Neuagyptisch: Einfuhrung in die Grammatik.

• Author: Jay, Jacqueline E.
• Position: Book review

Neuagyptisch: Einfuhrung in die Grammatik. By FRIEDRICH JUNGE. 3rd ed. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2008. Pp. 404. [euro]4.9 (paper).

Since the 1996 publication of the first German edition of Friedrich Junge's Late Egyptian grammar, the book has become a standard fixture in many university classrooms and private reading groups. With the third German edition, there have been few changes to the text of the grammar itself. Preparing a new edition has, however, allowed Junge to add material to the bibliography and to make a number of corrections. On this point, he acknowledges in the preface his debt to the reviews of Deborah Sweeney in Lingua Aegyptia 12 (2004) and Francois Neveu in BiOr 69 (2002). It seems clear, however, that he has not accepted Sweeney's specific suggestions on pp. 255-56 of her review and only a few of Neveu's on pp. 265-69 of his (the two exceptions concern [section]2.1.4, P. 60, and [section]6.2.2 121, p. 272). Admittedly, some of Neveu's issues lie with the English translation and not with the original German (e.g., his notes to [section]3.1.2, p. 114, and [section]3.1.3 [2], p. 130).

The inclusion of references to monographs like Patricia Cassonet's Les temps seconds (2000) and Jean Winand's Temps et aspect (2006) in the section bibliographies is a particularly useful addition for the student or more advanced scholar seeking further references. On the whole, instructors who have designed classes around David Warburton's 2001 English translation of the second edition may continue to use it with relatively little loss, although it is recommended that they familiarize themselves and their students with the new material in the third edition.

Unlike the standard reference grammars of Jaroslav Cerny and Sara Israelit Groll (1984) and Paul John Frandsen (1974), which focus on the "pure" Late Egyptian of the documentary register, Junge examines Late Egyptian as a whole, defining the language of literary tales, administrative documents, miscellanies, and ostraca alike as "Rein neuagyptische Satzstruktur mit neuagyptischen Formen mid Schreibungen; gelegentlich 'Mittelagyptizismen' in Formen und Orthographie die spater verschwinden" (p. 21; Warburton translates "purely Late Egyptian sentence structure with Late Egyptian forms and writings; occasional Middle Egyptianisms in form and orthography which progressively disappear," p. 23). While this definition stresses diachronic change, it does not take into account the fact that...