Causal s- in Egyptian Notes

Transcription

1 Causal s- in Egyptian Notes By Asar Imhotep Saturday December 4, 2010 The MOCHA-Versity Institute of Philosophy and Research luntu/lumtu/muntu 1

2 cause kɔzshow Spelled [kawz] Show IPA noun, verb, caused, caus ing. noun 1. a person or thing that acts, happens, or exists in such a way that some specific thing happens as a result; the producer of an effect: You have been the cause of much anxiety. What was the cause of the accident? 2. the reason or motive for some human action: The good news was a cause for rejoicing. 3. good or sufficient reason: to complain without cause; to be dismissed for cause. 4. Law. a. a ground of legal action; the matter over which a person goes to law. b. a case for judicial decision. 5. any subject of discussion or debate. 6. a principle, ideal, goal, or movement to which a person or group is dedicated: the socialist cause; the human rights cause. 7. the welfare of a person or group, seen as a subject of concern: support for the cause of the American Indian. 8. Philosophy. a. the end or purpose for which a thing is done or produced. b. Aristotelianism. any of the four things necessary for the movement or the coming into being of a thing, namely a material (material cause), something to act upon it (efficient cause), a form taken by the movement or development (formal cause), and a goal or purpose (final cause). verb (used with object) 9. to be the cause of; bring about. Idiom 10. make common cause, to unite in a joint effort; work together for the same end: They made common cause with neighboring countries and succeeded in reducing tariffs. 2

3 Cipher Now let us compare what I call the causal root -s- and its meanings to the dictionary.com meanings for cause. Note that as a verb cause means to bring about. Anything that brings about something is a CAUSE. Note also that as a verb cause means to be the cause which means the ORIGIN of the cause is defined as the CAUSE. Remember the argument here is that what was lexicalized as the s- causative derives from a root [s] that means to cause, to begin, the power to activate or make happen found in Kongo-Saharan languages. Egyptian SaA to begin, the source of life; SA.t the goddess of primeval matter. S3a to begin, be the first, spring, originate SA ordain, order. sr "to arrange, to order" sr "to proclaim, to announce, to publish, to order, to dired troops" sr "advice, order" [note that in Egyptian the A was often an /l/ sound.] SAw the god of prosperity, good luck and good fortune SA to read, to authorize, to determine, to decree, to allot, to design, to ordain, to commission; SA.t something decreed, ordained by God; dues, revenues, taxes, impost; Yoruba se to come to pass, aṣẹ the power to cause to happen; se to command, ṣe do ase command, authority Eṣu the angel who holds God s staff of authority Àṣẹ kingship Àṣẹ: a coming to pass; law; command; authority; commandment; enjoinment; imposition; power; precept; discipline; instruction; cannon; biding; document; virtue; effect; consequence; imprecation. 1 CiLuba asa to begin. Ashil (jsr, Asar) means to build for; esa/enza to make, act, behave, take the appearance of; dy-enza action, treatment; enji legislative (bukalenga bw-enji (j<>z/s) legislative power ); 1 Dictionary of Yoruba Language. (1913). Church Missionary Society Bookshop. Lagos, Nigeria. 3

4 enze-ka cause, happen, occur; Ngenzi (<enza) Officer, manufacturer. Hebrew swh come to pass siwwah to command, authority mi-sewah to command, authority asah to do. Saw to cause, to come to pass Amarigna ez to command, Igbo Eze king ọzō title of high degree conferring on the owner privileges and honor as a sacrosanct (sacred, holy, revered, untouchable) Ezè to honor, to participate, and to assume a role of privilege. Hebrew Yorùbá Mende Tiv Nupe Chuchewa To come to pass To command To cause to come to pass A command, authority swh siwwah Saw (imp.s) mi-sewah se Se (ekpe) ase The power to cause to happen ase tsav magic sawa tsav witchcraft tsav Ma-sawe Ruler Etsu 4

5 The angel who holds God s staff of authority Esu The root for causal actions in Kongo-Saharan and the so called Afro-Asiatic languages is represented by phonemic range of s, sh, ts and z. This same root is used to convey authority which also informs a king. To cause anything is to have the power to cause. Given Ki-Kami is a lingua-franca like Lingala in the Kongo, there was definitely dialectical variation just like how we find in Yoruba between /s/, /S/, and /j/and CiLuba with /s/, /S/, and /j/. The Egyptian D or T corresponds to the /j/ sound in many African languages. So it s no surprise that we find in Egyptian wdt, wdtj one who should command, instruction, inscription; wd command, decree, ordain, assign. We also note in Egyptian di/rdi to cause; dw cause. This may be an old survival. As Antonio Loprieno notes in Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction (1995: 32), [on the voiced plosives] Afroas. Emphatic dentals *ṭ and *ṣ merge into Eg. /d/: Eg. dwn to stretch */da:wan/, see Sem. ṭwl to be long : Eg. wdpw servant, see Ar. wasif. In other words, the /d/ derives from the merging of the /ṭ/ and /ṣ/. The /d/ also corresponds with the /s/ in Armenian. This adds credence to my initial hypothesis (which I actually have other data) that the original word was probably #ts which split into t- (ti trunk, origin Mande) and s-. It is not complicated and doesn t take non-sensical gymnastics to see what s obvious. The nsw king derives from a root that means power and it is proven in Egyptian as the word sw to win power, to gain power. You also have sah force, power, rank, dignities. All of these come from a root [s] that became lexicalized into a causative prefix. 5