What would the reconstructed vocalisation for the names of the sons of Horus be? I saw a video online that qbḥ-snw.f was Qabaḥsanuf, but what about jmstj, ḥpy, and dwꜣ-mwt.f? Thank you!
Hey guys, I’ve been doing some research and I think I have an idea of where Robert E. Howard may have gotten his famous “Amra” title for Conan. This will be a bit technical but bear with me!
Though it’s the common assumption that Amra is simply a fictional word Howard concocted for the Kushite language of his world, I think he may have been inspired by the real-life Meroitic language of the historical Kushite Empire.
Meroitic, called Kushite in older literature, made use of a script similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The script was like a mix between an abjad and an abugida, where most letters unless specified had an inherent “a” sound, for example the word AMNI (𐦠𐦨𐦩𐦢, the Kushite version of the god Amun) was actually pronounced something like ‘Amani (with an unwritten glottal stop). The Meroitic language would often swap its “p” and “m” sounds, for example 𐦨𐦡𐦷𐦡𐦥𐦢 (written as MEDEWI but pronounced more like Marawi, source of the Greek name Meroe) was borrowed into Coptic as Ⲡⲉⲣⲟⲩⲉ (Peroue), and Meroitic could also swap its “m” sounds with “b” sounds, for example that same 𐦨𐦡𐦷𐦡𐦥𐦢 (Marawi) was also written as 𐦦𐦡𐦷𐦡𐦥𐦢 (BEDEWI, pronounced Barawi). The Meroitic script used a letter 𐦡 (often written as an “E” but actually more like a schwa, a soft “A” sound like the A in About): this sound could often be reduced completely and go unpronounced depending on articulation, for example the word 𐦧𐦡𐦫𐦢𐦵 (PERITE, actually pronounced more like Parit) has its Coptic equivalent as Ⲡⲣⲏⲧ (Prēt).
So with this all in mind, where could Howard have gotten a word like “Amra” from?
There is a historical Kushite god in our real world called Apedemak (𐦠𐦧𐦡𐦷𐦡𐦨𐦲, pronounced more accurately like ‘Aparamaka since the “d” sound in Meroitic is actually a soft “r” sound). Maka just means “god” so that can be dismissed, the prefix ‘Apara- has been argued to mean something like “father” but this etymology is unconvincing. ‘Aparamaka is depicted as a lion-headed god and has a lot of leonine imagery in his depictions, so it could be reasoned that the prefix ‘Apara- (written APEDE) is some synonym for “lion”, so ‘Aparamaka could literally mean something like “Lion God.”
As discussed the “p”, “b” and “m” sounds in written Meroitic are often interchangeable, so APEDE with its middle schwa vowel reduced could be ABDE or AMDA, and since “d” in Meroitic actually represents a soft “r” sound as discussed the word could even be written AMRE or AMRA.
Since Howard read a lot into real history for inspiration for his Hyborian age it would not be too much a stretch to assume he perhaps read some obscure history book where the Meroitic/Kushite word 𐦠𐦧𐦡𐦷𐦡 (the prefix possibly meaning “lion”) was written in simplified romanization by its author as AMRE, AMERE or AMRA. So the Kushites (inspired by real-world Kushite culture) calling Conan “Amra” (“Lion”) may perhaps have more basis in real-world languages than people give Howard credit for.
Just some thoughts based on my own reading of course!
Hello, what would be the actual vocalisation for Shu (the Egyptian god)? I mean the non-Egyptological pronunciation. Thank you!
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