Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs 3rd Edition

Prior to this book, I had studied to other works related to reading Egyptian Hieroglyphs. One was Janice Kamrin's "Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. a Practical Guide". The previous works I studied dealt mainly with the basic alphabet, biliterals, triliteral, nouns, verbs, adjectives, sentence structure and other elements to read hieroglyphs. The previous works would introduce vocabulary and have sample texts, or objects to translate; mainly from tombs, or temples. I wanted to continue this route and so I purchased book. This book is completely different is not structured the same has the other works I studied. The is mainly a grammar book that really goes more in-depth into the grammar of the language and not so much in reading hieroglyphs. I found it very hard to follow. I was really confused when the author used "j" instead of "i" in the alphabet. My other books, including Bill Petty's books, all use "i" and not "j".If you are like me and want to learn reading hieroglyphs on temples, tombs and objects, than try the other books. This book is for the serious person who wants to go beyond that and read hieroglyphs involving texts and everyday writings. An example of the grammar is the previous books I studied listed dependent, independent and suffix pronouns. This book breaks them down even further with a lot more pronoun examples. I still give it five stars because the book is good for the purpose it serves, but it made my brain smoke and I had to stop reading it.

This is my second reading after the first edition. My favorite quality of this book is how well James Allen explains this difficult subject. Whatever parts don't sink in initially can eventually be understood after repeated reading and that makes the book hard to abandon even when the sheer amount of information becomes overwhelming at times. It puts you on your own feet which is not something most text books can do.The print is a but weak in some places and you may need reading glasses to make out the symbols.Even though this is a grammar and not a lexicon, you pick up a decent vocabulary by just going through Allen's examples.I say god job Dr. Allen!

This text takes a step by step approach to teaching the basics of Middle Egyptian grammar. Excellent

This is for an advanced hieroglyphs learner. Very detailed about Ancient Egyptian grammar. Prior knowledge is definitely needed for this book. Recommended for students of the language.

I had been borrowing my friends paperback copy of this book and not reading it much because it was a paper version. I decided I needed the electronic version if I were ever going to make it through the book. I love it! The electronic version is well formatted on my Kindle Keyboard Edition and the Kindle App on my Samsung Note 10.1 2013 edition tablet.The explanations in the book are great, and the reader is guided step by step through the language with exercises at the end of each section of material to assist in firming up the concepts in the mind. The interspersing of cultural essays put the language in context and make the language fun to learn (although presumably, if one is reading this book, they are already interested in the language and culture of the Middle Egyptian kingdom).I have read and noted others complain that the hieroglyphs in this book are too faint and too small. Both complaints are valid, though not a deal breaker. The glyphs are a little easier to see on the app on my tablet than on my actual black and white Kindle device. Despite being faint, I can clearly see them and it doesn't pose a major problem. However, it is a bit frustrating that they are small, so it is hard to distinguish a couple of the glyphs if the lighting in the room is not just right. When one tries to use the zoom feature to make them bigger, the surrounding text is enlarged, but the glyphs are not. Nevertheless, this is more of an annoyance than a real obstacle.Because of its portability and nice formatting, I personal would recommend the Kindle version of this book to anyone interested in Middle Egyptian and oriented toward ebooks over paper.

James P. Allen wrote a great Egyptian grammar trying not to complicate things more than they actually are. Bold fonts would made for easier understanding of texts , but thsi is truly an amazing book

I found this work to be exactly what I expected and wanted. It gives a thorough grammar of the ancient Middle Egyptian language in relatively easy steps and with thorough exercises for practice of the grammatical points.

Teaches hieroglyphs with a solid foundation