Abstract

Simon Thuault, From 'graphic dissimilation' to 'graphemic dissimilarity': some terminological remarks about a hieroglyphic peculiarity

This paper follows the realisation of my Ph.D at the University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 with a Thesis entitled “La dissimilation graphique dans les textes égyptiens de l’Ancien Empire. Essai de grammatologie cognitive”. In addition to this dissertation (whose publication is in progress), a paper of mine has been published in the Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists in which I define and explain what the expression “dissimilation graphique” covers in the context of my own research. After these two realisations, a problem I tried to solve during my Ph.D reappeared. This issue concerns the exact name of the hieroglyphic peculiarity thus analysed, usually called “graphic dissimilation” in the Egyptological literature (see infra for the definition of this feature). The question was simple: after having retained this terminology in my Thesis – partly in order to keep a relative coherence with the anterior studies –, is it really relevant to maintain this nomenclature despite the difference between this peculiarity and the linguistic reality it refers? So I decided to pursue this research and came to the conclusion that the classical terminology isn’t exactly accurate, several elements inciting to suggest its modification in favour of a better name. The following pages aim to prove that this changing is rightly motivated and that in one particular case, the expression “graphic dissimilation” has to be abandoned.

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