Everything about Egyptian Hieroglyphics totally explained
Egyptian hieroglyphs (; from
Greek "
sacred carving", also
hieroglyphics = ) was a formal
writing system used by the
ancient Egyptians that contained a combination of
logographic and
alphabetic elements. Egyptians used
cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood. Less formal variations of the script, called
hieratic and
demotic, are technically not hieroglyphs.
Etymology
The word
hieroglyph comes from the
Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικά (
hieroglyphiká), a compound of ἱερός (
hierós 'sacred') and γλύφω (
glýphō 'to engrave'; see
glyph). 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's discouraged by
Egyptologists.
History and evolution
Hieroglyphs emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on
Gerzean pottery from
circa 4000 BC resemble hieroglyphic writing. 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. 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. 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. In the era of the
Old Kingdom, the
Middle Kingdom and the
New Kingdom, about 800 hieroglyphs existed. By the
Greco-Roman period, they numbered more than 5,000.
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.
As writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in the
hieratic (priestly) and
demotic (popular) scripts. These variants were also more suited than hieroglyphs for use on
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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
Decipherment of hieroglyphic writing
5th century appeared the
Hieroglyphica of
Horapollo, a spurious explanation of almost 200 glyphs. 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.
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 real breakthrough in decipherment began in the early 1800s by scholars as
Silvestre de Sacy,
Akerblad and
Thomas Young. Finally,
Jean-François Champollion made the complete decipherment. The discovery in
1799 of the
Rosetta Stone by
Napoleon's troops (during ) provided the motivation to study the script, but the text on the stone was of almost no use in decipherment. 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.
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.
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). The determinative wasn't read as a phonetic constituent, but facilitated understanding by differentiating the word from its homophones.
Phonetic reading
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 [thefirst person pronoun]). Phonograms are formed, whether with one consonant (signs called
mono- or
uniliteral) or by two consonants (
biliteral signs) or by three (
triliteral signs). The twenty-four uniliteral signs make up the so-called hieroglyphic alphabet. Since Egyptian hieroglyphic writing doesn't normally indicate vowels, in contrast, for example, to
cuneiform, it could perhaps be argued that it's a variety of
abjad.
Thus, hieroglyphic writing representing a duck is read in Egyptian as
sȝ, the consonants of the word for this animal. Nevertheless, it's 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.w, "hard ground". For example:
G38 the character
sȝ;
G38-Z1s 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:
z:G38-A-A47-D54 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's debatable whether vowels were written at all. 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 doesn't 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.
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 (for example, 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
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.
Each uniliteral glyph once had a unique reading, but several of these fell together as
Old Egyptian developed into
Middle 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. 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.
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 :
» ::::::::
nfr
However, it's 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). 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 [andeven religious] aspects of the hieroglyphs, and wouldn't simply view them as a communication tool). Various examples of the use of phonetic complements can be seen below:
» S43-d-w — mdw +d +w (the 2 complementaries are placed after the sign) → it reads mdw, meaning "tongue";
» x:p-xpr:r-i-A40 — 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'.
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. For example, the symbol of "the seat" (or chair):
» Q1 — This can be read st, ws and ḥtm, according to the word in which it's 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 — Q1-t:pr — st, written st+t ; the last character is the determinative of "the house" or that which is found there, meaning "seat, throne, place";
» :: Q1-t:H8 — st (written st+t ; the "egg" determinative is used for female personal names in some periods), meaning "Isis";
» * 2nd Reading: ws — Q1:ir-A40 — 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 — H-Q1-m:t-E17 — ḥtm.t (written ḥ+ḥtm+m+t, with the determinative of "the jackal"), meaning a kind of wild animal,
» :: H-Q1-t-G41 — 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 isn't 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:
» ::
b-n:r-i-M30 —
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're written.)
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).
Logograms
A hieroglyph used as a
logogram defines the object of which it's an image. Logograms are therefore the most frequently used common nouns; they're 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:
» *
ra:Z1 —
rˁ, meaning "sun";
» *
pr:Z1 —
pr, meaning "house";
» *
sw-t:Z1 —
swt (
sw+
t), meaning "reed";
» *
Dw:Z1 —
ḏw, meaning "mountain".
In some cases, the semantic connection is indirect (
metonymic or
metaphoric):
» *
nTr-Z1 —
nṯr, meaning "god"; the character in fact represents a temple flag (standard);
» *
G53-Z1 —
bȝ, meaning "
bâ" (soul); the character is the traditional representation of a "bâ" (a bird with a human head);
» *
G27-Z1 —
dšr, meaning "flamingo"; the corresponding phonogram means "red" and the bird is associated by
metonymy with this colour.
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. These mute characters serve to clarify what the word is about, as
homophonic glyphs are common. If a similar procedure existed in English, words with the same spelling would be followed by an indicator which wouldn't be read but which would fine-tune the meaning: "retort [chemistry]" and "retort [rhetoric]" would thus be distinguished.
A number of determinatives exist: divinities, humans, parts of the human body, animals, plants, etc. Certain determinatives possess a
literal meaning and a
figurative meaning. For example, a roll of papyrus,
Y1 is used to define "books" but also abstract ideas. The determinative of the
plural is a shortcut to signal three occurrences of the word, that's to say, its plural (since the Egyptian language was familiar with a dual, sometimes indicated by two strokes). This special character is explained below.
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:
- nfr-w-A17-Z3 — nfrw (w and the three strokes are the marks of the plural: [literally] "the beautiful young people", that's to say, the young military recruits. The word has a young-person determinative symbol: A17 — which is the determinative indicating babies and children;
nfr-f:r:t-B1 — nfr.t (.t is here the suffix which forms the feminine): meaning "the nubile young woman", with B1 as the determinative indicating a woman;
nfr-nfr-nfr-pr — 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, pr;
nfr-f:r-S28 — nfr : meaning "clothing" with S28 as the determinative for lengths of cloth;
nfr-W22:Z2 — nfr : meaning "wine" or "beer"; with a jug W22 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:
< N5:Z1-i-Y5:n-A40 >
jmn-rˁ, "Amon-Rê " ;
< q:E23-i-V4-p:d:r-A-t:H8 >
qrwjwȝpdrȝ.t, "Cleopatra."
Filling stroke
A filling stroke is used in order to end a quadrant which would be incomplete without it.
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:
W
Spelling
The idea of standardized orthography—"correct" spelling—in Egyptian is much looser than in modern languages. In fact, one or several variants exist for almost every word. One finds:
Redundancies;
Omission of graphemes, which are ignored whether they're intentional or not;
Substitutions of one grapheme for another, such that it's 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.
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.
Simple examples
The glyphs in this cartouche are transliterated as:
though ii is considered a single letter and transliterated i or y.
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:
pr:Z1
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:
pr:r-D54
Here the 'house' glyph stands for the consonants pr. The 'mouth' glyph below it's a phonetic complement: it's read as r, reinforcing the phonetic reading of pr. The third hieroglyph is a determinative: it's an ideogram for verbs of motion that gives the reader an idea of the meaning of the word.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Egyptian Hieroglyphics'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://egyptian_hieroglyphs.totallyexplained.com">Egyptian hieroglyphs Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
