The Four Egyptian Homographic Roots B-3

The purpose of this study is to examine in detail four Egyptian roots with the consonantal structure B-3 which have distinct origins and meanings. The author shows that while there are scores of terms in Egyptian which derive from an original biconsonantal B-3, they are not all related to each other but arise from four quite separate roots. While these words have sometimes been confused with each other or derived from the same root, a close look at their various contexts and their relation to similarity constructed words and to the Semitic cognates involved shows this is not the case. The study of these roots shows that is possible to clarify with more precision the etymology of many common terms and allows appreciating the role of morphological changes.