Genitive
In genitives, two nouns are connected. The first noun is the governing noun, and the second noun is the governed noun. A Genitive is a grammatical unit that forms part of the speech or phrase. Hence, it can be the subject, object or predicate. There are two kinds of genitives: direct and indirect.
a) Direct Genitive
The direct genitive follows the noun that governs it, immediately and without a connecting link.
Example
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Overseer of the house
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imy-rA pr
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π
π°ππ
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Lord of Abydos
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nb AbDw
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π πππ°π
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Overseer over the inner chamber
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imy-rA aXnwty
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π
π°πππ°πππ°ππ±π’ππ
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Lord of Djedu
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nb Ddw
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π π½π§π°ππ
±
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In some special cases, the governed noun may be placed before the governing noun, usually due to honorific reasons or graphic reasons.
Genitive also appears in expressions, such as
π¨ππ°ππ£π°π€
st-ib
(heart’s place) emotion
Most of cases st-ib come as a common adjective
π
‘π‘π°ππ΄ππ°πππ°π¨π±π·ππ°π£πΈπ
bAk.f mAa n st-ib.f
His real servant, His mate.
b) Indirect Genitive
In this case the governing and the governed nouns are separated by the genitival adjective ny ‘belong to’. A derivative from the preposition π n “to, for, of”. The genitival adjective agrees in number and gender with the governing noun.
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Singular
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Plural
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Masculine
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Feminine
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Masculine
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Feminine
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π n
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ππ°π nt
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π nw
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ππ°πnt |
Another example of the Indirect Genitive
ππ°ππ±π€π°π
n kA n to the ka of
Although genitive, here, has the same sign as π n “to”, the actual meaning automatically appears from the context (weather to be genitive or preposition).
We might find π used as genitive for masculine, feminine, singular or plural, as in Hmt.f nst-ib.f.“his wife, his mate” (his wife of his heart’s place).