Egyptian hieroglyph

Script

The hieroglyphic script has 24 main uniliterals (symbols that stand for a single sound, much like English letters), as well as many more biliterals (symbols that stand for two sounds combined). There are also tri-literals (three sounds), although these are less common in writing than the bi- or uni-literals.

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Note that most vowels are not written in the hieroglyphic script, and so pronunciation is aided by adding an e in between the consonants. For example: nfr -> nefer = beautiful, good.

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:It is a complex system, a writing figurative, symbolic, and phonetic all at once, in the same text, the same phrase, I would almost say in the same word - Letter to M. Dacier, September 271822

Related Topics:
M. Dacier - September 27 - 1822

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The transliteration system used in the chart below is over a century old, and reflects the best guess as to Egyptian pronunciation at the time, with several abstract symbols of unknown value such as "3". A lot of progress has been made since, though there is still debate as to the details. For instance, it's now thought the "3" may have been an {{IPA|}} in Old Egyptian, and was lost by Middle Egyptian. The consonants transcribed as voiced (d, g, dj) may actually have been ejective (or, less likely, pharyngealized like the Semitic emphatic consonants). A good description can be found in Allen (2000). For details regarding other systems of transliteration, see the article Transliteration of ancient Egyptian.

Related Topics:
Transliteration - Voiced - Ejective - Pharyngeal - Emphatic consonant - Transliteration of ancient Egyptian

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The word 'Ptolemy' is written in hieroglyphs thus:

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p:t-wA-l:M-i-i-s

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The letters in the above cartouche are:

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though EE is considered a single letter and transliterated I or Y.

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Another example of the way in which hieroglyphs work can be seen by looking at the two meanings of the Egyptian word pr (usually vocalised as per). Its first meaning is 'house', and its hieroglyphic representation is straightforward:

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pr:Z1

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

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The word pr can also mean 'to go out, leave'. When this word is written, the 'house' hieroglyph is used as a phonetic symbol:

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pr:r-D54

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Here, the 'house' hieroglyph stands for the consonants pr. The 'mouth' hieroglyph below it is a phonetic complement: it is read as r, reinforcing the phonetic reading of pr. The third hieroglyph is the determinative, it is an ideogram that gives the reader the broad meaning of what is written: here it implies a verb of motion.

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