Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

liv Introduction.
France, by Griffith, 1 and by Griffith and Thompson 2 in their
Demotic Glossaries, and by myself in England. 3
In the case of
several words belonging to the late period here and there incon-
sistency will be found, but this is due chiefly to the fact that
many signs which had syllabic values under the Middle and New
Empires were used as mere letters in the late texts. And Egyp-
tian scribes were themselves inconsistent in their spellings.
Translitera- Throughout this book the transliteration of the Egyptian word
tion.
js pi aced nrst m the entry, according to the plan followed in
my Vocabulary
to the Theban Recension of the Book of the
Dead. Then follows the Egyptian word in hieroglyphs, frequently
with a reference to the text where it is found, and therf the
meaning. Now, the exact meaning of many words is unknown,
and can only be guessed at by the context. In some cases the
context makes the meaning of an unknown word comparatively
certain, but mothers, especially where no probable Coptic equivalent
is forthcoming, it does not, and then any meaning suggested
is little else than the result of guesswork. In many cases, then,
the English words that are set down as translations of rare and
difficult Egyptian words must only be regarded as suggestions
The meanings as to the probable meanings. This is especially the case with
of many words certain words in the Pyramid Texts. The meaning of some of
them is tolerably clear from the determinatives, but there are
Order of the
letters.
a considerable number of words in these difficult documents for
which no one has so far proposed meanings that may be considered
correct. The spells and magical formulae which abound
in these Texts are not only difficult to translate because of the
words of unknown meaning in them, but also because it is not
always clear where one word ends and the next begins. Even
Maspero found himself unable to translate whole sentences and
passages in them, and as none of the translations of them promised
by German scholars has yet appeared, it seems as though
the difficulties which they belittled in describing Maspero's edition
of the Pyramid Texts have vanquished them.
The order of the letters in Birch's " Dictionary of Hieroglyphics "
1K
ig ag fonows :_ fl|
|]
1 JjcSS1 -*3 A
*
, D, , [1,
1
,
es.,
J, *_, 8
ra ,
(JA
~^, s=a, o, |, |, ^,
^^, ffi,
Catalogue of the Demotic Papyri in the John Rylands Library,