reigned in different countries forming a compact and not very large
area—perhaps from South Arabia to Asia Minor, and from Persia
to Crete and Egypt. Whether they all sprang from one common
stock of picture-writing we shall perhaps never know, nor can we as
yet trace the influence which one great system may have had on
another, owing to the poverty of documents from most of the
countries concerned.
It is certain that in Egypt from the IVth Dynasty onwards the
mode of writing was essentially the same as that which was extinguished
by the fall of paganism in the 4th century A.D. Its
elements in the hieroglyphic form are pictorial, but each hieroglyph
had one or more well-defined functions, fixed by convention in such
a manner that the Egyptian language was expressed in writing word
by word. Although a picture sign may at times have embarrassed
the skilled native reader by offering a choice of fixed values or
functions, it was never intended to convey merely an idea, so as to
leave to him the task of putting the idea into his own words. How
far this holds good for the period before the IVth Dynasty it is
difficult to say. The known inscriptions of the earlier times are so
brief and so limited in range that the system on which they were
written cannot yet be fully investigated. As far back as the Ist
Dynasty, phonograms (see below) were in full use. But the spelling
then was very concise: it is possible that some of the slighter words,
such as prepositions, were omitted in the writing, and were intended
to be supplied from the context. As a whole, we gain the impression
that a really distinct and more primitive stage of hieroglyphic
writing by a substantially vaguer notation of words lay not far
behind the time of the Ist Dynasty.
The employment of the signs are of three kinds: any given sign
represents either (1) a whole word or root; or (2) a sound as part of a
word; or (3) pictorially defines the meaning of a word the sound of
which has already been given by a sign or group of signs preceding.
The number of phonograms is very restricted, but some signs have all
these powers. For instance,
is the conventional picture of
a draughtboard (shown in plan) with the draughtsmen (shown in
elevation) on its edge:—this sign (1) signifies the root mn, “set,”
“firm”; or (2) in the group
,
represents the same sound as
part of the root mnḫ, “good”; or (3) added to the group
snt (thus:
),
shows that the meaning intended is “draught-board,”
or “draughts,” and not any of the other meanings of snt.
Thus signs, according to their employment, are said to be (1) “word-signs,”
(2) “phonograms,” or (3) “determinatives.”
Word-signs.—The word-sign value of a sign is, in the first place,
the name of the object it represents, or of some material, or quality,
or action, or idea suggested by it. Thus
is ḥr, “face”;
, a vase of ointment, is mrḥ.t, “ointment”;
is wdb, “turn.”
Much
investigation is still required to establish the origins of the values
of the signs; in some cases the connexion between the pictures and
the primary values seems to be curiously remote. Probably all the
signs in the hieroglyphic signary can be employed in their primary
sense. The secondary value expresses the consonantal root of the
name or other primary value, and any, or almost any, derivative
from that root: as when
, a mat with a cake upon it,
is not
only ḥtp, an “offering-mat,” but also ḥtp in the sense of “conciliation,”
“peace,” “rest,” “setting” (of the sun), with many derivatives.
In the third place, some signs may be transferred to
express another root having the same consonants as the first: thus
, the ear,
by a play upon words can express not only śḏm, “hear,”
but also śdm, “paint the eyes.”
Phonograms.—Only a limited number of signs are found with this
use, but they are of the greatest importance. By searching throughout
the whole mass of normal inscriptions, earlier than the periods
of Greek and Roman rule when great liberties were taken with the
writing, probably no more than one hundred different phonograms
can be found. The number of those commonly employed in good
writing is between seventy and eighty. The most important phonograms
are the uniliteral or alphabetic signs, twenty-four in number
in the Old Kingdom and without any homophones: later these were
increased by homophones to thirty. Of biliteral phonograms—each
expressing a combination of two consonants—there were about fifty
commonly used: some fifteen or twenty were rarely used. As
Egyptian roots seldom exceeded three letters, there was no need for
triliteral phonograms to spell them. There is, however, one triliteral
phonogram,
the eagle,
, tyw, or tiu (?),
used for the plural ending
of adjectives in y formed from words ending in t (whether radical
or the feminine ending).
The phonetic values of the signs are derived from their word-sign
values and consist usually of the bare root, though there are rare
examples of the retention of a flexional ending; they often ignore also
the weaker consonants of the root, and on the same principle reduce a
repeated consonant to a single one, as when
the hoe
, ḥnn,
has the
phonetic value ḥn. The history of some of the alphabetic signs is still
very obscure, but a sufficient number of them have been explained
to make it nearly certain that the values of all were obtained on the
same principles.[1] Some of the ancient words from which the phonetic
values were derived probably fell very early into disuse, and may
never be discoverable in the texts that have come down to us. The
following are among those most easily explained:—
, reed flower, value y and א; from
, y’, “reed.”
(It seems as if the two values y and א were obtained by choosing
first one and then the other of the two semi-consonants composing
the name. They are much confused, and a conventional symbol ỉ
has to be adopted
for rendering
.)
, forearm,
value ꜥ(ע);
from
, ꜥ(ע), “hand.”
, mouth,
value r;
from
, r, “mouth.”
, belly and teats,
value ḫ;
from
, ḫ.t, “belly.”
(The feminine ending is here, as usual, neglected.)
, tank,
value š;
from
, š, “tank.”
, slope of earth or brickwork,
value q;
from
, q’’, “slope,” “height.”
(The doubled weak consonant is here neglected.)
, hand,
value d;
from
, d.t, “hand.”
, cobra,
value z;
from
, z.t, “cobra.”
For some alphabetic signs more than one likely origin might be
found, while for others, again, no clear evidence of origin is yet
forthcoming.
It has already been explained that the writing expresses only
consonants. In the Graeco-Roman period various imperfect
attempts were made to render the vowels in foreign names and
words by the semi-vowels as also by
, the consonant ע which
originally represented
having been reduced in speech
by that time to the power of א, only. Thus, Πτολεμαιος is spelt
Ptwrmys, Antoninus, ’Nt’nynws or Intnyns, &c. &c. Much earlier,
throughout the New Kingdom, a special “syllabic” orthography,
in which the alphabetic signs for the consonants are generally
replaced by groups or single signs having the value of a consonant
followed by a semi-vowel, was used for foreign names and words, e.g.
תבכרמ
, “chariot,” was written
,
in Coptic ⲃⲉⲣⲉϭⲱⲟⲩⲧ.
לדגמ
, “tower,” was written
,
, Coptic ⲙⲉϭⲧⲟⲗ.
רונכ
, “harp,” was written
.
תמח
, “Hamath,” was written
.
According to W. Max Müller (Asien und Europa, 1893, chap, v.),
this represents an endeavour to express the vocalization; but, if so,
it was carried out with very little system. In practice, the semi-vowels
are generally negligible. This method of writing can be
traced back into the Middle Kingdom, if not beyond, and it greatly
affected the spelling of native words in New Egyptian and demotic.
Determinatives.—Most signs can on occasion be used as determinatives,
but those that are very commonly employed as phonograms
or as secondary word-signs are seldom employed as determinatives;
and when they are so used they are often somewhat
differentiated. Certain generic determinatives are very common,
e.g.:—
; of motion.
,
; of acts involving force.
; of divinity.
↑It seems that “acrophony” (giving to a sign the value of the
first letter of its name) was indulged in only by priests of the latest
age, inventing fantastic modes of writing their “vain repetitions”
on the temple walls.
