XXX Международный конгресс ИИСАА. 19–21 июня 2019 г. Т. 1

Языки стран Азии и Африки к 150-летию академика В. В. Бартольда (1869–1930). Ч. 1 407 ay absimbillatoonamell Note: the second (l) in Absimbil is grammatical. Meaning: I am from Abu Simbel. ay absimbilka nalis/ nass Note: the two verbs are an option, both have the same meaning. Meaning: I saw Abu Simbel. Sabbar used the conventional spelling ‘Abu Simbel’ alongside absimbil which represented his own pronunciation. However, Sabbar’s village was located to the south of the temples at a distance that would have taken two full days of walking plus a boat ride across the Nile. On the other hand, the Nubian scholar Hussain Mukhtar Kabbara originally lived on the east bank immediately opposite the temples on the western bank of the river. Now after the resettlement, he lives next to the temples themselves. His life-long proximity to the temples may make his evidence even more authoritative for histo- rians. He pronounced the name as ‘Absámbal’. This particular pronunciation was also recorded in 1817 by John Bowes Wright who worked with Belzoni exploring the Great Temple 1 . Kabbara said that the name Absámbal suggested a high place rather than the temples themselves. The only local name that referred precisely to the temples was Farréygn Uffi, meaning ‘the hole or cave of Farréyg’ (name of the surrounding administrative area). Farréygn Uffi is a Nubian phrase consisting of the Nubian word Uffi meaning ‘hole’ or ‘cave’, the Nubian genitival element n (= ‘of’) and ’Farréyg’, an administrative region. The same name is also used for another administrative area further south among the Nobíin Nubian-speaking inhabitants of the Third Cataract. Farréygn Uffi (‘the Hole of Farréyg’) seems to have been an uninviting name suggesting that people had no business to be there. This had the advantage of discouraging any people who might be motivated by idle curiosity as well as protecting the temples. Toponymy reaching back through 33 centuries of history Another ancient Egyptian site is even more remarkable for toponymy and its relevance to history (Leclant 1970; Bell & Phillips 2013). The name of the mother of the Pharaoh Akhenaten seems to have survived for 33 centuries and still to be used by the local Nubians in the toponym ‘Adéy faar’ (‘The ruined Adéy’). The present-day Adéy has been generally accepted to come from the ancient Egyptian ‘ḥʒt Ty’ ‘the Mansion of [Queen] Teye’, an ancient Egyptian toponym which was inscribed in hieroglyphs on the temple of Saadéŋŋa, as pronounced in the northern variety of Nobíin Nubian (Sabbar, 2018, p. 57, item 46). The local people who speak 1 I am grateful to Kirsty Rowan for this reference, see Sabbar (2018), p. 40.