jꜥn

Egyptian

Etymology

One early writing of the word shows the form ꜥnr, which Erman and Grapow take to represent the earliest known form of the word; however, Vycichl considers this a pseudo-archaic secondary development, since none of the known plural forms conserve the consonant r in this position.

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /ˈjuʕnVr/ → /ˈjuʕnVj/ → /ˈʕuʕnə/ → /ˈʕøʕn/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈjuʕnVr/

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈjuʕnVj/

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈʕuʕnə/, with irregular assimilation of /j/ (or its later reflex /ʔ/) to /ʕ/
• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈʕøʕn/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /iɑːn/
  • Conventional anglicization: ian

Noun

 m

1. (male) baboon
2. an epithet of the god Thoth

Inflection

Declension of jꜥn (masculine)

singular	jꜥn
dual	jꜥnwj
plural	jꜥnw

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜥn  

ꜥnr	jꜥnꜥ	jꜥnꜥ	ꜥꜥnꜥ	ꜥnꜥ	ꜣꜥn	ꜣꜥꜥnj	ꜥꜥn
[Old Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[Medical papyri]	[18th Dynasty]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[Greco-Roman Period]
					in hieratic	in hieratic

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of plural jꜥnw  

jꜥnjw	ꜥnꜥw	ꜥny	ꜣꜥꜥnjw
[Pyramid Texts]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]
			in hieratic

The determinative of the baboon may be replaced with one depicting only its head. As an epithet of Thoth, the word additionally appears with determinatives indicating godhood:

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jꜥn  

ꜣꜥꜥnw	ꜣꜥꜥnj	ꜥꜥnꜣ
[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]
in sense ‘epithet of Thoth’	in sense ‘epithet of Thoth’	in sense ‘epithet of Thoth’

Derived terms

• jꜥnt

Descendants

• Demotic: ⁠⁠⁠ (ꜥꜥn)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲏⲛ (ēn)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲉⲛ (en)
  • Old Coptic: ⲉⲉⲛ (een), ⲉⲛ (en), ⲁⲛⲁ (ana)

Proper noun

 m

1. a constellation, the Baboon

Alternative forms

See under the noun above.

References

• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 11
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[1], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 3, 41.5–41.8, 192.15
• Lesko, Leonard, Lesko, Barbara (2002) A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, second edition, volume 1, Providence: B.C. Scribe Publications, →ISBN, pages 2, 62
• Crum, Walter E. (1939) A Coptic Dictionary‎^[2], Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 66
• Černý, Jaroslav (1976) Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 42
• Vycichl, Werner (1983) Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Copte, Leuven: Peeters, →ISBN, page 53