Ancient Egyptian help needed ASAP!

[Qwynegold]

Does anyone here know how to translate and write "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!" in hieroglyphs? I know this might be difficult to translate, but maybe one could come up with some similar meaning. :S I need this for a gingerbread pyramid...

[CatDoom]

So, based on some online searching, there is a formulaic phrase attested in ancient Egyptian that basically means "happy new year": wepet renpet nefert, which means something like "good/beautiful opening of the year". The egyptian new year celebration was also associated with the birth or re-birth of the god Re-Horakhety, and gifts were often presented during the festival, so it might be seen as analogous to Christmas as well if you squint at it hard enough. Of course, the Egyptian new year wasn't held in December; it took place in the middle of summer and was tied to the appearance of the star Sirius, apparently, but the sentiment is there anyhow. In any event, as far as I can tell, you might see the phrase written something like this:



The first block of symbols is the verb wp(i), "open, open up, separate, inaugurate," followed by the phonetic symbol t. The second block represents the word rnpt, "year" ; the vertical stroke indicates that it's a logogram, though it does have the phonetic compliment -t, and the third block of symbols represents the verb nfr, "be good, beautiful," again followed by the phonetic symbol t. The symbols would probably be grouped neater than I have them, but I think there's some wiggle room in terms of the exact arrangement.

All that being said, this is all based on an extremely basic understanding of hieroglyphics and a lot of cross-referencing things online, so you might want to wait for someone with more experience working with hieroglyphs to chime in.

[Xephyr]

[SARCASM]Well Jesus Christ is just an astrological metaphor that is derived from the myth of the dying-and-rising Osiris, so it should be pretty easy to translate 'Merry Christmas' into Ancient Egyptian as well.[/SARCASM]

[Shm Jay]

Can't you find what it is in Coptic and then use the Middle Egyptian reflexes?

[Qwynegold]

So, based on some online searching, there is a formulaic phrase attested in ancient Egyptian that basically means "happy new year": wepet renpet nefert, which means something like "good/beautiful opening of the year". The egyptian new year celebration was also associated with the birth or re-birth of the god Re-Horakhety, and gifts were often presented during the festival, so it might be seen as analogous to Christmas as well if you squint at it hard enough. Of course, the Egyptian new year wasn't held in December; it took place in the middle of summer and was tied to the appearance of the star Sirius, apparently, but the sentiment is there anyhow. In any event, as far as I can tell, you might see the phrase written something like this:



The first block of symbols is the verb wp(i), "open, open up, separate, inaugurate," followed by the phonetic symbol t. The second block represents the word rnpt, "year" ; the vertical stroke indicates that it's a logogram, though it does have the phonetic compliment -t, and the third block of symbols represents the verb nfr, "be good, beautiful," again followed by the phonetic symbol t. The symbols would probably be grouped neater than I have them, but I think there's some wiggle room in terms of the exact arrangement.

All that being said, this is all based on an extremely basic understanding of hieroglyphics and a lot of cross-referencing things online, so you might want to wait for someone with more experience working with hieroglyphs to chime in.

Thanks! I went with this suggestion because I was so short on time. I'll upload a picture once it's finished.

[Qwynegold]

Pyramid.jpg (40.23 KiB) Viewed 3514 times

Here it is! A scale model of the Pyramid of Cheops.

[Lambuzhao]

A+, Qwynegold!
Great research, CatDoom!

Coptic for "Happy Day of the Birth of Christ"


NOϤP ϨOOϒ MMICЄ MΠЄXPICTOC
[nɔ.fəɾ ho:w mə.mi.se mə.pi.xris.tɔs]
beautiful-M.SG day GEN=birth GEN=DEF.M.SG=<Christ>
(Sahidic dialect)

Coptic for "Happy Crown of the Year" (i.e. New Year)


{NOϒϤPI} ΠIXλOM NTЄ ϮPOMΠI
[nu:.fri pi.xə.lom nə.te ti.rɔm.pi]
{beautiful-M.SG} DEF-M.SG=crown GEN DEF.F.SG=year
(Bohairic dialect)


If in Coptic, older Coptic (Sothic) New Year has been September 11th for the past few years. This is also the modern Feast of Nayrouz. So, you'd be months late to celebrate it anyway.

Coptic Christmas just passed on January 7th. So, you'd have been almost 2 weeks too early.

Plus, Coptic wouldn't've looked quite right on the Pyramid of Cheops, IMHO.

- Great job!

[Lambuzhao]

Can't you find what it is in Coptic and then use the Middle Egyptian reflexes?

Eh, not exactly.

wp.t rnp.t nfr.t
[wi:.pit ran.pat na.frat]

(Loprieno 1996 pp. 59, 87, 89)

Does not follow Coptic Syntax

The examples I gave in Coptic might follow Demotic Egyptian syntax, but not Middle Egyptian.

The two languages, though related, use different words in the phrases.

Middle Egyptian uses "Opening of the Year" for New Year
Coptic uses "Crown of the Year" for New Year

I imagine that a more literal translation of "Merry Christmas" would have to be something like "Happy day of the birth of the Anointed One" in Middle Egyptian.

hrw n mswt n *** nfr

where *** could be any one of-

wrḥw "Anointed One"
bʔqtw "Anointed"
sfy "Anointed One"

sidestepping the whole Messeh-Messiah quackery, it is interesting to note that there is an Egyptian verb mrḥ "to anoint". Anyone know of examples of rule where a Semitic /s/ is rhotacised in an Egyptian cognate? I wonder what Wolf Leslau has to say...

[Qwynegold]

Heh, thanks!

[Lambuzhao]

Well, the Egyptians had a great moniker for Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir al Bahri, that I'm going to sniggle for your colossus in gingerbread:

tcheser tcheseru

Splendour of Splendours


https://books.google.com/books?id=-VMEp ... 20&f=false

(scroll down)