Kehek language
| Kehek | |
|---|---|
| Qeheq | |
| Region | Eastern parts of Ancient Libya |
| Ethnicity | Kehek |
| Era | Second to first milennia BC |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| No indigenous writing, attested in only a hieratic papyrus | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
The Kehek language was spoken by the Kehek people of Ancient Libya. It is the earliest written non-Semitic and non-Egyptian Afroasiatic language. It is only attested scarcely in papyrus texts written in hieratic, pertaining to snake magic, written during the New Kingdom era. Whether other ancient Libyans such as the Meshwesh or the Libu spoke the same language as the Kehek is unknown.[1] The language might also be the earliest example of a written down Berber, or Proto-Berber variety though it's nature as a fragmentary text makes it hard to identify as anything other than Afro-Asiatic.[2]
Phonology
[edit]The language's phonemic inventory seems very similar to the currently proposed phonology of Proto-Berber, even more so than Egyptian, Semitic, or the Nilo-Saharan languages.[2]
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | q | ||||
| voiced | b | ḏ (possibly ḍ) | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | š [ʃ] | h | |||||
| voiced | z | y | |||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||
The "Turin papyrus" and analysis
[edit]Full text of the best preserved part of the papyrus in Kehek:[3]
yꜣ-wꜣ-y ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ-tj
j-smj tj-t-yw-t [mꜣ] ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ-tj
j-smj jw-š -mj-š-tj-n-kꜣ ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ-t
j-smj tꜣ-š ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ-tj
j-smj mꜣ-n-qꜣ-nꜣ-ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ-tj
j-smj j-ṯꜣ-r-bw ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ-tj mꜣ-y
j-smj š-h-j-pꜣ-tꜣ ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ-tj
The papyrus is located int the university of Turin, and has been previously misinterpreted as being a war chant, though it's now known that it is a chant against snakes.[4][5]
Analysis and links to modern Berber
[edit]The only verifiable word in the text is ṯꜣ-r-mꜣ, probably meaning snake. As it was written in hieratic, many of the language's consonants may not have been present in Hieratic, however ṯꜣ is known to have been used in other texts transliterating other languages (mainly semitic ones) to mark sounds such as zˤ. If this was the case, it would mean that Kehek "zˤ-r-m-t" (possibly vocalized as "aẓramat") shares the same consonantal root for the word as modern Berber "zˤrm" (for example, Kabyle aẓrem), also meaning snake.[4][6] Other words that don't have known meaning but may be identified with modernn Berber cognates are the following:
| Possible Kehek words and cognates with modern Berber languages according to Jason P. Silvestri.[2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Kehek lexeme | Possible vocalization | Modern Berber cognates | Notes |
| yꜣw-šꜣ-ḏꜣw-w | *yǎšǎḍǎw | Lexeme "šḍ", present across various languages(such as Shilha, Nafusi and Kabyle),meaning "to glide, slither, slide". | Verb, "y-" might be 3rd masculine prefix |
| yꜣ-wꜣ-y | *yaway | Lexeme "wy", meaning "to carry/bring". | Inflected verb, "y-" present |
| j-smj | *asama
*azma |
Related either to lexem "sm" meaning "name" across all Berber languages or "zm" meaning "to curse/slander" in the Tuareg languages. | Verb (?) |
| tꜣ-š | *taša | Modern Berber "to eat" | Verb (?) |
| m'-n-qꜣ-nꜣ | *manqan
*amanɣan |
Lexeme "nq" or "nɣ" meaning to kill. | Noun |
| ṯꜣ-r-bw | *zarub | Lexeme "zrb" meaning to "to burn" in Shilha and the Tuareg languages. | Verb |
| sꜣ-kꜣ-r-q | *sakaraq | Lexeme "skr" meaning to make | Inflected verb |
References
[edit]- ^ Schiødt, Sofie; Jacob, Amber; Ryholt, Kim (2023-08-29). Scientific Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East: Joint Proceedings of the 1st and 2nd Scientific Papyri from Ancient Egypt International Conferences, May 2018, Copenhagen, and September 2019, New York. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-2315-4.
- ^ a b c Silvestri, Jason P. (2023). "The Oldest Berber Text(s)? Egyptian Evidence for the Ancient Libyan Language(s)". Études et Documents Berbères. 4950 (1): 319–348. doi:10.3917/edb.049.0319. ISSN 0295-5245.
- ^ https://www.academia.edu/23674933/Alien_Speech_Some_Remarks_on_the_Language_of_the_Kehek
- ^ a b Schneider, Thomas (2023). Language Contact in Ancient Egypt. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-3-643-91507-8.
- ^ The Libyan Anarchy: Inscriptions from Egypt's Third Intermediate Period. Society of Biblical Lit. 2009. ISBN 978-1-58983-174-2.
- ^ Schneider, Thomas (2023-06-20). Language Contact in Ancient Egypt. LIT Verlag. ISBN 978-3-643-96507-3.