Unlike the suffix pronouns and dependent pronouns, the independent pronouns are not tied to any other element of the sentence. Nevertheless, the meaning of an independent pronoun depends on context:
After an infinitive, it is the subject of the verb.
Before a noun, its meaning can be ambiguous:
In the first and second person, it could be the subject of a noun phrase.
Alternatively, in all persons, it can be the predicate of a noun phrase.
If the noun is a participle, then in all persons it could be either the subject or the predicate of a noun phrase.
If the demonstrative pronoun pw is placed between the pronoun and the noun, the pronoun is definitely the predicate.
Before an adjective, in the first person only, it is the subject of an adjectival phrase.
When the independent pronoun is the subject it may, but does not always, indicate an emphasised subject.
1 Only when attached to a dual noun or prospective participle. 2 Only in formal texts, especially religious texts. 3 Only in postclassical (Neo-Middle Egyptian) texts.
Further, the writing of this pronoun can optionally be varied to indicate the identity of the antecedent — a distinction which would not have been indicated in speech, e.g.:
1 Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian. 2 Used mostly since Middle Egyptian. 3 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. 4 Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn.
5 Only in the masculine singular. 6 Only in the masculine. 7 Only in the feminine.
“jnk (lemma ID 27940)”, 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
Wilson, Penelope (1991) A Lexicographical Study of the Ptolemaic Texts in the Temple of Edfu, Liverpool: University of Liverpool, pages 159–160
James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 51.
^ Loprieno, Antonio (1995) Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 31, 33, 44, 65
