellement par les inscriptions monumentales de la période hittite. Les caractéristiques principales de ces inscriptions ont été par la suite comparées avec un certain nombre de textes de la période post-hittite. Au cours du travail de recherche, à une analyse proprement philologique et linguistique des textes qui constituent le corpus examiné, on a préféré une approche différente, capable de prendre en considération tous les aspects et les propriétés des hiéroglyphes anatoliens. Les pratiques sociales liées aux phénomènes d’écriture, le choix des supports, les pratiques de mise en page des textes, le rôle des rédacteurs, la perception des textes de la part des lecteurs et le caractère « politique » du corpus ont constitué le véritable cœur de la recherche. Un intérêt particulier a été également porté au rapport entre « code scriptural » et « code visuel », et notamment au fait que, dans le cas de l’écriture hiéroglyphique anatolienne – comme dans le cas de toute écriture hiéroglyphique – l’opposition figuratif vs textuel doit forcement être mis de côté en raison des principes mêmes du fonctionnement du système d’écriture. / The main goal of the research work is to present a survey on the Anatolian hieroglyphic script between the middle of the 2nd millennium BC – when a series of symbols already known and used in Anatolia takes the form of a proper writing system – and the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC. The text corpus chosen as case study mainly consists of the monumental inscriptions dating to the Hittite Empire Period. These inscriptions and their main characteristics have been subsequently compared with some representative texts dating to the Neo-Hittite period. Concerning the methodological aspects of the research, instead of a philological and linguistic analysis of the corpus taken into consideration, it has been preferred an approach able to take into account the social practices connected with the use of the writing system. According to this methodological choice, special attention has been paid to the text carriers, the organization of the texts’ layout, the role played by the authors and the scribes, the ‘consumption’ of the texts by the target audience, and the political and ideological character of the inscriptions. In addition, in the light of the fundamental nature of the Anatolian hieroglyphic system, the signs of which are both images and signs of writing, particular attention has also been paid to the link existing between ‘writing’ and ‘visual’ codes, and especially to the ambiguous relationship existing between the iconographic and textual elements of the inscriptions.

Two variants of ancient Egyptian were used for different categories of written communication during the last millennium B.C. The vernacular, known as Demotic, served as the written language for administrative, legal and literary documents. Traditional Egyptian (égyptien de tradition), written in the hieroglyphic script and with linguistic structures that are purported to imitate those of the Classical Egyptian, was still used to compose mainly religious documents. The present work treats the verbal system of Traditional Egyptian using texts dated to the period 400-30 B.C. These documents include royal stelae and priestly decrees, among these the Rosetta Stone, as well as biographical inscriptions. After a general introduction, and a presentation of morphological characteristics, the study takes up the basic verbal patterns. The suffix conjugations, the sDm=fand sDm.n=f , in its various meanings and combinations, affirmative and negative, are dealt with, as is the pseudoparticiple. The infinitive, as it appears in e.g. pseudoverbal constructions and the sDm pw ir.n=f is examined in a separate section, with an additional chapter covering the passive forms of the suffix conjugation. A summary of the conclusions that are reached by this study are presented in the final chapter. Graphic variations show that morphemes formerly used to distinguish verbal classes are largely ignored. Only a few irregular verbs still display, at times, writings that retain the old inflections, often, however, without corresponding to the category that would be expected given the context. These writings are unevenly distributed among the documents, testifying to the existence of local, or perhaps rather individual, grammatical systems. Similarly, the co-existence in Traditional Egyptian of the two forms of the suffix conjugation sDm.n=fand sDm=f, both used to express a completed event, is best understood when each document is studied separately. There is a general avoidance of forms and expressions that parallel those found in Demotic. This appears to have been of greater importance than following the rules of Classical Egyptian. The use of the conjunctive and infinitival constructions, under certain conditions, confirms this observation.

The analysis of language contact phenomena, as with many types of linguistic analysis, starts from the similarity and difference of linguistic systems. This dissertation will examine the consequences of linguistic similarity and the social construction of difference in the ‘Lowland Mayan linguistic area’, a region spanning parts of Guatemala, Southern Mexico, Belize and Honduras, in which related languages, all belonging to the Mayan language family, have been in intensive contact with each other over at least the past two millennia. The linguistic outcomes of this contact are described in detail in the dissertation. They include contact-induced changes in the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the languages involved of a type and degree that seems to contravene otherwise robust cross-linguistic tendencies. I propose that these cross-linguistically unusual outcomes of language contact in the Maya Lowlands result, in part, from an awareness of the inherited similarities between these languages, and in part from the role that linguistic features, but not languages as whole systems, appear to have played in the formation of community or other identities. This dissertation investigates two complementary questions about language contact phenomena that can be ideally explored through the study of languages with a high level of inherited similarity in contact with one another. The first is how historically specific, dynamic strategies and processes of constructing and asserting group identity and difference, as well as the role that language plays in these, can condition the outcomes of language contact. The second is more language internal: what role does (formal, structural) inherited similarity play in conditioning the outcome of language contact between related languages? These two questions are connected in the following hypothesis: that inherited linguistic similarity can itself be an important resource in the construction of identity and difference in particular social settings, and that the awareness of similarity between languages (mediated, as it is, by these processes of identity construction) facilitates contact-induced changes that are unlikely, or even unavailable without that perception of sameness. This proposal carries with it a call for more research on contact between related languages as related languages, and not as utterly separate systems. / text

La « dissimilation graphique » est une particularité récurrente des écritures égyptiennes, en particulier à l’Ancien Empire (IIIe-VIe dynasties, env. 2700/2150 av. J. C.). À cette époque, la pluralité (aussi bien grammaticale que lexicale) était indiquée par le triplement des sémogrammes, signes investis d’une valeur sémantique et censés permettre la compréhension des lexèmes. De ce fait, si les idéogrammes et classificateurs étaient d’ordinaire répétés trois fois à l’identique, la « dissimilation » désigne les occurrences dans lesquelles ces trois signes sont distincts. Par exemple, si un mot comme bAk.w, « serviteurs », est traditionnellement accompagné de trois hommes assis, l’un d’entre eux pourra être remplacé par une femme en cas de dissimilation. De même, si mHy.t, « poissons », comprend habituellement trois poissons de même espèce, sa version dissimilée offrira trois espèces différentes. Cette thèse se donne pour objectif d’analyser de façon systématique la dissimilation graphique, majoritairement attestée dans les inscriptions hiéroglyphes des tombes royales et privées, mais également dans certains documents hiératiques. À travers cette étude, les raisons supposées de l’existence de la dissimilation graphique sont exposées. En conséquence, la classification égyptienne se voit placée sous de nouveaux éclairages. De plus, par l’examen d’un nombre important de textes égyptiens de l’Ancien Empire, de nouvelles analyses des fonctions des signes qui les composent seront proposées afin d’éclaircir certaines zones d’ombres de la linguistique égyptologique. / The peculiarity called “dissimilation graphique” is recurrent in Egyptian writing systems, particularly during Old Kingdom (Dyn. III-VI, ca. 2700-2150 BC). At this time, plurality (grammatical and lexical) is indicated by the threefold of semograms, signs that have a semantic value and allow to understand the lexemes. Thus, if ideograms and classifiers are ordinary reproduced three times identically, “dissimilation” refers to occurrences where these three signs are different. For example, if bAk.w, “servants”, is usually followed by three men, in case of dissimilation, one of them can be replaced by a woman. In the same way, if mHy.t, “fish”, habitually takes three identical fish, a dissimilated version will show three different species. This Ph.D Thesis aims to analyse in a systematic way the process of “dissimilation graphique”, mostly found in hieroglyphic inscriptions of royal and private tombs, but also in some hieratic documents. Through this study, the supposed reasons of dissimilation are exposed. Consequently, Egyptian classification is newly enlightened. Moreover, in examining a great number of Old Kingdom texts, new analysis of the signs functions are proposed to clarify some unclear elements of egyptological Linguistics.

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that the Maya snake emblem glyph is associated with religious specialists, instead of geographic locations, as emblem glyphs are typically understood to be. The inscriptions and the media on which the snake emblem glyph occurs will be analyzed to determine the role or function of the "Lord of the Snake." Temporal and spatial data has also been collected to aid in understanding the enigmatic glyph. The snake emblem glyph has recently been identified as originating from a broad area containing the sites of El Peru and La Corona in Guatemala, and Dzibanche, Mexico, a departure from the longstanding choice of Calakmul, Mexico. Unprovenanced snake emblem glyph texts have been cataloged under a "Site Q" designation ('Q' for the Spanish word Que, meaning "which") by Peter Mathews. Site Q is thus not securely identified geographically, which confounds efforts to designate a particular site as the snake emblem glyph site. Other problems with the snake emblem glyph, such as its geographically wide dispersal, hint that it is not a title of a particular city or region. Yet another problem is "a proper fit" between the individuals listed on unprovenanced material and individuals named at sites associated with the snake emblem glyph. It is argued that the interpretation of the snake emblem glyph differs from how emblem glyphs are presently understood. Rather than representing a physical location, the snake emblem glyph represents a mythological place or "state," containing members who legitimize their lineage (association) through ritual events such as communication with supernaturals via the vision serpent. The specialists perform rituals, scatterings, are ballplayers, and witness events. They are rarely associated with accession, which by current interpretation is implicitly tied to emblem glyphs.

Encoding hieroglyphic texts is time-consuming. If a text already exists as hand-written transcription, there is an alternative, namely OCR. Off-the-shelf OCR systems seem difficult to adapt to the peculiarities of Ancient Egyptian. Presented is a proof-of-concept tool that was designed to digitize texts of Urkunden IV in the hand-writing of Kurt Sethe. It automatically recognizes signs and produces a normalized encoding, suitable for storage in a database, or for printing on a screen or on paper, requiring little manual correction. The encoding of hieroglyphic text is RES (Revised Encoding Scheme) rather than (common dialects of) MdC (Manuel de Codage). Earlier papers argued against MdC and in favour of RES for corpus development. Arguments in favour of RES include longevity of the encoding, as its semantics are font-independent. The present study provides evidence that RES is also much preferable to MdC in the context of OCR. With a well-understood parsing technique, relative positioning of scanned signs can be straightforwardly mapped to suitable primitives of the encoding.

This thesis investigates how the burial chamber of the 8th Dynasty pyramid of king Qakare Ibi at Saqqara in Egypt (c. 2109-2107 B.C.) was inscribed. It uses a holistic approach to focus on the textual programme and its unusual aspects in comparison to older pyramids. In doing so, it addresses issues of textual transmission and of scribal practice in the process of inscribing the walls of subterranean chambers in pyramids. The aim is to contextualise the texts of Ibi within the Memphite tradition of Pyamid Texts and the development of mortuary literature on different media from the late third millennium BCE Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom in the early second millennium BCE. The first chapter presents the background to this research and information on king Ibi and his pyramid. The second chapter treats research on the arrangement of the texts on the walls of subterranean chambers of royal pyramids of kings and queens and compares the layout of the texts in the pyramid of Ibi with older pyramids. It then discusses in detail one section on the east wall of Ibi, where the order of spells diverges from other transmitted sequences. The unusual combination of spells and the practice of shortening spells is investigated further in the third chapter, where two sections of texts on the south wall are analysed. The fourth chapter explores garbled texts and discusses processes of copying and inscribing the texts onto the walls of pyramids. The fifth chapter analyses the modifications of the writing system in pyramids, especially the mutilation of hieroglyphs, and how this practice relates to the tradition of altering signs in pyramids. Finally, the sixth chapter synthesises the results of the preceding chapters in two sections. The first section summarises the process of inscribing pyramids and contextualises aspects of scribal practices within it. The second section concludes the thesis with a discussion of the features of the textual programme of Ibi and of how it relates to the broader transmission of mortuary literature.

Encoding hieroglyphic texts is time-consuming. If a text already exists as hand-written transcription, there is an alternative, namely OCR. Off-the-shelf OCR systems seem difficult to adapt to the peculiarities of Ancient Egyptian. Presented is a proof-of-concept tool that was designed to digitize texts of Urkunden IV in the hand-writing of Kurt Sethe. It automatically recognizes signs and produces a normalized encoding, suitable for storage in a database, or for printing on a screen or on paper, requiring little manual correction. The encoding of hieroglyphic text is RES (Revised Encoding Scheme) rather than (common dialects of) MdC (Manuel de Codage). Earlier papers argued against MdC and in favour of RES for corpus development. Arguments in favour of RES include longevity of the encoding, as its semantics are font-independent. The present study provides evidence that RES is also much preferable to MdC in the context of OCR. With a well-understood parsing technique, relative positioning of scanned signs can be straightforwardly mapped to suitable primitives of the encoding.