185 Observations on the so-called ‘sw sDm=f,’ or Middle Egyptian Proclitic Pronoun Construction Joshua Aaron Roberson University of North Texas T hroughout most of its history as a written language, ancient Egyptian employed three main series of personal pronouns: independent, dependent, and suffix. 1 The rules governing the placement and use of these three sets of pronouns in any given period constitute a fundamental cornerstone of Egyptian syntax. In the ‘classical’ dialect known as Middle Egyptian, these rules may be summarized briefly as follows: The independent pronouns are free standing, proclitic morphemes that occur at the head of nominal 2 and, rarely, adverbial sentence patterns, where they function as the subject/topic and convey a certain degree of emphasis (‘It is he who,’ etc.). The dependent pronouns, by contrast, function most often as the direct object of transitive verbs, which they follow as closely as possible, being superceded only by the suffix pronouns. The dependent series may also function as the subject to a preceding adjectival predicate. The dependent pronouns, although construed as free standing morphemes like their independent counterparts, were used enclitically and could not stand un-introduced at the head of a sentence. However, when introduced by an appropriate particle (mk, tj, etc.), the dependent series could precede a verbal or adverbial predicate, anticipating the subject and resumed in due course by the appropriate suffix pronoun. The suffix pronouns, in turn, function as subjects to verbal and adverbial predicates, as the possessor in direct genitive constructions, 3 and as the object of prepositions and certain particles. Unlike the independent and dependent series, the suffix pronouns were not construed as separate morphemes, being fused directly to the preceding, modified word. The present study concerns an unusual feature of the dependent pronouns, which, in certain contexts and quite contrary to the normal rules of Middle Egyptian syntax, appear to have been capable of functioning as fully proclitic morphemes. 4 In such cases, the pronoun stands at the head of its sentence, without introductory word or particle, 5 serving as the frontally extraposed subject to a following verbal or non-verbal predicate. This use recalls that of the independent pronouns, but lacks the emphasis that characterizes the independent series, 6 while also exhibit-