nj

See also: Nj, NJ, nJ, .nj, and N.J.

ǌ	U+01CC, ǌ LATIN SMALL LETTER NJ

← ǋ
[U+01CB]

Latin Extended-B

Ǎ →
[U+01CD]

Translingual

Nj in upper- and lowercase

Letter

nj (mixed case Nj, upper case NJ)

A digraph from the letters n and j.

Egyptian

Etymology 1

n (“to, for”) +‎ -j (nisba ending).

Pronunciation

(reconstructed) IPA^(key): /nij/ → /nij/ → /nəʔ/

(modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /ni/
- Conventional anglicization: ni

Adjective

of, belonging to
made of (a material or composition)
of, possessing (a quality)
introduces the agent of an infinitive when it is a personal pronoun

Usage notes

This genitival adjective can be used to express the indirect genitive. In this case, it indicates that the noun preceding it, with which it agrees in gender and number, is possessed by the noun which follows it.

In Late Egyptian the functional contrasts of characterization versus specification that distinguished the indirect and direct genitive disappeared, and outside a restricted set of particular words the indirect genitive with nj largely supplanted the direct genitive without it.

Inflection

Declension of nj (nisba adjective)

masculine

feminine

singular

,

nj, n

nt

dual

njwj, nwj

ntj

plural

,

njw, nw

nwt¹, nt²

Archaic in Middle Egyptian when modifying a noun.
From Middle Egyptian, this feminine singular form was generally used for the plural.
In Late Egyptian, the masculine singular form was used with all nouns.

In Late Egyptian nj is usually not inflected by gender and number but invariably appears as nj. Sometimes the writings of the former feminine and plural forms are used interchangeably with the masculine singular without distinction. The exception is in more formal texts, where the old distinctions and inflections are sometimes still used.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of nj

n

Derived terms

nḥḥ
ntj
nt-ꜥ
nt-ḥsb
nt-ḥtrj
nḏt
sn-n-mwt

Etymology 2

n (“to, for”) +‎ -j (adverbializing suffix).

Adverb

for it, to it, thereto, therefor

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of nj

n

Derived terms

jmjtw-nj

Preposition

Variant form (before a noun) of n (“to, for”)

Etymology 4

Cognate to Proto-Semitic *lā (“no, not”).

Particle

proclitic

(Old Egyptian) not; negates any sentence
(Middle Egyptian) not; negates a nominal sentence, an adjectival sentence of possession, or the rheme of an emphatic clause (used with js; see Usage Notes below)
(Middle Egyptian) not; negates most verbal predicates besides infinitival, imperative, and subjunctive forms; forms the negation of the perfect, perfect passive, terminative, perfective, imperfective, prospective, and prospective passive.
no, not any; negates an individual noun
not; negates other individual words

Usage notes

When used alone, nj negates the individual word or verbal predicate following it.

When negating (nonverbal) nominal sentences, adjectival sentences of possession (which start with the genitival adjective n(j)

), and rhemes of emphatic clauses, this particle is typically followed by the first element of the negated clause and then the negative particle js. In Middle Egyptian it cannot negate adjectival sentences which do not indicate possession, nor adverbial sentences, which are instead negated by nn. It also cannot negate verbal sentences that are not emphatic, so the presence of a verb between nj and js always indicates an emphatic clause.

nj combines with a number of other words to form negative particles with more specialised meanings, for which see the next section.

Derived terms

nj js (“and not, but not”)
nj wnt (“since X did not exist”)
nj zp (“never”)

References

James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, 66, 71–72, 86–87, 127, 169, 194, 413–414 page 43, 66, 71–72, 86–87, 127, 169, 194, 413–414.
Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 117–118
Junge, Friedrich (2005) Late Egyptian Grammar: An Introduction, second English edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, page 60–61, 63–64

Fula

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ⁿdʒ/

Letter

nj (lower case, upper case Nj)

A letter of the Fula alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Common to all varieties of Fula (Fulfulde / Pulaar / Pular).

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

(uppercase): Nj

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɲ/

Letter

nj (Cyrillic spelling њ)

The 20th (digraph) letter of the Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet (gajica), preceded by n and followed by o.

Pronoun

nj (Cyrillic spelling њ)

him (clitic accusative singular of ȏn (“he”))
it (clitic accusative singular of òno (“it”))

Declension

Inflection of 3rd-person pronouns

	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
nominative	ȏn	òna	òno	òni	òne	òna
genitive	njȅga, ga	njȇ, je	njȅga, ga	njȋh, ih	njȋh, ih	njȋh, ih
dative	njȅmu, mu	njȏj, joj	njȅmu, mu	njȉma, im	njȉma, im	njȉma, im
accusative	njȅga, ga, nj	njȗ, ju, je	njȅga, ga, nj	njȋh, ih	njȋh, ih	njȋh, ih
vocative	—	—	—	—	—	—
locative	njȅm, njȅmu	njȏj	njȅm, njȅmu	njȉma	njȉma	njȉma
instrumental	njȋm, njíme	njȏm, njóme	njȋm, njíme	njȉma	njȉma	njȉma