Acknowledgements
This book is a revised version of my PhD thesis defended at the Free University of Berlin (FUB). Without the active engagement of my professors, supervisors, colleagues, family, and friends—from whom I have received a great deal of assistance—it would not have been successful.
First and foremost, I wish to thank Prof. Dr. Jurgen Osing and Prof. Dr. Karl Jansen-Winkeln, both of whom instilled in me an appreciation for linguistic and philological inquiry during my time at the Ägyptologisches Seminar at FUB. I am grateful to my supervisors Prof. Dr. Jochem Kahl and Prof. Dr. Tonio Sebastian Richter for helping to define the integrative Egyptian-Coptic path this research took and for the support they gave me throughout the writing process. I am indebted to Prof. Richard Jasnow of Johns Hopkins University, whose input during my Demotic studies in Baltimore proved extremely valuable. I am grateful to have had the good fortune to meet Prof. Martin Haspelmath—our fruitful discussion helped me to finalize my eventual line of argumentation. Special thanks go to the anonymous peer-reviewers of the Harvard Egyptological Studies monograph series. The current narrative structure of the book is largely a result of their comments and suggestions.
I would like to acknowledge my former colleagues at the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae for their continued support and acceptance of my double identity as a research associate and a PhD candidate. Special thanks should go to Dr. Simon Schweitzer and Dr. Doris Topmann for the many enlightening discussions of my work. My appreciation is also due to Dr. Roman Gundacker, Dr. Marwan Kilani and Prof. Vincent Lasney, all of whom were eager to listen to many facets of this book during its development and provided many valuable insights.
My former colleagues at dots GmbH in Berlin deserve special mention for instructing me how to meticulously collect, organize, and analyze data. Without the critical skills developed as a software tester while working there this inquiry would not have been possible. Despite overwhelming familial responsibilities constraining her time, my sister Natalia Lyman selflessly looked over the first completed draft of this manuscript. I am deeply grateful to her, as well as Christian Langer and Justin Yoo, who proofread the final version with the keen eyes of Egyptologists.
I would be remiss if I did not show my appreciation to the Museo Egizio in Turin for kindly allowing me to work at the Biblioteca Silvio Curto, and I wish to especially single out their head librarian Silvia Mosso for her assistance during my time conducting research there. My hometown of Grodno, whose multicultural makeup shaped my initial interest in languages, provided a much-needed respite and retreat to collect my thoughts during the years in which I worked on this book. Finally, it is a great pleasure to thank the rest of my family and my friends for having been a loving distraction for my mind and providing an ever-sympathetic ear.
Berlin, Turin, and Grodno
(May 2022)