The word "Kemet" in the context of history refers to the name for ancient Egypt given by the ancient Egyptians themselves. It is an example of an endonym, the name applied to a region by its natives. By contrast, the word "Egypt" itself is an exonym, a word created for the English language, but something that would not mean anything to an actual ancient Egyptian. In fact, the word "Egypt" developed only at the very end of thousands of years of ancient Egyptian history; the Romans applied the term "Aegyptus" for the ancient kingdom of pharaohs and pyramids.
Exonyms and endonyms can be found throughout all of history. As a modern example, "China" is an English exonym, a word based upon the historical Qin Dynasty. However, the Chinese word for their country is totally different: Zhuonghuo, which literally means "Middle Nation."
The use of endonyms and exonyms is further complicated by the fact that ancient Egyptian is a totally dead language: nobody speaks it today. This means linguists can approximate what it was meant to sound like, but we cannot be certain. Kemet was possibly pronounced differently by the ancient Egyptians themselves.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
What is the significance of kemet?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that thrive in diverse environments (such as the ocean, the soil, and the human body). Various bac...
-
James is very unhappy on a number of occasions throughout the story, but he's especially unhappy with his life situation as the story be...
-
Note that these events are not in chronological order. The story is told by the narrator, looking back upon her life. The first notable even...
-
It seems most likely you are asking about Michael Halliday's theories of language. He argues children have seven main functions they use...
-
Under common law, any hotel, inn, or other hospitality establishment has a duty to exercise "reasonable care" for the safety an...
No comments:
Post a Comment