Customer Reviews

Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(2)
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I love this book--and let me tell you why. If you get the chance, pick it up. Feel that? It's light, easy to carry, and nicely transportable. If you've ever had to use the Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache (Dictionary of the Egypian Language) by Erman with its seven lovely volumes (minus 'Belegstellen') you know what I mean. And best of all it's in English, elliminating the need to turn to the useless Budge dictionary if you don't happen to speak German. While Faulkner's dictionary will not have every single word you seek as you translate (hence 'A Concise Dictionary'), it contains more than enough to get you through a text. And most importantly there are citations within each entry as well as occasional examples of words within idiomatic contexts. Overall, highly recommended, as this is the best and most accessible Egyptian language dictionary around.

This book is decidedly more accurate than the Budge compendium, which I don't recommend to anyone who wants to study the ancient Egyptian language as all it will do is teach you hieroglyphs the wrong way. Faulkner, however, gives you accurate translations, and while his handwriting makes this book a little hard to study -- and really, a typeface overhaul of this book is long overdue -- he's the best bang for your buck. This book is Egyptian-English; the companion book by David Shennum handles the English-Egyptian side of things, and is essential for anyone who wants to get the most out of this book. Costs a lot compared to the Budge stuff, but at least it won't leave you misreading glyphs and misunderstanding the wonder that is ancient Egypt.

I learned to read Middle Egyptian using primarily Alan Gardiner's Middle Egyptian Grammar, Adrian deBuck's Reading Book, and this dictionary. Unfortunately, Amazon does not seem to carry deBuck, which is too bad, because deBuck is a book of hieroglyphic texts for the student, containing all the important Middle Egyptian stuff: The Story of Sinuhe, the Story of the Eloquent Peasant, etc. To show you how well Faulker and deBuck go together, I need only say that when Faulkner gave a reference for the particular definition of the word I was looking up out of deBuck, as often as not the reference turned out to be the very text I was reading - a pretty clear indication that I was on the right track!

Use Miriam Lichtheim's delightful translations to keep you on the track as far as the overall sense goes, but for the right word at the right time, Faulkner and deBuck go together like ham on rye.

deBuck is from Ares Publisher Inc. Google for Ares Publishers and you'll find them. Also, one reviewer complained that there is no reverse English-to-Egyptian index in Faulkner. True, but there's one published independently, and Amazon has that. I don't have the reference at hand but a little Amazon searching will turn it up.

This book has a certain romantic appeal for amateur Egyptologists like myself. It is a reproduction of a hand-written collection of notes by Faulkner, who I presume gathered the data during field work over many years. The words are organized lexigraphically according to Budge's phonetic ordering, that is, based on the Egyptological pronunciation of the word. Thus if you are not at least a little familiar with transliterating hieroglypics, your chances of looking a word up in this dictionary are slim. The fact that the words and the definitions and cross-references are all hand-written, makes the book a little hard to read, but also gives it a kind of charm - like you're so much on the cutting edge of the field that you have to use someone's scribbled notes as a reference. Tends to make you feel a little like Indiana Jones. But I digress. In terms of its actual usefulness to a student of Middle Egyptian, I use this book as my last resort for research, after I have looked! in Alan Gardiner's grammer and Budge's 2-volume dictionary. On the other hand, it's still fun to own for all the reasons I've mentioned earlier.

I am a Egyptology MA student and have used this dictionary for several years. It is, honestly, the best English-language reference available for ancient Egyptian, though the multi-volume German 'Worterbuch' is considered the ultimate resource. Budge is no comparison to either, being, in general, laughably inaccurate. The only reason he's reprinted is that there are no copyrights on his work, so publishers don't have to pay extra. Faulkner, on the other hand, references the texts from which he gets his definitions, providing as complete a reference as possible. He also covers the variations of spelling and definition (which for Egyptian can be both wide and numerous).

Yes, this dictionary is handwritten, which is due to the fact that it was created _before_ there were computers that could handle a hieroglyphic type. And converting it would take a lot of time and money that academics don't have and publishers don't want to spend. (This isn't exactly an NYTimes bestseller.)

So if you're seriously interested in translating the Egyptian language, this book is a must.

The Faulkner's is still the best Egyptian dictionary around. In my opinion it's more concise, more organized, more accurate, and more objectively supported by epigraphic research than the Budge. My only complaint, and it's a minor one at that considering the use to which it's most commonly put, is that there is no English to Egyptian section. Who knows? I might want to write letters in Egyptian, and searching for just that "right" word would be so much easier with an English to Egyptian portion!

Studying Middle Egyptian, Faulkner's dictionary is a must, specially in those cases where you cannot get your hands on the Wörterbuch, which is the essential dictionary for any serious student of the Middle Egyptian language. The handwriting may be annoying and seem oldfashioned in this day and age, but after some practicing, it is not that hard to decipher Faulkner's glyphs. I've definitely seen worse.

There are references to all the words, so that you can check the ancient source and see where Faulkner found it. But you need to have at least a basic knowledge of Middle Egyptian and to know how to transliterate Middle Egyptian glyphs, otherwise this dictionary is a waste of your money.

Still, you should never, ever buy any books by Budge. Not if you want to be a serious student of the Ancient Egyptian language!

Ce dictionnaire est d'un grand secours pour moi. J'étudie les hiéroglyphes depuis 2 ans et mon ancien dictionnaire n'est rien en comparaison avec celui-ci. le Faulkner donne les références aux textes, ce qui aide la traduction. En plus, tout est écrit à la main, ce qui donne un certain cachet au livre!

Vraiment un bon achat!

This is a most useful dictionary for those interested in reading and translating Middle Egyptian. However, I was amazed to find it entirely handwritten instead of typeset! It's fun if you have good eyesight and a little patience, otherwise get the older Wallis-Budge dictionary if you can ignore all of the "thee", "thou" and "thine" type translations he used, which only reflected an older literary style, I suppose. Being more recent than Budge, Faulkner's work will also contain some updated interpretations as well.

As a student learning Middle Egyptian, this book proved incredibly useful, and I would recommend it to any interested in pursuing the translation of Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs. The book itself is probably the best dictionary I've seen on the subject that isn't in French or German. The drawings are all precise, and the definitions are easy to understand. Everything in the book is hand written and drawn, which does produce a small learning curve in recognizing the connections between the larger, and more abbreviated signs, but you shouldn't let that sway you from purchasing this. It has words that my professor didn't provide in his dictionary, and thus has proved immensely useful for my studies. 5 stars and a glowing recommendation are the least I can do for this work.