A section of the Papyrus of Ani showing cursive hieroglyphs. The Papyrus of Ani is a Papyrus manuscript written in Cursive hieroglyphs and illustrated with color miniatures created in the 19th dynasty of the

Egyptian hieroglyphs (pronounced /ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf/; from Greek ἱερογλύφος "sacred carving", also hieroglyphics = τὰ ἱερογλυφικά [γράμματα]) was a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that contained a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c A glyph is an element of writing Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol whether interchangeable or context-dependent are called Allographs the abstract unit they A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood. Cursive hieroglyphs are a variety of Egyptian hieroglyphs commonly used for religious documents written on Papyrus, such as the Book of the Dead. Less formal variations of the script, called hieratic and demotic, are technically not hieroglyphs. Hieratic is a Cursive writing system used in pharaonic Egypt that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system to which it is intimately Demotic (from δημοτικός dēmotikós, "popular" refers to either the Ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of Hieratic

Etymology

The word hieroglyph comes from the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικά (hieroglyphiká), a compound of ἱερός (hierós 'sacred') and γλύφω (glýphō 'to engrave'; see glyph). Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly A glyph is an element of writing Two or more glyphs representing the same symbol whether interchangeable or context-dependent are called Allographs the abstract unit they The glyphs themselves were called τὰ ἱερογλυφικά γράμματα (tà hieroglyphiká grámmata, 'the sacred engraved letters'). The word hieroglyph has become a noun in English, standing for an individual hieroglyphic character. While "hieroglyphics" is commonly used, it is discouraged by Egyptologists. Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek grc -λογία -logia. علم المصريات مصر شناسی is a major field of Archaeology

History and evolution

Hieroglyphs emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt. Hieroglyph ( Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " or hieroglyphics ( = grc-Grek τὰ ἱερογλυφικά For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from circa 4000 BC resemble hieroglyphic writing. Gerzeh, also Girza or Jirzah, was a predynastic Egyptian cemetery (29°27'N 31°12'E located along the west bank of the Nile and today named For many years the earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette, found during excavations at Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar) in the 1890s, which has been dated to circa 3200 BCE. The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find dating from Hieraconpolis redirects here for the ancient fortress in Egypt called Hieracon see Hieracon Nekhen, ( Greek:, Strabo xvii However, in 1998 a German archaeological team under Günter Dreyer excavating at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) uncovered tomb U-j of a Predynastic ruler, and recovered three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphs, dating to the Naqada IIIA period of the 33rd century BC. Günter Dreyer is an Egyptologist at the German Archaeological Institute. Abydos ( Egyptian Abdju, 3bdw, Arabic: أبيدوس Greek Αβυδος one of the most ancient cities of Umm el-Qa'ab (sometimes Umm el Ga'ab, أم القعاب is the necropolis of the Early Dynastic kings at Abydos, in Egypt. The Predynastic Period of Egypt (prior to 3100 BC is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqadan period of ancient Egyptian history ^[1][2] The first full sentence written in hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal impression found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qa'ab, which dates from the Second Dynasty. Seth-Peribsen was a Pharaoh during the Second dynasty of Egypt who ruled for seventeen years Umm el-Qa'ab (sometimes Umm el Ga'ab, أم القعاب is the necropolis of the Early Dynastic kings at Abydos, in Egypt. The Second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt is often combined with the First dynasty under the group title Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. In the era of the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom, about 800 hieroglyphs existed. The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to that period in the 3rd millennium BCE when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement The New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in Ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and By the Greco-Roman period, they numbered more than 5,000. In modern Olympic and amateur Wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling is a particular style and variation ^[3]

Hieroglyphs consist of three kinds of glyphs: phonetic glyphs, including single-consonant characters that functioned like an alphabet; logographs, representing morphemes; and determinatives, which narrowed down the meaning of a logographic or phonetic words. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from

Hieroglyphs on an Egyptian funerary stela

As writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in the hieratic (priestly) and demotic (popular) scripts. Hieratic is a Cursive writing system used in pharaonic Egypt that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system to which it is intimately Demotic (from δημοτικός dēmotikós, "popular" refers to either the Ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of Hieratic These variants were also more suited than hieroglyphs for use on papyrus. Papyrus (/pəˈpaɪrəs/ (Rhymes -aɪrəs)is a thick paper-like material produced from the Pith of the papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus Hieroglyphic writing was not, however, eclipsed, but existed alongside the other forms, especially in monumental and other formal writing. The Rosetta Stone contains parallel texts in hieroglyphic and demotic writing. The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact (حجر رشيد in Arabic which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing

Hieroglyphs continued to be used under Persian rule (intermittent in the 6th and 5th centuries BC), and after Alexander's conquest of Egypt, during the ensuing Macedonian and Roman periods. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC It appears that the misleading quality of comments from Greek and Roman writers about hieroglyphs came about, at least in part, as a response to the changed political situation. Some believe that hieroglyphs may have functioned as a way to distinguish 'true Egyptians' from the foreign conquerors. This article is about the contemporary North African ethnic group Another reason may be the refusal to tackle a foreign culture on its own terms which characterized Greco-Roman approaches to Egyptian culture generally. Having learned that hieroglyphs were sacred writing, Greco-Roman authors imagined the complex but rational system as an allegorical, even magical, system transmitting secret, mystical knowledge.

By the 4th century, few Egyptians were capable of reading hieroglyphs, and the myth of allegorical hieroglyphs was ascendant. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 4th century (per the Julian calendar and Anno Domini / Common era) was that Century Monumental use of hieroglyphs ceased after the closing of all non-Christian temples in AD 391 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I; the last known inscription is from Philae, known as the The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom, from AD 396. Flavius Theodosius (January 11 347 – January 17 395 also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great ( Greek: Θεοδόσιος Α΄ Philae ( Greek:) or Pilak or P'aaleq ( Egyptian: remote place or the end or the angle island) or Arabic The Egyptian hieroglyphic inscription known as The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom (or Philae 436 is the latest known inscription written in hieroglyphs ^[4]

Decipherment of hieroglyphic writing

Main article: Decipherment of hieroglyphic writing

In the 5th century appeared the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, a spurious explanation of almost 200 glyphs. Until recently the Decipherment of Hieroglyphs was hampered because those attempting to decipher the hieroglyphs assigned emotional meanings to the actual symbols used The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini / Common Era. Horapollo (from Horus Apollo, Ὡραπόλλων is supposed author of a treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, extant in a Greek translation Authoritative yet largely false, the work was a lasting impediment to the decipherment of Egyptian writing. Whereas earlier scholarship emphasized Greek origin of the document, more recent work has recognized remnants of genuine knowledge, and casts it as an attempt by an Egyptian intellectual to rescue an unrecoverable past. The Hieroglyphica was a major influence on Renaissance symbolism, particularly the emblem book of Andrea Alciato, and including the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Emblem books are a particular style of illustrated Book developed in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, normally containing about one hundred combinations Andrea Alciato, commonly known as Alciati ( Andreas Alciatus) ( January 12, 1492 - 1550 was an Italian Jurist and writer Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (in English Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream, from Greek hypnos, ‘sleep’ eros, Francesco Colonna (1433(? &ndash 1527 was an Italian Dominican Priest and Monk who was credited with the authorship of the Hypnerotomachia

The first known attempts at deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs were made by Arab historians in medieval Egypt during the 9th and 10th centuries. The Historiography of early Islam refers to the study of the early origins of Islam based on a critical analysis evaluation and examination of authentic Primary During the initial Islamic invasion in 639 AD, Egypt was ruled at first by governors acting in the name of the Righteous Caliphs, and then the Ummayad By then, hieroglyphs had long been forgotten in Egypt, and were replaced by the Coptic and Arabic alphabets. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Dhul-Nun al-Misri and Ibn Wahshiyya were the first historians to be able to at least partly decipher what was written in the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,^[5] by relating them to the contemporary Coptic language used by Coptic priests in their time. Dhul-Nun al-Misri (ذو النون المصري born in 796 in Akhmim, Upper Egypt - 859) was an Egyptian Sufi saint Ibn Wahshiyah (fl 9th century / 10th century) ( أبو بكر أحمد بن وحشية Abu Bakr Ahmed ibn 'Ali ibn Qays al-Wahshiyah al-Kasdani Coptic or Coptic Egyptian ( MetRemenkīmi) is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt A Copt ( Coptic: ouRemenkīmi enEkhristianos, literally Egyptian Christian) is a native Egyptian Christian. ^[6]

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum

Various modern scholars attempted to decipher the glyphs over the centuries, notably Johannes Goropius Becanus in the 16th century and Athanasius Kircher in the 17th, but all such attempts met with failure. The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact (حجر رشيد in Arabic which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. Johannes Goropius Becanus (1519-1572 was a Dutch physician linguist and humanist. Athanasius Kircher (sometimes erroneously spelled Kirchner) was a 17th century German Jesuit Scholar who published around 40 works most The real breakthrough in decipherment began in the early 1800s by scholars as Silvestre de Sacy, Akerblad and Thomas Young. Antoine Isaac Baron Silvestre de Sacy ( September 21, 1758 &ndash February 21, 1838) was a French linguist and orientalist Johan David Åkerblad (1763&ndash1819 was a Swedish diplomat and orientalist a student of Silvestre de Sacy. Thomas Young (13 June 1773 &ndash 10 May 1829 was an English Polymath who contributed to the scientific understanding of vision, Light Finally, Jean-François Champollion made the complete decipherment. Jean-François Champollion ( 23 December 1790 – 4 March 1832) was a French classical scholar, philologist The discovery in 1799 of the Rosetta Stone by Napoleon's troops (during Napoleon's Egyptian invasion) provided the motivation to study the script, but the text on the stone was of almost no use in decipherment. Year 1799 ( MDCCXCIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact (حجر رشيد in Arabic which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. 1798 was a relatively quiet period in the French Revolutionary Wars. The critical breakthrough in the nature of the script was made by Champollion by the 1820s:

This was a major triumph for the young discipline of Egyptology. Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek grc -λογία -logia. علم المصريات مصر شناسی is a major field of Archaeology

Hieroglyphs survive today in two forms: Directly, through half a dozen Demotic glyphs added to the Greek alphabet when writing Coptic; and indirectly, as the inspiration for the original alphabet that was ancestral to nearly every other alphabet ever used, including the Roman alphabet. The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The Middle Bronze Age alphabets are two similar Undeciphered scripts dated to be from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BCE and believed to be ancestral

Writing system

Visually hieroglyphs are all more or less figurative: they represent real or imaginary elements, sometimes stylized and simplified, but all generally perfectly recognizable in form. However, the same sign can, according to context, be interpreted in diverse ways: as a phonogram (phonetic reading), as a logogram, or as an ideogram (semagram; "determinative") (semantic reading). Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idea "idea" + grafo "to write" is a Graphic symbol that represents an Idea A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an Ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in Logographic scripts Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from The determinative was not read as a phonetic constituent, but facilitated understanding by differentiating the word from its homophones.

Phonetic reading

Hieroglyphs typical of the Graeco-Roman period

Most hieroglyphic signs are phonetic in nature, meaning the sign is read independent of its visual characteristics (according to the rebus principle where, for example, the picture of an eye could stand for the English words eye and I [the first person pronoun]). A rebus ( Latin: "by things" is a kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words or parts of words for example H + = Phonograms are formed, whether with one consonant (signs called mono- or uniliteral) or by two consonants (biliteral signs) or by three (triliteral signs). Biliteral Egyptian hieroglyphs are symbols which represent a specific sequence of two consonants in the language Triliteral Egyptian hieroglyphs are symbols which represent a specific sequence of three consonants in the language The twenty-four uniliteral signs make up the so-called hieroglyphic alphabet. Since Egyptian hieroglyphic writing does not normally indicate vowels, in contrast, for example, to cuneiform, it could perhaps be argued that it is a variety of abjad. An Abjad is a type of Writing system in which each symbol stands for a Consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate Vowel.

Thus, hieroglyphic writing representing a duck is read in Egyptian as sȝ, the consonants of the word for this animal. Nevertheless, it is also possible to use the hieroglyph of the duck without a link to the meaning in order to represent the phonemes sȝ, independent of any vowels which could accompany these consonants, and in this way write the words: sȝ, "son," or when complemented by other signs detailed further in the text, sȝ, "keep, watch"; and sȝṯ. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU w, "hard ground". For example:

 – the character sȝ;

 – the same character used only in order to signify, according to the context, "duck" or, with the appropriate determinative, "son", two words having the same consonants; the meaning of the little vertical stroke will be explained further on:

 – the character sȝ as used in the word sȝw, "keep, watch"

As in the Arabic script, not all vowels were written in Egyptian hieroglyphs; it is debatable whether vowels were written at all. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Possibly, as with Arabic, the semivowels /w/ and /j/ (as in English W and Y) doubled as the vowels /u/ and /i/. Therefore, in modern transcriptions, an e is added between consonants to aid in their pronunciation. For example, nfr "good" is typically written nefer. This does not reflect Egyptian vowels, which are obscure, but is merely a modern convention. Likewise, the ȝ and ʾ are commonly transliterated as a, as in Ra. Ra (pronounced Rah and sometimes as Rê, is an Ancient Egyptian sun god.

Hieroglyphs are written from right to left, from left to right, or from top to bottom, the usual direction being from right to left. The reader must consider the direction in which the asymmetrical hieroglyphs are turned in order to determine the proper reading order. For example, when human and animal hieroglyphs face to the right (i. e. , they look right), they must be read from right to left, and vice versa, the idea being that the hieroglyphs face the beginning of the line.

Like many ancient writing systems, words are not separated by blanks or by punctuation marks. However, certain hieroglyphs appear particularly commonly at the end of words making it possible to readily distinguish words.

Uniliteral signs

Main article: Egyptian uniliteral signs

The Egyptian hieroglyphic script contained 24 uniliterals (symbols that stood for single consonants, much like English letters). It would have been possible to write all Egyptian words in the manner of these signs, but the Egyptians never did so and never simplified their complex writing into a true alphabet. ^[8]

Each uniliteral glyph once had a unique reading, but several of these fell together as Old Egyptian developed into Middle Egyptian. Old Egyptian is the stage of the Egyptian language spoken from 2600 BC to 2000 BC during the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period Middle Egyptian is the typical form of the Egyptian spoken from 2000 BC to 1300 BC (after Old Egyptian and before Late Egyptian) For example, the folded-cloth glyph seems to have been originally an /s/ and the door-bolt glyph a /θ/ sound, but these both came to be pronounced as /s/ as the /θ/ sound was lost. The voiceless alveolar fricatives are Consonantal sounds The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic A few uniliterals first appear in Middle Egyptian texts.

Besides the uniliteral glyphs, there are also the biliteral and triliteral signs, to represent a specific sequence of two or three consonants in the language. Biliteral Egyptian hieroglyphs are symbols which represent a specific sequence of two consonants in the language Triliteral Egyptian hieroglyphs are symbols which represent a specific sequence of three consonants in the language

Phonetic complements

Egyptian writing is often redundant: in fact, it happens very frequently that a word might follow several characters writing the same sounds, in order to guide the reader. For example, the word nfr, "beautiful, good, perfect", was written with a unique triliteral which was read as nfr :

However, it is considerably more common to add, to that triliteral, the uniliterals for f and r. The word can thus be written as nfr+f+r but one reads it merely as nfr. The two alphabetic characters are adding clarity to the spelling of the preceding triliteral hieroglyph.

Redundant characters accompanying biliteral or triliteral signs are called phonetic complements (or complementaries). A phonetic complement is a phonetic symbol used to disambiguate word characters ( Logograms that have multiple readings in mixed logographic-phonetic scripts such as Egyptian They can be placed either: in front of the sign (rarely), after the sign (as a general rule), or they even frame it (appearing both before and after). Ancient Egyptian scribes consistently avoided leaving large areas of blank space in their writing, and might add additional phonetic complements or sometimes even invert the order of signs if this would result in a more aesthetically pleasing appearance (good scribes attended to the artistic [and even religious] aspects of the hieroglyphs, and would not simply view them as a communication tool). Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Various examples of the use of phonetic complements can be seen below:

  —   mdw +d +w (the 2 complementaries are placed after the sign) → it reads mdw, meaning "tongue";

  —   ḫ +p +ḫpr +r +j (the 4 complementaries frame the triliteral sign of the scarab/beetle) → it reads ḫpr. j, meaning the name "Khepri", with the final glyph being the determinative for 'god'. This article is about the Egyptian god For the type of robot see Khepera mobile robot.

Notably, phonetic complements were also used to allow the reader to differentiate between signs which are homophones, or which don't always have a unique reading. A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning For example, the symbol of "the seat" (or chair):

  —   This can be read st, ws and ḥtm, according to the word in which it is found. The presence of phonetic complements—and of the suitable determinative—allows the reader to know which reading to choose, of the 3 readings:

• 1st Reading: st   —     —   st, written st+t ; the last character is the determinative of "the house" or that which is found there, meaning "seat, throne, place";

  —   st (written st+t ; the "egg" determinative is used for female personal names in some periods), meaning "Isis";

• 2nd Reading: ws   —     —   wsjr (written ws+jr, with, as a phonetic complement, "the eye", which is read jr, following the determinative of "god"), meaning "Osiris";

• 3rd Reading: ḥtm   —     —   ḥtm. Isis is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and is celebrated in their mythology as the ideal mother and wife patron of nature and magic friend of slaves sinners Osiris ( Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir t (written ḥ+ḥtm+m+t, with the determinative of "the jackal"), meaning a kind of wild animal,

  —   ḥtm (written ḥ+ḥtm+t, with the determinative of the flying bird), meaning "to disappear".

Finally, it sometimes happens that the pronunciation of words might be changed because of their connection to Ancient Egyptian: in this case, it is not rare for writing to adopt a compromise in notation, the two readings being indicated jointly. For example, the adjective bnj, "sweet" became bnr. In Middle Egyptian, one can write:

  —   bnrj (written b+n+r+i, with determinative)

which is fully read as bnr, the j not being pronounced but retained in order to keep a written connection with the ancient word (in the same fashion as the English language words through, knife, or victuals, which are no longer pronounced the way they are written. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States )

Semantic reading

Besides a phonetic interpretation, characters can also be read for their meaning: in this instance logograms are being spoken (or ideograms) and semagrams (the latter are also called determinatives). A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idea "idea" + grafo "to write" is a Graphic symbol that represents an Idea ^[9]

Logograms

A hieroglyph used as a logogram defines the object of which it is an image. A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language Logograms are therefore the most frequently used common nouns; they are always accompanied by a mute vertical stroke indicating their status as a logogram (the usage of a vertical stroke is further explained below); in theory, all hieroglyphs would have the ability to be used as logograms. Logograms can be accompanied by phonetic complements. Here are some examples:

•   —   rˁ, meaning "sun";

•   —   pr, meaning "house";

•   —   swt (sw+t), meaning "reed";

•   —   ḏw, meaning "mountain".

In some cases, the semantic connection is indirect (metonymic or metaphoric):

•   —   nṯr, meaning "god"; the character in fact represents a temple flag (standard);

•   —   bȝ, meaning "bâ" (soul); the character is the traditional representation of a "bâ" (a bird with a human head);

•   —   dšr, meaning "flamingo"; the corresponding phonogram means "red" and the bird is associated by metonymy with this colour. In Rhetoric, metonymy (mɨˈtɒnɨmi is the use of a word for a concept or object associated with the concept/object originally denoted by the word Metaphor (from the Greek: μεταφορά - metaphora, meaning "transfer" is language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects Ba, Bâ and Bah are potentially related West African Surnames Notable people who share these surnames are listed below separately for each surname In Rhetoric, metonymy (mɨˈtɒnɨmi is the use of a word for a concept or object associated with the concept/object originally denoted by the word

Those are just a few examples from the nearly 5000 hieroglyphic symbols.

Determinatives

Determinatives or semagrams (semantic symbols specifying meaning) are placed at the end of a word. A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an Ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in Logographic scripts These mute characters serve to clarify what the word is about, as homophonic glyphs are common. In Music, homophony (hoʊˈmɒfəni from Greek "homófonos" where ομοιο = the same and φωνή = a sound tone is a texture in which two or more If a similar procedure existed in English, words with the same spelling would be followed by an indicator which would not be read but which would fine-tune the meaning: "retort [chemistry]" and "retort [rhetoric]" would thus be distinguished.

Here are several examples of the use of determinatives borrowed from the book, Je lis les hiéroglyphes ("I am reading hieroglyphics") by Jean Capart, which illustrate their importance:

•   —   nfrw (w and the three strokes are the marks of the plural: [literally] "the beautiful young people", that is to say, the young military recruits. The word has a young-person determinative symbol:   —   which is the determinative indicating babies and children;

•   —   nfr. t (. t is here the suffix which forms the feminine): meaning "the nubile young woman", with as the determinative indicating a woman;

•   —   nfrw (the tripling of the character serving to express the plural, flexional ending w) : meaning "foundations (of a house)", with the house as a determinative, ;

•   —   nfr : meaning "clothing" with   as the determinative for lengths of cloth;

•   —   nfr : meaning "wine" or "beer"; with a jug   as the determinative.

All these words have a meliorative connotation: "good, beautiful, perfect. " A recent dictionary, the Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian by Raymond A. Faulkner, gives some twenty words which are read nfr or which are formed from this word.

Additional signs

Cartouche

Rarely, the names of gods are placed within a cartouche; the two last names of the sitting king are always placed within a cartouche:

jmn-rˁ, "Amon-Rê " ;

qrwjwȝpdrȝ. In Egyptian hieroglyphs a cartouche is an oblong enclosure with a horizontal line at one end indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name coming into use during t, "Cleopatra. "

Filling stroke

A filling stroke is a character indicating the end of a quadrant which would otherwise be incomplete.

Signs joined together

Some signs are the contraction of several others. These signs have, however, a function and existence of their own: for example, a forearm where the hand holds a scepter is used as a determinative for words meaning "to direct, to drive" and their derivatives.

Doubling

The doubling of a sign indicates its dual; the tripling of a sign indicates its plural.

Grammatical signs

• The vertical stroke, indicating the sign is an ideogram;
• The two strokes of the "dual" and the three strokes of the "plural";
• The direct notation of flexional endings, for example:

Spelling

The idea of standardized orthography—"correct" spelling—in Egyptian is much looser than in modern languages. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language In fact, one or several variants exist for almost every word. One finds:

• Redundancies;
• Omission of graphemes, which are ignored whether they are intentional or not;
• Substitutions of one grapheme for another, such that it is impossible to distinguish a "mistake" from an "alternate spelling";
• Errors of omission in the drawing of signs, much more problematic when the writing is cursive: hieratic writing, but especially demotic, where the schematization of the signs is extreme. In Typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in written language.

However, many of these apparent spelling errors are more of an issue of chronology. Spelling and standards varied over time, so the given writing of a word during the Old Kingdom might be considerably different during the New Kingdom. Furthermore, the Egyptians were perfectly content to include older orthography ("historical spelling") alongside newer practices, as if it were acceptable in English to use the spelling of a given word from 1600 in a text written today. Most often ancient spelling errors are more of an issue of modern misunderstandings of the specific context of a given text. Today, hieroglyphicists make use of a number of catologuing systems (notably the Manuel de Codage and Gardiner's Sign List) in order to clarify the presence of determinatives, ideograms and other ambiguous signs in transliteration. The Manuel de Codage (abbr MdC) is a standard system for the computer-encoding of transliterations of Egyptian hieroglyphic texts See Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian for a list of single-phoneme hieroglyphs

Simple examples

Ptolemy in hieroglyphs

The glyphs in this cartouche are transliterated as:

though ii is considered a single letter and transliterated i or y. The Ptolemaic dynasty (sometimes also known as the Lagids, from the name of Ptolemy I's father Lagus) was a Hellenistic Macedonian royal family Egyptian hieroglyphs (ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf from Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " also hieroglyphic = grc-Grek In Egyptian hieroglyphs a cartouche is an oblong enclosure with a horizontal line at one end indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name coming into use during

Another way in which hieroglyphs work is illustrated by the two Egyptian words pronounced pr (usually vocalised as per). One word is 'house', and its hieroglyphic representation is straightforward:

Here the 'house' hieroglyph works as a logogram: it represents the word with a single sign. The vertical stroke below the hieroglyph is a common way of indicating that a glyph is working as a logogram.

Another word pr is the verb 'to go out, leave'. When this word is written, the 'house' hieroglyph is used as a phonetic symbol:

Here the 'house' glyph stands for the consonants pr. The 'mouth' glyph below it is a phonetic complement: it is read as r, reinforcing the phonetic reading of pr. The third hieroglyph is a determinative: it is an ideogram for verbs of motion that gives the reader an idea of the meaning of the word. An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idea "idea" + grafo "to write" is a Graphic symbol that represents an Idea

See also

• Writing in Ancient Egypt
  • Cursive hieroglyphs
  • List of hieroglyphs
  • Hieratic
  • Demotic
  • Gardiner's Sign List
  • Manuel de Codage
  • Egyptian numerals
  • Transliteration of ancient Egyptian
• Egyptian language
  • Egyptian language
  • Egyptian languages
  • Coptic language
• Middle Bronze Age alphabets

Notes and references

Further reading

• Adkins, Lesley; Adkins, Roy (2000). The Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060194391.  
• Allen, James P. (1999). Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521774837.  
• Collier, Mark & Bill Manley (1998). How to read Egyptian hieroglyphs: a step-by-step guide to teach yourself. British Museum Press. ISBN 0-7141-1910-5.  
• Faulkner, Raymond O. (1962). Dr Raymond Oliver Faulkner, FSA, ( 26 December 1894 —- 3 March 1982) was an English Egyptologist Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. The Griffith Institute. ISBN 0-900416-32-7.  
• Gardiner, Sir Alan H. (1973). Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. Egyptian Grammar Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs was written by Alan Gardiner and first published in 1927 in London by the The Griffith Institute. ISBN 0-900416-35-1.  
• Kamrin, Janice (2004). Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs; A Practical Guide. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Harry N Abrams Inc is a book publishing company in New York City, New York founded in 1949 by Harry Nathan Abrams to publish high-quality art and illustrated books ISBN 0-8109-4961-X.  
• McDonald, Angela. Write Your Own Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007 (paperback, ISBN 0520252357).

External links

• Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics - Aldokkan
• Glyphs and Grammars Resources for those interested in learning hieroglyphs, compiled by Aayko Eyma.
• Hieroglyphics! Annotated directory of popular and scholarly resources.
• Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary by Jim Loy
• Hieroglyphic fonts by P22 type foundry
• GreatScott.com's Hieroglyphs Commercial (free intro)
• Wikimedia's hieroglyph writing codes
• Ancient Egypt Online: Sign list, tutorials and quizzes A complete sign list, plus tutorials and quizzes