mdwj

Egyptian

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /ˈmaːtʼat/ → /ˈmaːtʼaʔ/ → /ˈmaːtʼa/ → /ˈmoːtʼə/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈmaːtʼat/
• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈmaːtʼaʔ/
• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈmaːtʼa/
• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈmoːtʼə/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛduːi/
  • Conventional anglicization: medwi

Verb

 4ae inf.

1. (intransitive, of people, mouths, or tongues) to speak (+ n or ḫr or ḫft: to; + ḥr: about; + ḥnꜥ or m-dj or jrm: with (someone); + m: with (the mouth))
   • c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 73–76:

     jw mdw.k n.j nn wj ḥr sḏm{.j} st jw.j m bꜣḥ.k ḫm.n(.j) wj

     ―You’re speaking to me, but I’m not hearing it; I am before you, but I don’t know myself.

2. (intransitive) to dispute, speak in opposition, contest, contend (+ ḥnꜥ: with; + m: in (some matter, e.g. a will))
3. (intransitive, with ḥr or ḥr tp) to put in a good word for (someone)
4. (intransitive, of birds) to cry
5. (intransitive, of the heart) to beat [Medical Papyri]
6. (intransitive, of the sky) to thunder [Pyramid Texts]
7. (transitive, rare) The meaning of this term is uncertain. Possibilities include: [Pyramid Texts]
   1. to claim
   2. to address

Inflection

Conjugation of mdwj (fourth weak / 4ae inf. / IV. inf.) — base stem: mdw

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive1	singular	plural
mdwt, mdwj	mdww, mdwyw, mdw	mdwt, mdwwt, mdwyt	mdw	mdw, mdwy

‘pseudoverbal’ forms
stative stem	periphrastic imperfective2		periphrastic prospective2
mdw8	ḥr mdwt, ḥr mdwj	m mdwt, ḥr mdwj	r mdwt, ḥr mdwj

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	passive	contingent
			aspect / mood	active	passive
perfect	mdw.n	mdww, mdw, mdwy	consecutive	mdw.jn	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
terminative	mdwt
perfective3	mdw	active + .tj1, .tw2	obligative1	mdw.ḫr	active + .tj1, .tw2
imperfective	mdw, mdwy	active + .tj1, .tw2
prospective3	mdww, mdw, mdwy	mdw	potentialis1	mdw.kꜣ	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
subjunctive	mdw, mdwy	active + .tj1, .tw2

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms		participles
	active	passive	active	passive
perfect	mdw.n	active + .tj1, .tw2	—	—
perfective	mdww1, mdwy, mdw	active + .tj1, .tw2	mdw	mdwy, mdw
imperfective	mdw, mdwy, mdww5	active + .tj1, .tw2	mdw, mdwj6, mdwy6	mdw, mdww5
prospective	mdww1, mdwy, mdw, mdwtj7	—	mdwwtj1 4, mdwtj4, mdwt4
Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian. Used mostly since Middle Egyptian. Archaic or greatly restricted in usage by Middle Egyptian. The perfect has mostly taken over the functions of the perfective, and the subjunctive and periphrastic prospective have mostly replaced the prospective. Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. Only in the masculine singular Only in the masculine. Only in the feminine. Third-person masculine statives of this class often have a final -y instead of the expected stative ending.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mdwj  

mdwj	mdwj	mdwj	mdwj	mdwj	mdwj
		[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]
		uncommon	uncommon

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mdwj  

mdwj	mdwj	mdwj	mdwj	mdwj	mdwj
[since the Middle Kingdom]	[since the Middle Kingdom]	[since the Middle Kingdom]	[18th Dynasty]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]

Derived terms

• mdw
• mdw r ḫrw.f
• mdwt

Descendants

• Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϯ (mouti)
• Sahidic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩⲧⲉ (moute)

References

• “mdwi̯ (lemma ID 78140)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎^[1], Corpus issue 17, Web app version 2.01 edition, 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, 2004–15 December 2022
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 179.2–179.28, 180.2
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 122
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 174, 292–293.
• Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 83