An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary

Customer Reviews

• THE WORK OF A TRUE SCHOLAR

  
  
  Budge was an expert in Semitic languages and in Coptic. He was a talented and skilled linguist who could read the ancient Egyptian language as well,if not better than most scholars today. Many points of ancient Egyptian grammar and exact word meanings are unknown and much of what passes for "modern scholarship" is mere guesswork!
  It is interesting to note that people who can't read a word of ancient Egyptian have the audacity to criticize a profoundly erudite and talented linguist and translator of Semitic and ancient Egyptian.
  After many, many years of study of almost every aspect of ancient Egypt culture, Budge abandoned the pure assertion that ancient Egypt was an "Oriental" or "Eastern culture". Based largely, I imagine, on Hegel's pure assertions that "The History of the World travels from East to West, for Europe is absolutely the end of History, Asia the beginning." These ideas have become part of European intellectual DOGMA. Africa is not a part of human history; Ancient Egypt belongs to Europe. This is pure DOGMA. Hegel's children are still among us.
  But on the other hand, after years of objective study of the language, religion, society and customs of the ancient Egyptians, Budge was led screaming and kicking, I might add, to the realization that the religion of the Egyptians was BLACK AFRICAN. The concept of the "ka" and the "ba" are found almost everywhere in Black Africa today! The language was a BLACK AFRICAN language and the customs were purely African. The ancient Egyptians were: "African Negroes" or "Nilotic Negroes" wrote Budge in several of his later works. In spite of the anti-African racism that we find in his earlier and even his later works, Budge rose above the prejudices of his time and followed the facts. The facts led to the heart of Africa, not to Asia.
  Budge writes in the Introduction of Vol. 1 (lxviii)these words which led to his banishment from halls of western ACADEME: "no one who has worked at Egyptian can possibly doubt that there are many Semitic words in the language, or that many of the pronouns, some of the numbers, and some of the grammatical forms resemble those found in the Semitic languages. But even admitting all the similarities that Erman has claimed. it is still impossible to me to believe that Egyptian is a Semitic language fundamentally.There is, it is true, much in the Pyramid Texts that recalls points and details of Semitic Grammar,but after deducting all the triliteral roots, there still remains a very large number of words that are not Semitic, and were never invented by a Semitic people. These words are monosyllabic, and were invented by one of the oldest African(or Hamitic, if that word be preferred),peoples in the Valley of the Nile of whose written language we have any remains.These words are used to express fundamental relationships and feelings, and beliefs which are peculiarly African and are foreign in every particular to Semitic peoples. The primitive home of the people who invented these words lay far to the south of Egypt, and all that we know of the Predynastic Egyptians suggests that it was in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes, probably to the east of them". Even Champollion Le Jeune, the man who first deciphered ancient Egyptian, in his Grammaire Egyptienne(p.xix Introduction) says virtually the same thing. Like Champollion,Budge was a true scholar who followed the facts where ever those facts led.
  Many modern African scholars have confirmed that the language of ancient Egypt was a "typical Black African language.
  For example Dr. Theophile Obenga(ORIGINE COMMUNE DE L'EGYPTIEN ANCIEN DU COPTE ET DES LANGUES NEGRO-AFRICAINES MODERNES) has proven the genetic linguistic relationship between the language spoken by the ancient Egyptians, Coptic and modern Black African languages. No competent linguist can demonstrate that the language of ancient Egypt has any genetic relationship to the Semitic languages....it can not be done!!!
  When you study the language of ancient Egypt you study an ancient Black African language...Budge dared follow the truth-even if it led him outside of the Eurocentric white supremacy intellectual paradigm.
  Most Eurocentric scholars go along with the program-they place tenure,acceptance and prestige above scholarship. The world of Western scholarship can sometimes be too narrow , too petty and too deeply rooted in its religious,cultural and racial dogmas and its ideologies.
  In a nutshell, that is the real reason that Budge is so often trashed. And perhaps why he is so viciously trashed.......
  

• No longer a good source -- don't buy it!

  In the movie _Stargate_, Daniel Jackson is standing beside a chalkboard on which is written Egyptian hieroglyphs. He looks at the translation and says, "No. This is wrong." Upon which, he starts crossing out words and writing new ones. "Somebody used Budge to translate," he said, shaking his head, "I don't know why they're still publishing his stuff."
  
  Back in the late 19th century, Budge was as good as you could get. However, in the 50' through today, there have been many Egyptologists studying the language of the Ancient Egyptians, and Budge was supplanted about 40 to 50 years ago. The works of two men have come to the fore: R.O. Falkner who created an entirely new _Dictionary of Middle Egyptian_ (i.e., the dialect spoken during the Middle Kingdom), and Alan J. Gardner, with his _Grammar of Egyptian_. When I studied Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics in college, these were the two that were used (and later amazed some folks at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago by doing an on-the-fly translation of the writing on a tomb wall that's there)
  
  Nowadays, places like the Oriental Institute of Chicago (one of the foremost institutions dedicated to the study of ancient Egypt not longer even carry Budge's dictionaries (and most of his other works) because they are so out-of date.
  
  Therefore, if you are really serious about learning how to read heiroglyphics because you're going to Egypt, buy Garndner and Faulkner, but keep your money in your pocket instead of purchasing these, even if it means buying them elsewhere (sorry, Amazon -- I don't go anywhere else.

• researcher interest

  - I wanted to know if it was sold in one or two volumes.
  I was suprised it was n° 1 out of 2
  I ordered the next one.
  In between I cosidered this work extremy well done, but I reserve more compliments for the review of part n° 2

• Indispensible reference work

  This work, volumes one and two, constitutes an indispensible reference work for the Anglophone Egyptologist, amateur and professional. Sure, the transliteration system is old, there are errors here and there, but the vast amount of information is too valuable to pass by. Other "dictionaries" and "glossaries" are so small as to be useless for serious work. In the case of the excellent Faulkner dictionary, it's never been typeset and struggling to read handwritten manuscript pages will quickly give you a headache. Whenever possible,check anything you read in Budge against other sources; but when there are no other sources, which is usually the case, you're better off with Budge than with nothing. Both volumes must be bought together; Amazon's presentation doesn't make that clear.

• Budge is a GREAT WAY to become FLUENT in this language

  Budge is the best way to go if you are serious about becoming fluent in this beautiful language. The fact is that Budge puts the symbol, the transliteration, and the translation all together so you can know exactly what word you are reading and you can learn the syntax by reading his texts. You can pronounce it as you are learning it while reading the symbol all at the same time. The other wonderful thing about Budge is that he has loads of works out there. If you study one book, then you can easily move into other books and get the same reinforcement without having to learn some different author's other pronunciation key.
  
  I know it is possible to use these books and become fluent. I am in the process of studying this language and a friend who is already fluent recommended these books for me (actually he reviewed Rosemary Clark's book The Sacred Tradition)--but another key point is to understand the essence behind the language. One who follows the Faith of the Gods of Ancient Egypt will be able to relate more to these texts because in order to understand a language such as this one, one must understand the spirit behind the language. Anyone can pick up a hieroglyphics book and learn to write people's names in hieroglyphics. To really understand the deeper aspect of the language, one must study it from the inside and not just as an observer. It is impossible to truly become fluent in a language by being just an observer.
  
  I would recommend reading The Search for Omm Sety about a woman who was a famous Egyptologist and also practiced the Faith of the Gods. She was one of the few people who learned Ancient Egyptian language fluently and was able to understand and communicate its essence. Omm Sety was a personal friend of Budge and actually helped Budge to edit his work and pronunciation. You also may want to read The Sacred Tradition by Rosemary Clark. She was another author who became fluent in this language and she discussses the use of this language in her writings.
  
  I highly recommend this book. Budge has the very best to offer for anyone serious about learning this language.