View source for Social:Egyptian hieroglyphs

{{short description|Formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians}}
{{Infobox writing system
|sample = Hieroglyphs from the tomb of Seti I.jpg
|caption = Hieroglyphs from KV17, the tomb of Seti I, 13th century BC
|name=Egyptian hieroglyphs
|type=Logography
|typedesc=usable as an abjad
|time=c. 3200 BC<ref>"...The Mesopotamians invented writing around 3200 bc without any precedent to guide them, as did the Egyptians, independently as far as we know, at approximately the same time"  The Oxford History of Historical Writing. Vol. 1. To AD 600, page 5</ref><ref name=Mattessich /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=James P. |title=Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139486354 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lF78Max-h8MC&pg=PA2 |language=en}}</ref> – AD 400<ref name="Last hieroglyph">{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=James P. |title=Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139486354 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lF78Max-h8MC&pg=PA8 |language=en}}</ref>
|languages=[[Social:Egyptian language|Egyptian language]]
|family=(Proto-writing)
|children=[[Social:Hieratic|Hieratic]], [[Social:Demotic (Egyptian)|Demotic]], [[Social:Coptic alphabet|Coptic]], [[Social:Meroitic script|Meroitic]], [[Social:Proto-Sinaitic script|Proto-Sinaitic]]
|unicode={{ublist |class=nowrap |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U13000.pdf U+13000–U+1342F] {{smaller|Hieroglyphs}} |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U13430.pdf U+13430–U+1343F] {{smaller|Controls}}}}
|iso15924=Egyp<!-- N.B.: The code is "Egyp" without the letter "t". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_15924_codes -->
}}
'''Egyptian hieroglyphs''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|aɪ|r|ə|ˌ|ɡ|l|ɪ|f|,_|-|r|oʊ|-}}{{refn|{{Citation |last=Jones |first=Daniel |title=English Pronouncing Dictionary |editor=Peter Roach |editor2=James Hartmann |editor3=Jane Setter |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |orig-year=1917 |year=2003 |isbn=978-3-12-539683-8 }}}}{{refn|{{MerriamWebsterDictionary|hieroglyph}}}}) were the formal [[Social:Writing system|writing system]] used in Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and [[Social:Alphabet|alphabet]]ic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters.<ref name=Loprieno12> There were about 1,000 graphemes in the Old Kingdom period, reduced to around 750 to 850 in the [[Social:Middle Egyptian language|classical language]] of the Middle Kingdom, but inflated to the order of some 5,000 signs in the Ptolemaic period. Antonio Loprieno, ''Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction'' (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995), p. 12.</ref><ref>The standard inventory of characters used in Egyptology is Gardiner's sign list (1928&ndash;1953). 
A.H. Gardiner (1928), ''Catalogue of the Egyptian hieroglyphic printing type, from matrices owned and controlled by Dr. Alan Gardiner'', "Additions to the new hieroglyphic fount (1928)", in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 15 (1929), p. 95; , "Additions to the new hieroglyphic fount (1931)", in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 17 (1931), pp. 245-247; A.H. Gardiner , "Supplement to the catalogue of the Egyptian hieroglyphic printing type, showing acquisitions to December 1953" (1953).
Unicode [[Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Unicode block)|Egyptian Hieroglyphs]] as of version 5.2 (2009) assigned 1,070 Unicode characters.</ref> [[Social:Cursive hieroglyphs|Cursive hieroglyphs]] were used for religious literature on [[Engineering:Papyrus|papyrus]] and wood. The later [[Social:Hieratic|hieratic]] and [[Social:Demotic (Egyptian)|demotic]] Egyptian scripts were derived from hieroglyphic writing, as was the [[Social:Proto-Sinaitic script|Proto-Sinaitic script]] that later evolved into the [[Phoenician alphabet]].<ref>Michael C. Howard (2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=6QPWXrCCzBIC&pg=PA23 Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies. P. 23.]</ref> Through the Phoenician alphabet's major child systems, the Greek and [[Social:Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] scripts, the Egyptian hieroglyphic script is ancestral to the majority of scripts in modern use, most prominently the Latin and [[Social:Cyrillic script|Cyrillic script]]s (through Greek) and the Arabic script and Brahmic family of scripts (through Aramaic).

The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age, around the 32nd century BC (Naqada III),<ref name=Mattessich /> with the first decipherable sentence written in the [[Social:Egyptian language|Egyptian language]] dating to the Second Dynasty (28th century BC). Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the [[Social:Middle Egyptian language|classical language]] of the [[History:Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] period; during this period, the system made use of about 900 distinct signs. The use of this writing system continued through the [[History:New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] and Late Period, and on into the Persian and [[History:Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic]] periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, extending into the 4th century AD.<ref name="Last hieroglyph" />

With the [[Religion:Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism#Final decline|final closing of pagan temples]] in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost. Although attempts were made, the script remained undeciphered throughout the [[History:Middle Ages|Middle Ages]] and the [[History:Early modern period|early modern period]]. The decipherment of hieroglyphic writing was finally accomplished in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, with the help of the Rosetta Stone.

==Etymology==
The word ''hieroglyph'' comes from the [[Social:Ancient Greek|Greek]] adjective {{lang|grc|ἱερογλυφικός}} (''hieroglyphikos''),<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Di%28eroglufiko%2Fs ἱερογλυφικός],
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library</ref> a compound of {{lang|grc|ἱερός}} ({{transl|grc|hierós}} 'sacred')<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Di%28ero%2Fs ἱερός], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library</ref> and γλύφω (''glýphō'' 'Ι carve, engrave'; see ''[[Glyph|glyph]]'').<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dglu%2Ffw γλύφω], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library</ref>

The glyphs themselves, since the Ptolemaic period, were called {{lang|grc|τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ [γράμματα]}} (''tà hieroglyphikà [grámmata]'') "the sacred engraved letters", the Greek counterpart to the Egyptian expression of ''mdw.w-nṯr'' "god's words".<ref name=Loprieno11>Antonio Loprieno, ''Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction'' (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995), p. 11.</ref> Greek {{lang|grc|ἱερογλυφός}} meant "a carver of hieroglyphs".

In English, ''hieroglyph'' as a noun is recorded from 1590, originally short for nominalised ''hieroglyphic'' (1580s, with a plural ''hieroglyphics''), from adjectival use (''hieroglyphic character'').<ref>{{cite web |title=Hieroglyphic &#124; Definition of Hieroglyphic by Merriam-Webster |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hieroglyphic |accessdate=2016-08-27}}</ref>

==History and evolution==
===Origin===
[[File:Ägyptisches Museum Berlin 057.jpg|thumb|upright|Paintings with symbols on Naqada II pottery. 3500-3200 BC.]]
[[Engineering:Hieroglyph|Hieroglyph]]s may have emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from c. 4000 BC have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

[[File:Design of the Abydos token glyphs dated to 3400-3200 BCE.jpg|thumb|left|Designs on some of the labels or token from Abydos, carbon-dated to circa 3400-3200 BC and among the earliest form of writing in Egypt.<ref name="CS">{{cite book |last1=Scarre |first1=Chris |last2=Fagan |first2=Brian M. |title=Ancient Civilizations |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317296089 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xAy4CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=Mitchell1999/> They are similar to contemporary tags from Uruk, Mesopotamia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Conference |first1=William Foxwell Albright Centennial |title=The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century: The William Foxwell Albright Centennial Conference |date=1996 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=9780931464966 |page=-24–25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3hc1Yp0VcjoC&pg=PA24 |language=en}}</ref>]]
Proto-hieroglyphic symbol systems develop in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called "Scorpion I" (Naqada IIIA period, c. 33rd century BC) recovered at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) in 1998 or the Narmer Palette (c. 31st century BC).<ref name=Mattessich>{{cite journal|author=Richard Mattessich|year=2002|title=The oldest writings, and inventory tags of Egypt|journal=Accounting Historians Journal|jstor=40698264|volume=29|issue=1|pages=195–208|url=https://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/cont/article/viewFile/25609/21149}}</ref>

The first full sentence written in mature 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 (28th or 27th century BC). There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, [[History:Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] and New Kingdom Eras. By the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000.<ref name=Loprieno12/>

Geoffrey Sampson stated that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and, probably [were], invented under the influence of the latter",<ref name=b1>{{cite book|author=Geoffrey Sampson|title=Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tVcdNRvwoDkC&pg=PA78|accessdate=31 October 2011|date=1 January 1990|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-1756-4|pages=78–}}</ref> and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian [[Place:Mesopotamia|Mesopotamia]]".<ref>{{cite book|author=Geoffrey W. Bromiley|title=The international standard Bible encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6OJvO2jMCr8C&pg=PA1150|accessdate=31 October 2011|date=June 1995|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-3784-4|pages=1150–}}</ref><ref>Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, et al., The Cambridge Ancient History (3d ed. 1970) pp. 43–44.</ref> There are many instances of early Egypt-Mesopotamia relations, but given the lack of direct evidence for the transfer of writing, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Robert E. Krebs|author2=Carolyn A. Krebs|title=Groundbreaking scientific experiments, inventions, and discoveries of the ancient world|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0H0fjBeseVEC&pg=PA91|accessdate=31 October 2011|date=December 2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-31342-4|pages=91–}}</ref> Instead, it is pointed out and held that "the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy” and that “a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt..."<ref>Simson Najovits, ''Egypt, Trunk of the Tree: A Modern Survey of an Ancient Land'', Algora Publishing, 2004, pp. 55–56.</ref> 
Since the 1990s, the discoveries of glyphs at Abydos, dated to between 3400 and 3200 BCE, may challenge the classical notion according to which the Mesopotamian symbol system predates the Egyptian one. However, Egyptian writing does make a sudden apparition at that time, while on the contrary Mesopotamia has an evolutionary history of sign usage in tokens dating back to circa 8000 BCE.<ref name=Mitchell1999>"The seal impressions, from various tombs, date even further back, to 3400 B.C. These dates challenge the commonly held belief that early logographs, pictographic symbols representing a specific place, object, or quantity, first evolved into more complex phonetic symbols in Mesopotamia."{{cite web|last=Mitchell|first=Larkin|title=Earliest Egyptian Glyphs|url=https://archive.archaeology.org/9903/newsbriefs/egypt.html|work=Archaeology|publisher=Archaeological Institute of America|accessdate=29 February 2012}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Labels_from_the_tomb_of_Menes.jpg|Labels with early inscriptions from the tomb of Menes (3200-3000 BC)
File:Ebony_plaque_of_Menes_in_his_tomb_of_Abydos_(photograph).jpg|Ivory plaque of Menes (3200-3000 BC)
File:Ebony_plaque_of_Menes_in_his_tomb_of_Abydos_(drawing).jpg|Ivory plaque of Menes (drawing)
File:Peribsen.JPG|The first full sentence written in mature hieroglyphs. Seal impression of Seth-Peribsen (Second Dynasty, c. 28-27th century BC)
</gallery>

===Mature writing system===
{{see|Middle Egyptian language}}
Hieroglyphs consist of three kinds of glyphs: phonetic glyphs, including single-consonant characters that function like an [[Social:Alphabet|alphabet]]; logographs, representing [[Social:Morpheme|morpheme]]s; and determinatives, which narrow down the [[Philosophy:Semantics|meaning]] of logographic or phonetic words.

[[File:Heiroglyphs.jpg|thumb|Hieroglyphs on a funerary stela in [[Biology:Manchester Museum|Manchester Museum]]]]

===Late Period===
{{see|Late Egyptian language}}
As writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in the [[Social:Hieratic|hieratic]] (priestly) and demotic (popular) scripts. These variants were also more suited than hieroglyphs for use on [[Engineering:Papyrus|papyrus]]. Hieroglyphic writing was not, however, eclipsed, but existed alongside the other forms, especially in monumental and other formal writing. The Rosetta Stone contains three parallel scripts – hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek.

===Late survival===
Hieroglyphs continued to be used under Persian rule (intermittent in the 6th and 5th centuries BC), and after Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt, during the ensuing Ptolemaic and [[History:Ancient Rome|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 believed that hieroglyphs may have functioned as a way to distinguish 'true Egyptians' from some of 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.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} 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.<ref name="Last hieroglyph" />

By the 4th century, few Egyptians were capable of reading hieroglyphs, and the "myth of allegorical hieroglyphs" was ascendant.<ref name="Last hieroglyph" /> Monumental use of hieroglyphs ceased after the closing of all non-Christian temples in 391 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I; the last known inscription is from [[Biology:Philae|Philae]], known as the Graffito of Esmet-Akhom, from 394.<ref name="Last hieroglyph" /><ref>The latest presently known hieroglyphic inscription date: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070815135548/http://academic.memphis.edu/egypt/l0039.gif Birthday of Osiris], year 110 [of Diocletian], dated to August 24, 394</ref>

The ''Hieroglyphica'' of Horapollo (c. 5th century) appears to retain some genuine knowledge about the writing system. It offers an explanation of close to 200 signs.
Some are identified correctly, such as the "goose" hieroglyph (''zꜣ'') representing the word for "son".<ref name="Last hieroglyph" />

==Decipherment==
{{Main|Social:Decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts}}
[[File:Ibn Wahshiyya's 985 CE translation of the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph alphabet.jpg|thumb|Ibn Wahshiyya's translation of the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph alphabet]]
Knowledge of the hieroglyphs had been lost completely by the medieval period. 
Early attempts at decipherment are due to Dhul-Nun al-Misri and Ibn Wahshiyya (9th and 10th century, respectively).<ref>{{cite book|author=Ahmed ibn 'Ali ibn al Mukhtar ibn 'Abd al Karim (called Ibn Wahshiyah)|title=Ancient alphabets & hieroglyphic characters explained: with an account of the Egyptian priests, their classes, initiation time, & sacrifices by the aztecs and their birds, in the Arabic language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKvYqEEboTYC|accessdate=31 October 2011|year=1806|publisher=W. Bulmer & co.}}</ref>

All medieval and early modern attempts were hampered by the fundamental assumption that hieroglyphs 
recorded ideas and not the sounds of the language. 
As no bilingual texts were available, any such symbolic 'translation' could be proposed without the possibility of verification.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://atena.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=13384397&search_terms=DTL60|title=Tabula Aegyptiaca hieroglyphicis exornata|last=|first=|work=Acta Eruditorum|publisher=|year=1714|isbn=|location=Leipzig|page=127}}</ref> It wasn't until [[Biography:Athanasius Kircher|Athanasius Kircher]] in the mid 17th century that scholars began to think the hieroglyphs might also represent sounds. Kircher was familiar with Coptic, and thought that it might be the key to deciphering the hieroglyphs, but was held back by a belief in the mystical nature of the symbols.<ref name="Last hieroglyph" />

[[File:rosetta stone.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum]]
The breakthrough in decipherment came only with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by Napoleon's troops in 1799 (during Napoleon's Egyptian invasion). 
As the stone presented a hieroglyphic and a demotic version of the same text in parallel with a Greek translation, plenty of material for falsifiable studies in translation was suddenly available. In the early 19th century, scholars such as Silvestre de Sacy, Johan David Åkerblad, and [[Biography:Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]] studied the inscriptions on the stone, and were able to make some headway. Finally, Jean-François Champollion made the complete decipherment by the 1820s. In his ''Lettre à M. Dacier'' (1822), he wrote:

<blockquote>It is a complex system, writing figurative, symbolic, and phonetic all at once, in the same text, the same phrase, I would almost say in the same word.<ref>Jean-François Champollion, Letter to M. Dacier, September 27, 1822</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Acta Eruditorum - I geroglifici, 1714 – BEIC 13384397.jpg|thumb|Illustration from ''Tabula Aegyptiaca hieroglyphicis exornata'' published in Acta Eruditorum, 1714]]
Hieroglyphs survive today in two forms: directly, through half a dozen Demotic glyphs added to the Greek alphabet when writing [[Social:Coptic alphabet|Coptic]]; and indirectly, as the inspiration for the original alphabet that was ancestral to nearly every other alphabet ever used, including the Latin alphabet.

==Writing system==
{{IPA notice}}

Visually, hieroglyphs are all more or less figurative: they represent real or abstract 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 ([[Social:Phonetics|phonetic]] reading), as a logogram, or as an [[Ideogram|ideogram]] (semagram; "determinative") ([[Philosophy:Semantics|semantic]] reading). The determinative was not read as a phonetic constituent, but facilitated understanding by differentiating the word from its homophones.

===Phonetic reading===
[[File:Egypt Hieroglyphe4.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Hieroglyphs typical of the Graeco-Roman period]]
Most non-determinative hieroglyphic signs are phonetic in nature, meaning that the sign is read independently of its visual characteristics (according to the [[Unsolved:Rebus|rebus]] principle where, for example, the picture of an eye could stand for the English words ''eye'' and ''I'' [the first person pronoun]). This picture of an eye is called a phonogram of the word, 'I'.

Phonograms formed with one consonant are called ''uniliteral'' signs; with two consonants, ''biliteral'' signs; with three, ''triliteral'' signs.

Twenty-four uniliteral signs make up the so-called hieroglyphic alphabet. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing does not normally indicate vowels, unlike [[Social:Cuneiform|cuneiform]], and for that reason has been labelled by some an ''abjad'' alphabet, i.e., an alphabet without vowels.

Thus, hieroglyphic writing representing a [[Biology:Northern pintail|pintail duck]] is read in Egyptian as ''sꜣ'', derived from the main consonants of the Egyptian word for this duck: 's', 'ꜣ' and 't'. (Note that ꜣ ([[File:Egyptian 3 symbol.png|10px|]], two half-rings opening to the left), sometimes replaced by the digit '3', is the Egyptian ''alef'').

It is also possible to use the hieroglyph of the pintail duck without a link to its meaning in order to represent the two [[Social:Phoneme|phoneme]]s ''s'' and ''ꜣ'', independently of any vowels that could accompany these consonants, and in this way write the word: ''sꜣ'', "son", or when complemented by the context other signs detailed further in the text{{Clarify|reason=phrase seems ungrammatical; meant might be: "or when complemented by the context ''of'' other signs detailed further in the text"|date=September 2019}}, ''sꜣ'', "keep, watch"; and ''sꜣṯ.w'', "hard ground". For example:

<hiero>G38</hiero>{{spaced ndash}}the characters ''sꜣ'';

<hiero>G38-Z1s</hiero>{{spaced ndash}}the same character used only in order to signify, according to the context, "pintail duck" or, with the appropriate determinative, "son", two words having the same or similar consonants; the meaning of the little vertical stroke will be explained further on:

<hiero>z:G38-A-A47-D54</hiero>{{spaced ndash}}the character ''sꜣ'' as used in the word ''sꜣw'', "keep, watch"{{Clarify|date=June 2009|reason=please make this a clear English sentence: use "and", break up long sentence, and use correct punctuation, similar to the clearer examples below.}}

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 {{IPA|/w/}} and {{IPA|/j/}} (as in English W and Y) could double as the vowels {{IPA|/u/}} and {{IPA|/i/}}. 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 ''ꜣ'' and '''ʾ''' are commonly transliterated as ''a'', as in [[Religion:Ra|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<ref>Sir Alan H. Gardiner, ''Egyptian Grammar'', Third Edition Revised, Griffith Institute (2005), p.25</ref> (although, for convenience, modern texts are often normalized into left-to-right order). 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 left (i.e., they look left), they must be read from left to right, and vice versa, the idea being that the hieroglyphs face the beginning of the line.

As in many ancient writing systems, words are not separated by blanks or by punctuation marks. However, certain hieroglyphs appear particularly common only at the end of words, making it possible to readily distinguish words.

====Uniliteral signs====
[[File:Amada ( 110 miles south of Aswan, left bank ). Temple founded by Tuthmosis III.jpg|thumb|Hieroglyphs at Amada, at temple founded by Tuthmosis III.]]
The Egyptian hieroglyphic script contained 24 uniliterals (symbols that stood for single consonants, much like letters in English). 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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gardiner, Sir Alan H.|year=1973|title=Egyptian Grammar|publisher=Griffith Institute|isbn=978-0-900416-35-4}}</ref>

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 {{IPA|/s/}}, as the {{IPA|/θ/}} sound was lost.{{Clarify|reason=This does not seem to be an example of a change from unique reading to non-unique reading, as suggested in the previous sentence. The ''reading'' of both glyph is still unique; its is the ''writing'' of the sigle sound /s/ that has changed to non-unique.|date=September 2019}} 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, consonants and vowels, and a few as vowel combinations only, in the language.

====Phonetic complements====
Egyptian writing is often redundant: in fact, it happens very frequently that a word is followed by 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 that was read as ''nfr'':
::::::::: <hiero>nfr</hiero>

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 still 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 in front of the sign (rarely), after the sign (as a general rule), or even framing 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, and 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:

<blockquote>
: <hiero>S43-d-w</hiero> – ''md +d +w'' (the complementary ''d'' is placed after the sign) → it reads ''mdw'', meaning "tongue".

: <hiero>x:p-xpr:r-i-A40</hiero> – ''ḫ +p +ḫpr +r +j'' (the four complementaries frame the triliteral sign of the [[Biology:Dung beetle#Scarab in ancient Egypt|scarab]] beetle) → it reads ''ḫpr.j'', meaning the name "[[Religion:Khepri|Khepri]]", with the final glyph being the determinative for 'ruler or god'.
</blockquote>

Notably, phonetic complements were also used to allow the reader to differentiate between signs that are homophones, or which do not always have a unique reading. For example, the symbol of "the seat" (or chair):

<blockquote>
: <hiero>Q1</hiero> – This can be read ''st'', ''ws'' and ''ḥtm'', according to the word in which it is found. The presence of phonetic complements—and of the suitable determinative—allows the reader to know which of the three readings to choose:

:*1st Reading: '''st''' – <hiero>Q1-t:pr</hiero> – ''st'', written ''st+t'' ; the last character is the determinative of "the house" or that which is found there, meaning "seat, throne, place";

<!-- EXAMPLE 1st Reading -->
::: <hiero>Q1-t:H8</hiero> – ''st'' (written ''st+t'' ; the "egg" determinative is used for female personal names in some periods), meaning "[[Biology:Isis|Isis]]";

:*2nd Reading: '''ws''' – <hiero>Q1:ir-A40</hiero> – ''wsjr'' (written ''ws''+''jr'', with, as a phonetic complement, "the eye", which is read ''jr'', following the determinative of "god"), meaning "[[Biology:Osiris|Osiris]]";

:*3rd Reading: '''ḥtm''' – <hiero>H-Q1-m:t-E17</hiero> – ''ḥtm.t'' (written ''ḥ+ḥtm+m+t'', with the determinative of "Anubis" or "the jackal"), meaning a kind of wild animal;

<!-- EXAMPLE 3rd Reading -->
::: <hiero>H-Q1-t-G41</hiero> – ''ḥtm'' (written ''ḥ +ḥtm +t'', with the determinative of the flying bird), meaning "to disappear".
</blockquote>

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:
::: <hiero>b-n:r-i-M30</hiero> – ''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 [[Social:English language|English language]] words ''through'', ''knife'', or ''victuals'', which are no longer pronounced the way they are written.)

===Semantic reading===
[[File:Comparative evolution of Cuneiform, Egyptian and Chinese characters.jpg|thumb|Comparative evolution from pictograms to abstract shapes, in cuneiform, Egyptian and Chinese characters.]]
Besides a phonetic interpretation, characters can also be read for their meaning: in this instance, logograms are being spoken (or [[Ideogram|ideogram]]s) and ''semagrams'' (the latter are also called determinatives).{{Clarify|reason=sentence is ungrammatical or incomplete|date=September 2019}}<ref name=Loprieno13>Antonio Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian, A Linguistic Introduction, {{wipe|Cambridge University Press}} (1995), p. 13</ref>

====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:

:*<hiero>ra:Z1</hiero> – ''rꜥ'', meaning "sun";

:*<hiero>pr:Z1</hiero> – ''pr'', meaning "house";

:*<hiero>sw-t:Z1</hiero> – ''swt'' (''sw''+''t''), meaning "reed";

:*<hiero>Dw:Z1</hiero> – ''ḏw'', meaning "mountain".

In some cases, the semantic connection is indirect (metonymic or metaphoric):

:*<hiero>nTr-Z1</hiero> – ''nṯr'', meaning "god"; the character in fact represents a temple flag (standard);

:*<hiero>G53-Z1</hiero> – ''bꜣ'', meaning "Bâ" (soul); the character is the traditional representation of a "bâ" (a bird with a human head);

:*<hiero>G27-Z1</hiero> – ''dšr'', meaning "flamingo"; the corresponding phonogram means "red" and the bird is associated by metonymy with this color.

====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 [[Philosophy:Homophone|homophonic]] glyphs are common. If a similar procedure existed in English, words with the same spelling would be followed by an indicator that would not be read, but which would fine-tune the meaning: "retort [chemistry]" and "retort [rhetoric]" would thus be distinguished.<!--
 – Hid as a confusing example, with enough other to consider, --
 – because WP does not resolve ambiguities by symbols. --
 Compare also the way Wikipedia uses disambiguations. -->

<div><!-- division to keep embedded hieroglyphs within text -->
A number of determinatives exist: divinities, humans, parts of the human body, animals, plants, etc. Certain determinatives possess a literal and a figurative meaning. For example, a roll of papyrus, <hiero>Y1</hiero> &nbsp; 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 is to say, its plural (since the Egyptian language had a dual, sometimes indicated by two strokes). This special character is explained below.</div>

Here, are several examples of the use of determinatives borrowed from the book, ''Je lis les hiéroglyphes'' ("I am reading hieroglyphs") by Jean Capart, which illustrate their importance:

*<hiero>nfr-w-A17-Z3</hiero> – ''nfrw'' (''w'' and the three strokes are the marks of the plural: [literally] "the beautiful young people", that is to say, the young military recruits. The word has a young-person determinative symbol: <small><hiero>A17</hiero></small> – which is the determinative indicating babies and children;
*<hiero>nfr-f:r:t-B1</hiero> – ''nfr.t'' (''.t'' is here the suffix that forms the feminine): meaning "the nubile young woman", with <hiero>B1</hiero> as the determinative indicating a woman;
*<hiero>nfr-nfr-nfr-pr</hiero> – ''nfrw'' (the tripling of the character serving to express the plural, [[Social:Inflection|flexional]] ending ''w'') : meaning "foundations (of a house)", with the house as a determinative, <hiero>pr</hiero>;
*<hiero>nfr-f:r-S28</hiero> – ''nfr'' : meaning "clothing" with <small><hiero>S28</hiero></small> &nbsp; as the determinative for lengths of cloth;
*<hiero>nfr-W22:Z2ss</hiero> – ''nfr'' : meaning "wine" or "beer"; with a jug <hiero>W22</hiero> &nbsp; as the determinative.

All these words have a meliorative connotation: "good, beautiful, perfect". The ''Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian'' by Raymond A. Faulkner, gives some twenty words that 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:

<hiero>< N5:Z1-i-Y5:n-A40 ></hiero>
jmn-rꜥ, "Amon-Ra";

<hiero>< q:E23-i-V4-p:d:r-A-t:H8 ></hiero>
qljwꜣpdrꜣ.t, "Cleopatra";

====Filling stroke====
A filling stroke is a character indicating the end of a quadrat that would otherwise be incomplete.

===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 a logogram;
*The two strokes of the "dual" and the three strokes of the "plural";
*The direct notation of flexional endings, for example: <hiero>W</hiero> <!-- (Z7)-->

==Spelling==
Standard [[Social:Orthography|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 or not they are intentional;
*Substitutions of one grapheme for another, such that it is impossible to distinguish a "mistake" from an "alternate spelling";
*Errors of omission in the drawing of signs, which are 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 constitute an issue of chronology. Spelling and standards varied over time, so the writing of a word during the [[History:Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] might be considerably different during the [[History:New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]]. Furthermore, the Egyptians were perfectly content to include older orthography ("historical spelling") alongside newer practices, as though it were acceptable in English to use archaic spellings in modern texts. Most often, ancient "spelling errors" are simply misinterpretations of context. Today, hieroglyphicists use numerous cataloguing systems (notably the ''Manuel de Codage'' and ''Gardiner's Sign List'') to clarify the presence of determinatives, ideograms, and other ambiguous signs in transliteration.

==Simple examples==
{{Hiero/1cartouche|align=left|era=ok|name=Ptolemy|nomen=<hiero>p:t-wA-l:M-i-i-s</hiero>}}

The glyphs in this cartouche are transliterated as:
{|
|- style="vertical-align:middle;" border="0"
| p<br />t
| "ua"
| l<br />m
| y (ii) s
|
|<br />
|<br />
'''Ptolmys'''
|}

though ''ii'' is considered a single letter and transliterated ''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:
<hiero>pr:Z1</hiero>
[[File:Name of Alexander the Great in Hieroglyphs circa 330 BCE.jpg|thumb|Name of Alexander the Great in hieroglyphs, {{circa|332&nbsp;BC}}, Egypt. Louvre Museum]]
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:
<hiero>pr:r-D54</hiero>
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|ideogram]] for verbs of motion that gives the reader an idea of the meaning of the word.

=={{anchor|Encoding}}Encoding and font support==
Egyptian hieroglyphs were added to the [[Unicode]] Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2 which introduced the [[Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Unicode block)|Egyptian Hieroglyphs]] block (U+13000–U+1342F) with 1,071 defined characters.

{{As of|2013|July}}, four fonts, [http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ ''Aegyptus''], [https://web.archive.org/web/20110724044654/http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~mjn/egyptian/fonts/newgardiner.html ''NewGardiner''], ''[[Noto fonts|Noto]] Sans Egyptian Hieroglyphs'' and [http://jsesh.qenherkhopeshef.org/en/node/1416 ''JSeshFont''] support this range. Another font, ''Segoe UI Historic'', comes bundled with Windows 10 and also contains glyphs for the Egyptian Hieroglyphs block. Segoe UI Historic excludes three  glyphs depicting phallus ( Gardiner's D52, D52A D53, Unicode code points U+130B8-U+130BA).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spludlow.co.uk/DrawPrint/Fonts.aspx#_Toc513634469|title=Segoe UI Historic Phallus Microsoft Censorship - Fonts in the Spludlow Framework|website=www.spludlow.co.uk|access-date=2019-05-13}}</ref>

==See also==
*List of Egyptian hieroglyphs
**Gardiner's sign list
**[[Egyptian numerals]]
*[[Social:Egyptian language|Egyptian language]]
*Middle Bronze Age alphabets
*Manuel de Codage
*[[Social:Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian|Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian]]

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Adkins |first=Lesley |author2=Adkins, Roy |title=The Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-06-019439-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/keysofegyptobses00adki }}
*{{cite book|author=Allen, James P.|year=1999|title=Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-77483-3}}
*{{cite book|author=Collier, Mark & Bill Manley|year=1998|title=How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: a step-by-step guide to teach yourself|publisher=British Museum Press|isbn=978-0-7141-1910-6|title-link=How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-step Guide to Teach Yourself}}
*{{cite book|author=Selden, Daniel L.|year=2013|title=Hieroglyphic Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Literature of the Middle Kingdom|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-27546-1}}
*{{cite book|author=Faulkner, Raymond O.|year=1962|title=Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian|publisher=Griffith Institute|isbn=978-0-900416-32-3}}
*{{cite book|author=Gardiner, Sir Alan H.|year=1957|title=Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, 3rd ed.|publisher=The Griffith Institute|title-link=Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs}}
*{{cite book |author=Hill, Marsha | title= ''Gifts for the gods: images from Egyptian temples'' | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=2007 | isbn=9781588392312 | url=http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/74020}}
*{{cite book|author=Kamrin, Janice|year=2004|title=Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide|publisher=Harry N. Abrams, Inc|isbn=978-0-8109-4961-4|title-link=Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide}}
*McDonald, Angela. ''Write Your Own Egyptian Hieroglyphs''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007 (paperback, {{ISBN|0-520-25235-7}}).

==External links==
*[http://www.aldokkan.com/art/hieroglyphics.htm Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics – Aldokkan]
*[http://www.egyptologyforum.org/glyphs.html Glyphs and Grammars] – Resources for those interested in learning hieroglyphs, compiled by Aayko Eyma
*[https://archive.is/20121205004306/http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/hieroglyphs/ Hieroglyphics!] – Annotated directory of popular and scholarly resources
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20030306061058/http://tigtail.org/TIG/M_View/TVM/E/Ancient/Egypt/Egypt-info/hieroglyphics/egyptian_writing.html Egyptian Language and Writing]
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15324coll10/id/14742/rec/531 Full-text of ''The stela of Menthu-weser'']
*Wikimedia's hieroglyph writing codes
*[http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts] – Ancient scripts free software fonts

{{List of hieroglyphs/navig}}


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