Abstract :
[en] A large part of the military terms attested during the Ramesside Period, being written in ‘group-writing’, has been regarded so far as loanwords from North-Semitic languages. Military technologies were indeed circulating all around the Mediterranean Sea at that time, as well as related skills and craftsmen. Peoples came into Egypt with their own gods and languages, and likely added new words to the Egyptian vocabulary from their very specific area of expertise. This might explain why, for instance, most of the words used to describe chariot’s parts seems to be loanwords, transferred into Egypt together with the chariot technology.
However, such an explanation should be nuanced. Indeed, those loanwords often occur only once or a few times, mainly in literary texts. Those texts were carefully written by skillful scribes, with a special attention for the vocabulary. Thus, the stylistic device of enumeration was frequently used and ‘lexical lists’ were disseminated among larger literary compositions. Such lists were a good opportunity for the scribe to expose his knowledge regarding a specific field, such as geography or military technologies, but also to show his proficiency in foreign languages – the kind of abilities that were likely much appreciated in an already globalized world with powerful empires sharing common military
technologies and social elites. This opens the question whether some words related with the military lexicon were true loanwords passed in the Egyptian language and used as technical terms, or rather foreign words expertly showcased for stylistic purpose?
The paper aims to discuss this question, focussing on two cases studies which illustrate the strong relationship between the scribes and the military, but also emphasize the cultural interactions between Egypt and its neighbors from a lexical point of view : the Satirical Letter of Hori and the Hymn to the King on his Chariot.
