zt-ḥmt

Egyptian

Etymology

zt (“woman”) +‎ ḥmt (“woman”). This compound arose because the feminine ending -t in zt eventually became silent, making zt homophonous with z (“man”), so that it became necessary to add ḥmt to clarify.

Pronunciation

(reconstructed) IPA^(key): /ˌzutˈħiːmat/ → /ˌsuʔˈħiːmaʔ/ → /səˈħiːma/ → /səˈħiːmə/

(modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /zɛt hɛmɛt/
- Conventional anglicization: zet-hemet

Noun

f

woman

Inflection

Declension of *zt-ḥmt* (feminine)
singular	zt-ḥmt
dual	ztj-ḥmtj
plural	zwt-ḥmwt

Descendants

Demotic: s-ḥmt
- Akhmimic Coptic: ⲥϩⲓⲙⲉ (shime)
- Bohairic Coptic: ⲥϩⲓⲙⲓ (shimi)
- Fayyumic Coptic: ⲥϩⲓⲙⲓ (shimi), ⲥⲓⲙⲓ (simi), ⲥⲓⲙⲉⲓ (simei)
- Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲥϩⲓⲙⲉ (shime)
- Old Coptic: ⲥⲓⲙⲉ (sime)
- Sahidic Coptic: ⲥϩⲓⲙⲉ (shime), ⲥⲉⲓⲙⲉ (seime), ⲥϩⲉ (she)

References

James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 344.