It seems that all the above classes may be divided into two main groups, according to the form of the infinitive:—with masculine infinitive the strong triliteral type, and with feminine infinitive the type of the III. inf. The former group includes all except III. inf., IV. inf., and the causative of the biliterals, which belong to the second group.
It is probable that the verb had a special form denoting condition, as in Arabic. There was a causative form prefixing ś, and traces of forms resembling Pi‘el and Niphal are observed. Some roots are reduplicated wholly or in part with a frequentative meaning, and there are traces of gemination of radicals.
Pseudo-Participle.—In very early texts this is the past indicative, but more commonly it is used in sentences such as, gm-n-f wi ‘ḥ‘·kwi, “he found me I stood,” i.e. “he found me standing.” The indicative use was soon given up and the pseudo-participle was employed only as predicate, especially indicating a state; e.g. ntr·t šm·ti, “the goddess goes”; iw-k wḏ’·ti, “thou art prosperous.” The endings were almost entirely lost in New Egyptian. For early times they stand thus:—
| Sing. | 3. masc. fem 2. masc. fem. 1. c. | i, late w. ti. ti ti kwi. | Dual wii. tiiw | Pl. | w. ti. tiwny. wyn. |
The pseudo-participle seems, by its inflexion, to have been the perfect of the original Semitic conjugation. The simplest form being that of the 3rd person, it is best arranged like the corresponding tense in Semitic grammars, beginning with that person. There is no trace of the Semitic imperfect in Egyptian. The ordinary conjugation is formed quite differently. The verbal stem is here followed by the subject-suffix or substantive—śḏm-f, “he hears”; śḏmw śtn, “the king hears.” It is varied by the addition of particles, &c., n, in, ḫr, tw, thus:—
śḏm-f, “he hears”; śḏm-w-f, “he is heard” (pl. śḏm-ii-śn, “they are heard”); śḏm-tw-f, “he is heard”; śḏm-n-f, “he heard”; śḏm-n-tw-f, “he was heard”; also, śḏm-in-f, śḏm-ḫr-f, śḏm-k’-f. Each form has special uses, generally difficult to define, śdm-f seems rather to be imperfect, śḏm-n-f perfect, and generally to express the past. Later, śḏm-f is ordinarily expressed by periphrases; but by the loss of n, śḏm-n-f became itself sdm-f, which is the ordinary past in demotic. Coptic preserves śḏm-f forms of many verbs in its causative (e.g.
“cause him to live,” from Egyptian di·t·nḫ-f), and, in its periphrastic conjugation, the same forms of wn, “be,” and iry, “do.” With śḏm-f (śeḏmo-f) was a more emphatic form (eśḏomef), at any rate in the weak verbs.
The above, with the relative forms mentioned below, are supposed by Erman to be derived from the participle, which is placed first for emphasis: thus, śḏm·w śtn, “hearing is the king”; śḏm-f, for śḏm-fy, “hearing he is.” This Egyptian paraphrase of Semitic is just like the Irish paraphrase of English, “It is hearing he is.”
The imperative shows no ending in the singular; in the plural it has y, and later w; cf. Semitic imperative.