nj

Usage notes

This genitival adjective can be used to express the indirect genitive. In this case, it indicates that the noun preceding it, with which it agrees in gender and number, is possessed by the noun which follows it.

In Late Egyptian the functional contrasts of characterization versus specification that distinguished the indirect and direct genitive disappeared, and outside a restricted set of particular words the indirect genitive with nj largely supplanted the direct genitive without it.

Inflection

In Late Egyptian nj is usually not inflected by gender and number but invariably appears as nj. Sometimes the writings of the former feminine and plural forms are used interchangeably with the masculine singular without distinction. The exception is in more formal texts, where the old distinctions and inflections are sometimes still used.

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Alternative forms

Derived terms

• jmjtw-nj

Usage notes

• When used alone, nj negates the individual word or verbal predicate following it.

• When negating (nonverbal) nominal sentences, adjectival sentences of possession (which start with the genitival adjective n(j) ), and rhemes of emphatic clauses, this particle is typically followed by the first element of the negated clause and then the negative particle js. In Middle Egyptian it cannot negate adjectival sentences which do not indicate possession, nor adverbial sentences, which are instead negated by nn. It also cannot negate verbal sentences that are not emphatic, so the presence of a verb between nj and js always indicates an emphatic clause.

• nj combines with a number of other words to form negative particles with more specialised meanings, for which see the next section.

Derived terms

Usage notes

• Common to all varieties of Fula (Fulfulde / Pulaar / Pular).

Declension