LIPSTICK

 If it barks, it's a dog!

THE KISWAHILI-BANTU RESEARCH UNIT

FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE

Independently researched by FERG SOMO © August 26th 2008

AWAKEN YOUR MIND

As Barak Obama said in his controversial statement putting lipstick on a pig does not change a pig from being a pig! Consider the following examples. I hope they will make sense in widening the scope and concept of the word HUTUAPO, and the newly discovered word HUTOAPO, the word for offerings.

I think one can easily apply Barak Obama's comical reasoning when trying to unravel the Ancient Egyptian language, especially when we examine the following Ancient Egyptian words as examples. These words have already been written about but are included here to widen the scope of the investigation demonstrating a simple and realistic way of looking into the Ancient Egyptian language. I hope one may find it interesting. There is no mystery in the Ancient Egyptian language and any one can unravel the language provided one has the knowledge of an African language.

You can put lipstick on a dog, but the fact remains, it is still a dog!

Consider the word for a dog in AE

Example 1

Faulkner Middle Egyptian page 12

iw dog

If it barks, it's a dog

Looking at this block of hieroglyphics immediately focuses my attention to the bark of a dog which may not be noticeable at first. The ending w is the root of the word and is given in Bantu as 'wa'. The prefix i at the front of the hieroglyphics is the so called 'lipstick', an analogy I have used to try and explain the etymology of words in simple terms. Bear in mind the root says it is a dog, a barking dog. No matter what I do, the dog remains a dog. By researching into Bantu languages, in particular the Luvale-Bantu language the word for a dog is given as ka-wa, which consists of the prefix ka- and means pertaining to an activity. Quite simply kawa the dog means, pertaining to barking, which finally yields the word for a dog kawa, 'the barker'. Other Bantu languages have the word m-bwa. This means that the AE word for a dog follows the Bantu form ka-wa to give i-wa. So we can safely assume that Ancient Egyptian prefix i = Bantu prefix ka, a particle pertaining to an activity.

Next consider the word for a cat in AE

Example 2

Faulkner Middle Egyptian 104, Sir Alan Gardiner 608

miwcat

You can put lipstick on a cat, but the fact remains, it is still a cat!

Clearly the word for a cat is distinguishable by its cry. The lipstick here is m. Depending on how one perceives the cry of a cat, there may be variations. Thus in England one perceives the cry of a cat as a miaow, so did the Ancient Egyptians. However in Bemba-Bantu and Kiswahili-Bantu the word for a cat is also distinguished by its cry and is pronounced as nyau, or niau. Clearly both words define the sound made by a cat and a cat is called by its characteristic cry. Thus a cat remains a cat, despite a slight variation in sound.

In the above two examples the vowels were worked out from Bantu linguistics and were derived from known roots of words common between the Bantu and Ancient Egyptian language. The Coptic language was not consulted to determine how the vowels should be sounded since the Bantu vowels provide adequate cover and support. It is futile at times to substantiate ones finding by going through in a heavy handed way, in what seems to be an impressive display of mindless linguistic acrobatics, impressive as they may seem when Bantu know-how is adequate! Of course one has to keep an eye on the Coptic language.

Consider the word 'hutuapo'

 [This Paper has been modified from original]

HOTEP

HUTUAPO

Ancient Egyptian: HTP

Be at peace; be peaceful, to rest, to be happy, to become content, to repose.

The word above HUTUAPO stands for the Ancient Egyptian skeletal consonants HTP. This is usually spoken as 'HOTEP' by inserting the vowels O and E. The Ancient Egyptians used consonants in their scripts and researchers have tried to identify the correct vowels.

It is said that the Greek pronunciation of the Coptic word is to be pronounced as HOTEP. I am still awaiting confirmation about the nature of the vowel interposed between t and p. Is it a made up vowel?

I have analysed the word by using Bantu and Kiswahili-Bantu grammar and have found that the correct vowels should be U, UA and O. This provides a much closer linguistic match and a clearer demonstration of the correct meaning and pronunciation of the word.

It is generally agreed that the Ancient Egyptian language has a genetic relationship with present day African languages. If this is true, tell me which current African language uses the word HOTEP in its vocabulary? In other words is HOTEP an African word? Much better to use HUTUAPO! at least we know where it comes from.  

Again if one considers the analogy of the lipstick, in this case the lipstick is shown in red, the word HUTUAPO has the meaning embedded within its root, and does not change in meaning, in other words the word is the epitome of peace, and the beginning and ending in red lipstick only help to give a wider scope in meaning of the Ancient Egyptian word.   

HU + TUA + PO

HUTUAPO consists of the all important root verb TUA whose meanings are shown below.

TUA means: to go down, to sink of the sun, to rest, to be in a settled state, to be in a state of peace, security, safety, calmness, quietness, composure.

Seeking support from the Zulu-Bantu languages the word thula means: be quiet, silent, still, peaceful. Thus -thula+sizwe → thulasizwe, means, be quiet and let us hear. Thus the word describes a person in authority, one whose word is final.  

HU is an unchangeable verb prefix signifying 'habitual' or 'customary action': always, usually, generally.

PO is a particle of locality and time, where, when, while. It is a place indicator as 'there' 

Therefore   HTP  =   HUTUAPO (pronounced phonetically)

'Always be in a state of peace wherever you are'

Prof Manu Ampim in his email acquaints the word HUTUAPO as being a modern Bantu term. One of my questions to him was' 'how old did he think the Bantu word Mtu was? Sadly I have not received a reply yet. According to Dr Chami the word Mtu or Ntu is predynastic and was centred in the regions of Eastern Africa at a period in time in excess of 5000 years. Moreover the particle PO at the end of HUTUA+PO has its related form PA, 'at the place of', and may be seen in use during the expeditions to PUNT. In fact PUNT is known as PA+NTU or PA+WANTU, the place of the Bantu people. So in the scheme of this investigation the word HU+TUA+PO is not a recent Bantu acquisition, far from it, in fact the word goes back many, many thousands of years and is an agglutination of morphemes. It is therefore not a recently acquired word as has been stated by Professor Manu Ampim.  

Closely related to HUTUAPO is the Ancient Egyptian word for offerings. The word used for 'offerings' have the similar skeletal consonants HTP.

Refer to Faulkner 179

OFFERINGS

HU+TOA+PO

HUTOAPO

        HTP  offerings   

hutoa verb Root -toa¹

always offer, always evoke, always call forth

The Ancient Egyptian word HTP which has been discussed earlier has a similar form for the word 'offering' HTP.

The Kiswahili-Bantu word TOA means 'offer'. Please do not confuse this word with TUA. The word for offering is KUTOA, or TOLEO, to offer. Refer to the table above. If one inserts the prefix HU, habitual, together with TOA one obtains the understanding, 'always offer'. If the ending PO is inserted one obtains the meaning 'always offer at a particular (that) place, the place of offerings' (understood) 

Note this word could also mean the place of offerings.

Researched by Somo © 14 Sept 2008

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