Translation and transliteration conventions

Tense and mood in translations

Translating personal names is complicated by the lack of context. Reconstructions of the modality of Egyptian verbs used in personal names are in most cases utterly speculative. Hence their interpretations are in many respects conjectural. In translating the personal names for the database, I essayed to avoid speculative interpretations and tried to keep translations neutral in terms of mood and tense. I render most names in the indicative mood, although they could have actually been wishes, as rendered by other scholars.

Transliteration

Transliterations of Egyptian names and titles generally follow Edel 1955. To reflect the flexibility of the Middle and New Kingdom orthography, “s” is used instead of “z” in all cases. The following words are transliterated differently from Edel 1955 (merely a matter of convention, not intended to dispute other, often better-founded readings):

Js.t-Jr.t

instead of Ws-Jrt for "Osiris"

njw.t

instead of nʾt for "town"

ḥb

instead of ḥꜣbt for "holiday, festival"

Ḥr and Ḥr.j

instead of Ḥrw for "Horus"

sš

instead of zẖꜣ for "scribe"

The word "father" is transliterated as jtj; the other like-sounding name is transliterated as Jtjj to differentiate it from jtj. The reduplicated form of the verb rdj is transliterated as dd rather than djdj. Suffix-pronouns are separated with ⸗. Female, plural, dual, infinitive, stative endings, and nisbe suffixes are separated with a dot (.) in lexical entries for the sake of correct sorting but not in attestations. Male and plural stative endings are not transliterated when not spelled out.