nf

See also: .nf, 1NF, 2NF, 3NF, 4NF, 5NF, 6NF, NF, Nf., nF, and nf3

Egyptian

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /nɛf/
  • Conventional anglicization: nef

Pronoun

 distal demonstrative pronoun

1. that

Usage notes

This demonstrative is a pronoun, and so does not directly modify nouns. In Middle Egyptian it becomes used as a demonstrative for plural nouns in place of the old adjectives jpf and jptf. When used in this way, it precedes the noun, with the genitival adjective n(j) in between, e.g. "those feet" is nf n(j) rdw (literally "that of feet").

It forms a contrastive pair with the demonstrative pronoun nn, in which nf is distal.

Inflection

Old Egyptian demonstratives

	determiners						pronouns1	adverbs
number	singular		dual		plural		unmarked
gender	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine	unmarked
proximal to speaker	pn	tn	*jpnj	jptnj, jptntj	jpn	jptn	nn	—
distal	pf	tf	*jpfj	*jptfj, *jptftj	jpf	jptf	nf	—
proximal to spoken of	pj, pw, p	tj, tw	jpwj	jptwj, jptwtj	jpw	jptw, jptwt	nw	—
vocative	pꜣ	tꜣ	—	—	—	—	nꜣ	ꜥꜣ
Unmarked for number and gender, but treated syntactically as masculine plurals when used with participles and relative forms, and as feminine singulars when referred to by resumptive pronouns.

Middle Egyptian demonstratives

	determiners and pronouns			adverbs
number	singular		plural1
gender	masculine	feminine	unmarked
proximal	pn	tn	nn	ꜥn
distal	pf, pfꜣ	tf, tfꜣ	nf, nfꜣ	ꜥf
‘copula’ and vocative	pw, pwy	tw, twy	nw	—
anaphoric	pꜣ	tꜣ	nꜣ	ꜥꜣ
Joined by n(j) to nouns they modify.

Late Egyptian demonstratives and articles

	masculine	feminine	plural		adverb
pronoun	pꜣw				dj
determiners and pronouns	pꜣj	tꜣj	nꜣj
possessive determiners1	pꜣy	tꜣy	nꜣy
relational pronouns (‘possessive prefixes’)	p-n, pꜣ	t-nt, tꜣ	nꜣyw, nꜣ
definite articles	pꜣ	tꜣ	nꜣ2
indefinite articles	wꜥ2		nhꜣy2
Used with suffix pronouns. Originally joined by n(j) to nouns they modify; later without it.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of nf  

nfꜣ	nfꜣj	nfj	njf	njf
[since the Middle Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]

Noun

 m

1. wrong, wrongdoing
2. something wrong, erroneous
   • c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 149–150:

     ꜥḥꜥ.n sbt.n.f jm.j m nn ḏd.n.j m nf m jb.f ḏd.f n.j (j)n wr n.k ꜥntjw ḫpr.t(j) ⟨m⟩ nb sntr

     Then he laughed at me – and at this that I’d said – as being wrong to his mind, saying to me: Are you abundant in myrrh, turned into a lord of incense?

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of nf  

nf	nfꜣ	nfj
	[New Kingdom]	[Late Period]

References

• “nf (lemma ID 851524)” and “nf (lemma ID 83280)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎^[1], Corpus issue 18, Web app version 2.1.5, 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, 2004–26 July 2023
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 251.9–252.2
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, pages 130–131
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 54–55, 218.
• Loprieno, Antonio (1995) Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 68–70