Paul Dickson's Dictionary of Middle Egyptian

Dictionary is an indispensable component of learning any language, but some dictionaries are hard to come by.

I am still not able to find a copy of Raymond Faulkner’s Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian in Kuala Lumpur, and although Dover’s edition of Budge’s Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary can be easily obtained in Kinokuniya and Borders, I still haven’t get my copies. Budge’s dictionary is frequently being ridiculed as out-dated, but Budge did include words from various time spans throughout the history of the Egyptian language as well as related words in “Coptic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Amharic and Persian cuneiform”, making this dictionary an unreliable but ironically good reference tool despite of its bad reputation. So, I still might get a copy of this dictionary sooner or later.

Not many online Egyptian dictionaries are available, most are merely wordlists. Jean-François Champollion’s Dictionnaire Egyptien is available online in the website of Bibliothèque Nationale de France, but this dictionary is more in the domain of the history of Egyptology, instead of learning Egyptian itself. The Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache and Beinlich Wordlist is available online, but unfortunately my German is still in beginner level.

Then Paul Dickson comes to rescue. According to Dickson, he was unable to find a Middle Egyptian dictionary arranged in the way he intended to, so out of frustration he produced his own dictionary that organized in order by the Gardiner Codes.

Each of the entry is given in the Egyptian hieroglyphic spelling, then transliteration in Manuel de Codage, English definition and Gardiner classification. The vocabulary is extensive, and easy to search as well. This is an impressive project, and it certainly is a great tool for Middle Egyptian learners and those who are reading Egyptian texts.

This dictionary can be downloaded at:

www.twonotes.com/hg/dictionary.pdf