Ancient Egyptian verbal reduplication: typology, diachrony, and the morphology–syntax interface

Morphology volume 19, Article number: 135 (2009) Cite this article

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Abstract

We explore the diachronic development of verbal reduplication in Ancient Egyptian (Afro-Asiatic) by systematically comparing reduplicative stem formations in Old Egyptian (2500–2000 BC) and in Coptic Egyptian (3rd–12th c. AD). Old Egyptian is a language with a rich inventory of reduplication patterns, which have been reduced in the course of almost four thousand years of uninterrupted language history. Coptic retains only a limited number of reduplicative stem formations, frequently with concomitant loss of the simple stem. We show that the decreasing productivity of verbal reduplication in the language correlates with broad morphological and syntactic changes in the verbal domain.

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  1. CNRS/UMR/7110 LLF & University Paris 7, 30, rue du château des rentiers, 75013, Paris, France

    Sabrina Bendjaballah & Chris H. Reintges

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  1. Sabrina Bendjaballah
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  2. Chris H. Reintges
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Correspondence to Sabrina Bendjaballah.

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Bendjaballah, S., Reintges, C.H. Ancient Egyptian verbal reduplication: typology, diachrony, and the morphology–syntax interface. Morphology 19, 135 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11525-009-9138-5

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Keywords

  • Reduplicative stem formations
  • Templates
  • ‘Weak’ verbs
  • Affix externalisation