| Egyptian Hieroglyph |
Article Index for Egyptian |
Website Links For Egyptian Hieroglyphs |
Information AboutEgyptian Hieroglyph |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS | |
| ancient languages | |
| bronze age writing systems | |
| egyptian languages | |
| hieroglyphs | |
| writing systems of africa | |
Egyptian hieroglyphs (sometimes called '''hieroglyphics''') was a Writing System used by the Ancient Egypt ians that contained a combination of Logograph ic and Alphabet ic elements. Cartouche s were also used by the Egyptians. Egyptians used Cursive Hieroglyphs , not to be confused with Hieratic , for religious literature on papyrus and wood. ETYMOLOGY The word ''hieroglyph'' comes from the Greek (''hieroglyphiká''); the adjective ''hieroglyphic'', as well as related words such as (''hieroglyphos'' 'one who writes hieroglyphs', from (''hierós'' 'sacred') and γλύφειν (''glýphein'' 'to carve' or 'to write', see '' Glyph ''). Hieroglyphs themselves were called (γράμματα) (''tà hieroglyphiká'' (''grámmata''), 'engraved characters') on monuments such as Stelae , temples, and tombs. The word ''hieroglyph'' has come to be used for an individual hieroglyphic characters itself. While "hieroglyphics" is commonly used, it is discouraged by Egyptologists . HISTORY AND EVOLUTION Hieroglyphs emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on 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.Antonio Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian; A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 1995 p.12 Hieroglyphs consist of three kinds of glyphs: phonetic glyphs, including single-consonant characters that functioned like an Alphabet ; Logograph s, representing Morpheme s; 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 , 396 Decipherment of hieroglyphic writing See Also: Decipherment of hieroglyphic writing In the 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 . in the British Museum ]] Various modern scholars attempted to decipher the glyphs over the centuries, notably ) 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 was not 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'' first 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 does not normally indicate vowels, in contrast, for example, to Cuneiform , it could perhaps be argued that it is a variety of Abjad . Thus, hieroglyphic writing representing a duck is read in Egyptian as '','' 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 Phoneme s ', independent of any vowels which could accompany these consonants, and in this way write the words: ', "son," or when complemented by other signs detailed further in the text, '''', "keep, watch"; and '''', "hard ground". For example: As in the Arabic script, not all vowels were written in Egyptian hieroglyphs; it is debatable whether vowels were written at all. Possibly, as with Arabic, the semivowels and (as in English W and Y) doubled as the vowels and . 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 ' and ''' 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 (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 See Also: 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.1 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 as the 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'' : ::::::::: 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 '' pleasing appearance (good scribes attended to the artistic even religious aspects of the hieroglyphs, and would not simply view them as a communication tool). Various examples of the use of phonetic complements can be seen below:
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):
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: ::: 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.) Semantic reading Besides a phonetic interpretation, characters can also be read for their meaning: in this instance Logogram s are being spoken (or Ideogram s) and Semagram s (the latter are also called ''determinatives''). Antonio Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian, A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge University Press (1995), p. 13 Logograms A hieroglyph used as a Logogram defines the object of which it is an image. 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:
In some cases, the semantic connection is indirect ( Metonymic or Metaphor ic):
Those are just a few examples from the nearly 5000 hieroglyphic symbols. Determinatives Determinative s or Semagram s (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 would not be read but which would fine-tune the meaning: "retort 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, 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:
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—proof of the extraordinary richness of the Egyptian language. 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.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
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:
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 ambigious 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: 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 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. SEE ALSO
NOTES AND REFERENCES FURTHER READING
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|