hitherto escaped observation is, that the connecting link nuntar has either been unknown to scholars or disregarded by them. In nuntar, a process as well known to Egyptian as to Indo-European scholars has taken place.[1] The vowel of the first syllable has been strengthened by the addition of a nasal consonant. The old Egyptian word heket (beer) has by this process become henke in the Thebaic, and hemki in the Memphitic dialect.
The following examples will illustrate the usage of the word.
Large stones are often said to be nutru. This does not mean that they grow or that they are divine, but that they are mighty. In one of those paraphrases which are so common on the walls of Dendera, the unequivocal word uru, "great, mighty," is substituted for nutru.[2] Sauit nutrit is a "strong wall." A crypt is aat nutrit, a "strong-hold." Three of the chambers
- ↑ The change of n into m before t, as though the latter were preceded by a labial consonant, is not usual, but it is not without a parallel in other languages. Cf. χρίμπτω from root χρι, the Latin tempto and the Lithuanian temptyva, both the latter from root ta, nasalized tan. The observations of Curtius, "Gr. Et.," pp. 46 and 481, on the m in γαμεῖν and the Lithuanian gim-ti appear to me to justify the form tempto, which Corssen rejects, though it occurs in the best manuscripts as well as inscriptions.
- ↑ Mariette, Dendera, I. pl. 67. So in the royal titles of the eighteenth dynasty, nutra sutenit of Tehutimes II. corresponds to the uah sutenit of Tehutimes III. and to the simpler ur sutenit of Chut en Aten.
