ꜥm

Egyptian

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /ɑːm/
  • Conventional anglicization: am

Verb

 2-lit.

1. (transitive) to swallow, devour
   • c. 2353 BCE – 2323 BCE, Pyramid Texts of Unas — gable of the west wall of the burial chamber, line 4–5, spell 226.3:

     tꜣ j.ꜥm n.k prt jm.k hjw sḏr zbn

     Earth, swallow up into yourself what has emerged from you! Hiu-serpent, lie down, crawl away!

2. (transitive) to know

Inflection

Conjugation of ꜥm (biliteral / 2-lit. / 2rad.) — base stem: ꜥm, geminated stem: ꜥmm

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive1	singular	plural
ꜥm	ꜥmw, ꜥm	ꜥmt	ꜥm, j.ꜥm	ꜥm, j.ꜥm

‘pseudoverbal’ forms
stative stem	periphrastic imperfective2		periphrastic prospective2
ꜥm	ḥr ꜥm	m ꜥm	r ꜥm

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	passive	contingent
			aspect / mood	active	passive
perfect	ꜥm.n	ꜥmw, ꜥm	consecutive	ꜥm.jn	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
terminative	ꜥmt
perfective3	ꜥm	active + .tj1, .tw2	obligative1	ꜥm.ḫr	active + .tj1, .tw2
imperfective	ꜥm, j.ꜥm1	active + .tj1, .tw2
prospective3	ꜥm	ꜥmm	potentialis1	ꜥm.kꜣ	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
subjunctive	ꜥm, j.ꜥm1	active + .tj1, .tw2

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms		participles
	active	passive	active	passive
perfect	ꜥm.n	active + .tj1, .tw2	—	—
perfective	ꜥm	active + .tj1, .tw2	ꜥm	ꜥmm, ꜥmmj6, ꜥm2, ꜥmw2 5, ꜥmy2 5
imperfective	j.ꜥm1, ꜥm, ꜥmy, ꜥmw5	active + .tj1, .tw2	j.ꜥm1, j.ꜥmw1 5, ꜥm, ꜥmj6, ꜥmy6	ꜥm, ꜥmw5
prospective	ꜥm, ꜥmtj7	—	ꜥmtj4, ꜥmt4
Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian. Used mostly since Middle Egyptian. Archaic or greatly restricted in usage by Middle Egyptian. The perfect has mostly taken over the functions of the perfective, and the subjunctive and periphrastic prospective have mostly replaced the prospective. Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. Only in the masculine singular. Only in the masculine. Only in the feminine.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ꜥm  

ꜥm

Derived terms

• ꜥm jb
• ꜥm-ḥḥ
• ꜥm-mwt

References

• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 457.