Possessive Adjectives
Writing and meaning
Plural
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Singular feminine
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Singular masculine
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nAy
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tAy
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pAy
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Possessive adjectives agree with their nouns in gender and number.
pAy.i sA
My son.
tAy.i snt
My sister.
nAy.sn xrdw
Their children.
Possessive adjectives are not uncommon. They appeared in Dynasty XII and later, but they became common in Late Egyptian texts. They are mainly used to express possession, instead of the traditional way using the genitive construction.
Sentences expressing possession
1) The construction + suffix + noun
iw n.n pr
To us is the house.
2) The construction + noun
iw n Hmt.i
To my wife.
3) The construction of genitival adjective ny + dependent pronoun
ny sw sA
To him belongs the son.
4) The construction of Independent pronoun + Noun
ntf pr
To him is the house.
ntf and ntk resemble the independent pronouns, so ntf is similar to the construction n.f. It is likely that the letter t has been added to improve its pronunciation. In such cases, the meaning is essential as in the previous example; it cannot be translated as ‘he has a house’.
In this case ntf or n.f are treated as predicate, and precede their subject (anticipatory predicate).
5. The construction n.f + imy + Noun
n.f imy pt
To him belongs the sky.