Hieroglyphs were combinations of
alphabetic and logographic elements used in the ancient Egyptian culture. Most
of the hieroglyphs were used for decoration and writing of religious templates.
The templates were written on wood and papyrus as papers and other writing
materials were not yet invented. The scripts used and designed before Sumerian
scripts however are not classified as hieroglyphs; i.e. demotic and hieratic.
This paper will explore available literature on the Egyptian hieroglyphs,
transitions and the time period during which they were used (Adkins and
Adkins 2000).
Some of the earliest known hieroglyphs
in Egypt were discovered in 1890s and are believed to have been used around
4000 BCE. Both Gerzean and Narmer palette were found on pottery that was dated
back to the period between 3200- 4000 BCE. Proto-hieroglyphs belonging to 33
BCE were also discovered from Umm el_Qa’ab. In all, historians believe that
there are more than 800 different hieroglyphs that were used in the ancient
Egyptian history. Some of the most prominent scripts will be discussed at depth
in this article.
Hieroglyphs are defined by three
distinctive features; logographs, glyphs and determinatives. Determinatives
generally decipher the means of both glyphs and logographs. Logographs on their
part indicate the morphemes of the literature while the glyphs are characters
that can be elaborately compared with alphabets. The prominence and of
hieroglyphs continued to be used even during the Persia era between 5-6 BCE and
even past Macedonian, Alexander the Great and Roman eras. Some of the
hieroglyphs discovered are taken to decipher the periodical historic
transitions that took part in Egypt between these eras.
Meaning
of Egyptian hieroglyphic
With
most of the hieroglyphs scripting gone with history, most historian embarked on
processes of analyzing the contents of the hieroglyphs. However, it’s worth
noting that by 7th hieroglyphs had disappeared and the people’s history
shows attempts of deciphering the hidden meanings of the hieroglyphs.
Horapollo, which was structured during this period, bears meanings of more than
200 glyphs. Although some of the means that are noted on the horapollo are
wrong, they were imperious in the process of deciphering as they offered the
most desirable transitions. Some of the noteworthy writings that were
deciphered are:
Phonetic
Writing
Hieroglyphs
that were non-deterministic were written without consideration to their visual
meanings as they appear. In the scripts, the picture of a leg might not be used
to show the physical leg but distances/ miles travelled. Also, the eye might be
used to indicate the first person, I instead of the usual meaning. Some of the
phonograms were used to indicate uni- or monoliteral consonants.
Uniliteral signs
The hieroglyphic script of Egypt
contained 24 uniliterals; symbols that represented single consonants like the
English letters. In as much as it would
have been possible to write all the Egyptian words using the signs method, the
Egyptians did not do so and they never cared to simplify their complex writing
to represent true alphabet. For each unilateral glyph, there was a unique
reading (McDonald 2007). However, many of these were categorized as Old
Egyptian that had been developed into Middle Egyptian.
For instance, the glyph of the
folded cloth is beleive4d to have been traditionally the door-bolt glyph a /θ/ and a /s/
sound. However, the two sounds came to be pronounced as /s/ since the /θ/ had been lost. There are other
glyphs or uniliteral that first appear in the Middle of Egyptian texts. In
addition to the unilateral glyphs, there are other trilateral and bilateral
signs that represent a particular sequence of at least two consonants; vowels
and consonants, as well as a few vowel combinations only in the language.
Phonetic complements
The Egyptian writing is often referred as redundant; as a
matter of fact, it occurs very frequently that a word may follow several
characters that write the same sounds, so as to guide the reader. For instance,
the nfr, “perfect, good, beautiful”
was initially written with an inimitable trilateral which used to be read as nfr.
However, it is often common to add to the trilateral, the uniliterals
for r and f. Therefore, the word can
be written as nfr +f+r, which is simply
read as nfr. The added two alphabetic
characters add clarity to the preceding trilateral hieroglyph spelling (Collier and Bill 2004).
The redundant characters that accompany trilateral and
bilateral signs are known as phonetic complements or simply as complimentary.
They are usually placed in front of the sign, after the sign or even positioned
to frame the sign. Conventional Egyptians scribes usually avoided leaving large
blank spaces in their writing (Adkins
and Adkins 2004). Therefore, they resulted to adding other phonetic
complements or at times, they even inverted the signs order so as to come with
a more aesthetically and pleasing appearance aspect of the hieroglyphs.
Most notably, these phonetic compliments were also employed
so as to allow readers to differentiate signs that were homophones, or the ones
that did not have a unique reading. Similarly, it also happens that the words’
pronunciation may be changed due to their Ancient Egyptian connection. Under
these circumstances, it is not uncommon for various writings to adopt a
notation compromise when the two readings are jointly indicated. For instance,
the bnj adjective, “sweet” became bnr (Allen 1999).
Semantic reading
Apart from the phonetic interpretation, other characters may
also be read based on their meaning. For instance, ideograms or logograms are
being spoken as well as semagrams that
are known as determinative.
a) Logograms
This
is a hieroglyph that describes an image object. Therefore, logograms are
frequently used as common nouns since they are usually accompanied by a mute
vertical stroke that indicates their status as a logogram. In principle, all
the hieroglyphs would be having the capability of being used as logograms. In
addition, logograms may also be accompanied by other phonetic complements (Kamrin 2004).
b) Determinatives
Semagrams or determinatives are semantic symbols that
illustrate meaning and are usually placed at the end of a word. Referred as
mute characters, they also serve to clarify the word description, just as the
homophonic glyphs are common. Id there was a similar English procedure, the
words having the same spelling would always be followed by an indicator that
would not be read but which would act to fine-tune the meaning further.
Therefore, “retort” describing rhetoric and the “retort” used in chemistry
would thus be differentiated. There are a number of determinatives that are in
existence; parts of the human body, divinities, animals, humans, and plants.
There are various determinatives that also possess a figurative and a literal
meaning. An example is when a papyrus roll is used to abstract ideas as well as
“books”.
Work Cited
Adkins, Lesley and Adkins, Roy. The
Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs. London:
HarperCollins Publishers. (2000).
Allen, James. Middle Egyptian: An
Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge
University Press. (1999).
Collier, Mark and Bill Manley. How
to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: a step-by-step guide to teach yourself.
London: British Museum Press. (1998).
Gardiner, Sir Alan. Egyptian
Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. New York: The
Griffith Institute. (2003).
Kamrin, Janice. Ancient Egyptian
Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (2004).
McDonald, Angela. Write Your Own
Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007
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