“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”
— Terry Pratchett
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Neither have we.
I swear, there's nothing that makes me feel closer to our ancestors than knowing they loved and cared for their pets. It's just awesome to know that I could meet someone from 5000 years ago, and they'd immediately understand us doing the same.
I like that cat's attitude to humans also didn't change. Here's the picture of 15th century manuscript with cat:s paw prints.
One of the oldest examples of cat domestication is a grave from Cyprus where the cat was buried with its master.
One of my neighbor's cat is called "dulce", which means sweetie
Im naming my next cat Nedjem!
I was just wondering about pronunciation to do the same! Would it be nehd-jehm with the 'j' pronounced like in 'gem'? Or would it be nehd-yehm? With the 'j' sounding like a 'y'? My instinct says the first for ancient Egyptian, but pronunciation of things can surprise us
I'd just call them NEDJ-em, or Nedg, Probably Nedgy would get a lot of play, too. It doesnt have to be correct, its not a test in ancient Egyptian.
Fair enough, I just like languages so I'm more interested to satisfy my own curiosity, haha
Well then, in the interest of historical accuracy, which I usually adhere to in all other things except cat names, my guess would be that the J is pronounced like a Y.
I just like the sound of the other way better.
the j is a transliteration by modern scientists. it's not like they used the letter back then.
also the fact that they used DJ together seems to specifically disambiguate it as the soft G / J sound.
I tend to agree. Plus, wasn't ancient Egyptian pretty consonant heavy, with scientists basically filling in the blanks with vowels so we can more easily read/pronounce it? That's another reason, IMO, to lean towards soft g/j.... I'm just flying blind with vibes as my guide mostly, tho, I'm definitely no expert
Edit: even if the 'j' was pronounced as a 'y', being that close to the 'd' basically makes the whole thing moot when it comes to pronunciation. Said quickly (like calling—or scolding lol) a pet, both pronunciations sound quite similar
of course if was an orange
Original Braincell Occupier
Or did he have all of the orange brain mummified with him except for the last active cell shared amongst his descendents?
He forgot to share the braincell.
I'm sure Nedjem's owner would be infinitely amused that their cat is being discussed 3500 years later
Nedjem had the focused concentrated power of will to get the table snack
That's because nobody bothered to write about asshole, asshole the second and and dumbass who came before sweety.
It doesn't look very happy being leashed to what I hope is a table leg but worry is a horse's (or some other animal's) leg. Even its pose looks like one of those "let me fucking go! I'm about to clamp down on anything fleshy I can reach!"
I assumed it was an even larger cat