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Middle Egyptian introduces the reader to the writing system of ancient Egypt and the language of hieroglyphic texts. It contains twenty-six lessons, exercises (with answers), a list of hieroglyphic signs, and a dictionary. It also includes a series of twenty-six essays on the most important aspects of ancient Egyptian history, society, religion, literature, and language. Grammar lessons and cultural essays allows users not only to read hieroglyphic texts but also to understand them, providing the foundation for understanding texts on monuments and reading great works of ancient Egyptian literature. This third edition is revised and reorganized, particularly in its approach to the verbal system, based on recent advances in understanding the language. Illustrations enhance the discussions, and an index of references has been added. These changes and additions provide a complete and up-to-date grammatical description of the classical language of ancient Egypt for specialists in linguistics and other fields.… (more)
User reviews
Though it is commonly used in university courses on Middle Egyptian, Allen's work is also aimed at the self-teaching enthusiast - for instance, he devotes sections to the standard scholarly
I do miss Hoch's early and forceful emphasis on word order, which is so essential to advanced translation. Student with a background in linguistics find Hoch's (occasionally daunting) technical language simplifies instruction and his comparisons of Middle Egyptian words to Hebrew and Arabic are interesting, but there's no denying that Allan's book is much more accessible.