Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Lesson 1 Language and Writing
- Lesson 2 Unliteral Signs
- Lesson 3 Multiliteral Signs
- Lesson 4 Nouns
- Lesson 5 Pronouns
- Lesson 6 Adjectives
- Lesson 7 Adjectival and Nominal Sentences
- Lesson 8 Prepositions and Adverbs
- Lesson 9 Numbers
- Lesson 10 Adverbial Sentences
- Lesson 11 Non-verbal Sentences
- Lesson 12 Verbs
- Lesson 13 The Infinitival Forms
- Lesson 14 The Pseudo-verbal Construction
- Lesson 15 The Imperative and Particles
- Lesson 16 The Stative
- Lesson 17 The sdm.n.f
- Lesson 18 The sdm.f
- Lesson 19 The Other Forms of the Suffix Conjugation
- Lesson 20 Adverb Clauses
- Lesson 21 Noun Clauses
- Lesson 22 Relative Clauses
- Lesson 23 The Active Participle
- Lesson 24 The Passive Participle
- Lesson 25 Emphatic Sentences
- Lesson 26 Middle Egyptian Grammar
- Sign List
- Dictionary
- Text References
- Answers to the Exercises
- Index
Lesson 2 - Unliteral Signs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Lesson 1 Language and Writing
- Lesson 2 Unliteral Signs
- Lesson 3 Multiliteral Signs
- Lesson 4 Nouns
- Lesson 5 Pronouns
- Lesson 6 Adjectives
- Lesson 7 Adjectival and Nominal Sentences
- Lesson 8 Prepositions and Adverbs
- Lesson 9 Numbers
- Lesson 10 Adverbial Sentences
- Lesson 11 Non-verbal Sentences
- Lesson 12 Verbs
- Lesson 13 The Infinitival Forms
- Lesson 14 The Pseudo-verbal Construction
- Lesson 15 The Imperative and Particles
- Lesson 16 The Stative
- Lesson 17 The sdm.n.f
- Lesson 18 The sdm.f
- Lesson 19 The Other Forms of the Suffix Conjugation
- Lesson 20 Adverb Clauses
- Lesson 21 Noun Clauses
- Lesson 22 Relative Clauses
- Lesson 23 The Active Participle
- Lesson 24 The Passive Participle
- Lesson 25 Emphatic Sentences
- Lesson 26 Middle Egyptian Grammar
- Sign List
- Dictionary
- Text References
- Answers to the Exercises
- Index
Summary
2.1 Spelling
Hieroglyphic writing represents ancient Egyptian words. When ancient Egyptian was still a living language, those words were spoken as well as written. Hieroglyphs used as phonograms (“sound writing”: see § 1.5) represent the sounds of those words, just as the letters of the English alphabet represent the sounds of the English language. Unlike the English alphabet, however, hieroglyphic writing usually shows only the consonants of Egyptian words. Not until Coptic did the ancient Egyptians use a writing system that regularly indicated the vowels as well. For earlier stages of the language— including Middle Egyptian—we are left with only the skeleton of Egyptian words, although we can reconstruct the vowels of some words from Coptic. Leaving out the vowels is not peculiar to hieroglyphic: among modern languages, Hebrew and Arabic regularly omit their vowels in writing.
As far as can be determined, Middle Egyptian had twenty-three consonants. Each consonant could be represented in hieroglyphic by a single sign; such signs are called uniliteral (“one-letter”) hieroglyphs. In effect, these uniliteral hieroglyphs constituted an Egyptian “alphabet,” but they were not used as such by the Egyptians, usually only in combination with other hieroglyphs.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Middle EgyptianAn Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, pp. 15 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014