tꜣ-mrj

Egyptian

Etymology

Traditionally read and analyzed as tꜣ +‎ mrj, thus literally ‘beloved land’. However, in part due to the unusual writing of the latter word, alternative readings have recently been proposed, such as James P. Allen’s suggestion of tꜣ +‎ mr, literally ‘land of the hoe’, later revised to ‘canal-land’, or Timofey Shmakov’s tꜣ +‎ m +‎ rnpwt, literally ‘land in flowering’ (i.e. ‘Flowery/Blossomy Land’). In these cases, the j in the word would not mark a separate consonant but rather a sound change of r to j, as is otherwise common in words such as zwr.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /tɑ mɛri/
  • Conventional anglicization: ta-meri

Proper noun

 m

1. Egypt

References

• Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 126
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 22.
• Shmakov, Timofey (2015) “Beloved Land, the meaning of tꜣ-mrj”