Leaning Hieroglyphs

I'm going to go through the book, "Egyptian Grammar" by A.H. Gardiner, and try to learn Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs. In this column, I will attempt to share what I learn as I go along!

Note that the Egyptians, when writing hieroglyphs, generally drew each hieroglyph in a square (or rectangular) area. Sometimes there might be one, two or more hieroglyphs in the one area. The secondary hieroglyphs were usually smaller than the main one, though a number of small hieroglyphs could be used instead.

Direction of Writing

Hieroglyphs could be read in a number of directions, depending on how the hieroglyphs are set out. It is usually easy to tell - you read into the face of the hieroglyphic animals.

For example, if the hieroglyph of the snake (or bird, etc) is facing to the right, you read the hieroglyphs from right to left... and vice versa! If there are two hieroglyphs in the same area, read the top-most one first, then the one(s) under in the correct direction.

This goes for hieroglyphs set out in rows or columns. Rows are, of course, read in the correct direction, and downwards... and columns are read across ways!

Phonograms

The Egyptians used a mixture of signs to get their meanings across in writing. They did not just use an alphabet, like we do, but they used signs that were combinations of sounds (such as the Japanese use 'kanji', the Chinese characters which usually have meanings that are words, as well as a specific Japanese alphabet.)

Vowels were usually ignored, due to the fact that one hieroglyph may have different vowel sounds when used in combination with other letters. The singular form of a word might change vowel sounds when it becomes the plural!

The Egyptians used:

• Unilateral (alphabetic) signs of one consonant (r )
• Bilateral signs of two continents (m+n )
• Trilateral signs of three consonants (n+f+r )

Here is the Egyptian alphabet:

	Glottal stop, like at the start of German words (a)	Egyptian vulture
	Like a glottal stop, a consonantal y	Flowering reed
	y	Two flowering reeds/oblique strokes
	`, Guttural sound	Forearm
	w or u	Quail chick
	b	Foot
	p	Stool
	f	Horned viper
	m	Owl
	n	Water
	r	Mouth
	h as in 'English'	Reed shelter in fields
	Emphatic h	Wick of twisted flax
	kh as in Scottish 'loch'	Placenta(?)
	ch as in German 'ich'	Animal's belly with teats
	s/z	Belt/folded cloth
	sh	Pool
	Backward k, like q in 'queen'	Hill slope
	k	Basket with handle
	Hard g	Stand for jar
	t	Loaf
	Originally tsh (or tj)	Tethering rope
	d	Hand
	Originally dj and also a dull, emphatic s	Snake

Transliteration

Since vowels were not usually written, two signs could be pronounced in a range of different ways. For example, (ws) could sound like was, wes, ews, awsa, etc. The way that is normally used (according to the 'Egyptian Grammar' book), is to use an e, except where the glottal stop () and the guttural sound () occur; these translate to a.

But remember - it is unknown how the words were actually said - we don't know where the vowels were placed!

Biliteral and triliteral words are written, except for when they are near similarly pronounced uniliterals. For instance, is consonantal y-mn, not consonantal y-mn-n.

Semi-vowels

and are consonant signs, but the sounds of these consonants are close to the vowels i and u. These are known as semi-vowels.*

If is used at the start of a word, it is pronounced as y otherwise it is pronounced i. As it is only found at the end of a word and is pronounced as y.

Weak Consonants

and are known as weak consonants. They were often changed or omitted - often, they were replaced by .

* Note, it seems that and are also translated as an a, these days. Eg. Amen-Ra, rather than Imen-Ra!

Absence of the Article

Middle Egyptian didn't have an equivalent of the English article in their writings. For example, (name) could be 'the name', 'a name', or just simply 'name'! The Egyptian equivalent of 'a' and 'the' came later on in Middle Egyptian, but was really only used regularly in Late Egyptian writing.

Vocabulary

Hieroglyph	Sound	Transliteration	Meanings
	m	em	1. in 2. by means of, with (of instrument) 3. from, out of
	n	en	1. to, for (in sense of dative) 2. to (of direction, only to persons)
	r	er	1. to, into, towards (of direction towards things) 2. in respect of
	pn	pen	1. this (masculine) Follows the noun
	tn	pen	1. this (feminine) Follows the noun
	ky	key	1. other, another (masculine) Precedes the noun
	kt	ket	1. other, another (feminine) Precedes the noun
	ym	yem	1. there, therein, therewith, therefrom
	bw	bew	1. place (masculine, singular only)
	kht	chet	1. place (feminine, singular only)
	pth	Pteh	1. a god of Mennefer (Hikuptah, Memphis) (also translated as Ptah)
	yw	yew	1. is, are
	rn	ren	1. name (masculine)
	djd	djed	1. say, speak
	hn`	hena	1. together with

Exercise

Try to translate the following in hieroglyphs, with transliteration sounds (in the same order of the English, unless otherwise specified by the small numerals, or specified previously in the lesson or vocabulary):

1. To another place
2. To Ptah
3. ²Another ³thing ¹is here
4. In this name
5. ²Ptah ¹is there in this place
6. Together with another name
7. A ²thing ¹is in this place
8. ²Ptah ¹speak(s) in respect of this thing

Can you have a look at my Egyptology Column for more Hieroglyph Lessons, Egyptian gods and goddess articles and more!

PS - One favour I do ask, please e-mail your comments about the articles to kunoichi@thekeep.org because it's your comments that keep me writing! Oh, and can you check out my other articles?

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© Caroline Seawright 2000