wdfj

Egyptian

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /ˈwitʼfit/ → /ˈwitʼfiʔ/ → /ˈwetʼfa/ → /ˈwetʼfə/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈwitʼfit/
• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈwitʼfiʔ/
• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈwetʼfa/
• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /ˈwetʼfə/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /wɛdɛfi/
  • Conventional anglicization: wedefi

Verb

 4ae inf.

1. (intransitive) to be(come) late, to delay (+ m: to delay in (doing something))
   • c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 67–73:

     jw wp.n.f r(ꜣ).f r.j jw.j ḥr ẖt.j m bꜣḥ.f ḏd.f n.j (j)n-mj jn tw zpwj snwj nḏs (j)n-mj jn tw jr wdf.k m ḏd n.j jn tw r jw pn rḏj.j rḫ.k tw jw.k m ss⟨f⟩ ḫpr.t(j) m ntj nj mꜣ.t(w).f

     He opened his mouth at me while I was on my belly before him, saying to me:
     ―Who brought you, who brought you, little man? Who brought you? If you delay in telling me who brought you to this island, I will make you know yourself as ashes, transformed into that which cannot be seen.

Inflection

Conjugation of wdfj (fourth weak / 4ae inf. / IV. inf.) — base stem: wdf

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive1	singular	plural
wdft, wdfj	wdfw, wdfyw, wdf	wdft, wdfwt, wdfyt	wdf	wdf, wdfy

‘pseudoverbal’ forms
stative stem	periphrastic imperfective2		periphrastic prospective2
wdf8	ḥr wdft, ḥr wdfj	m wdft, ḥr wdfj	r wdft, ḥr wdfj

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	contingent
		aspect / mood	active
perfect	wdf.n	consecutive	wdf.jn
terminative	wdft
perfective3	wdf	obligative1	wdf.ḫr
imperfective	wdf, wdfy
prospective3	wdfw, wdf, wdfy	potentialis1	wdf.kꜣ
subjunctive	wdf, wdfy

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms	participles
	active	active	passive
perfect	wdf.n	—	—
perfective	wdfw1, wdfy, wdf	wdf	wdfy, wdf
imperfective	wdf, wdfy, wdfw5	wdf, wdfj6, wdfy6	wdf, wdfw5
prospective	wdfw1, wdfy, wdf, wdftj7	wdfwtj1 4, wdftj4, wdft4
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. Third-person masculine statives of this class often have a final -y instead of the expected stative ending.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of wdfj  

wdf

Derived terms

• swdfj

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 313.