Hieroglyphs (6 page)

pr
house,
ib
heart. A vertical stroke is written under such signs when used as a word to show that this is the case and that they are not purely sound signs.

Determinatives

Each word in Egyptian contains a number of these signs which can have different purposes in the word. The word for ‘cat’ can be written:

. The signs used to write this word are performing different roles within this one word. The first three signs are all phonetic signs to tell the reader how the word is pronounced.

The first sign, a milk bottle with a string tied around it, is the biconsonantal
mi
recording two sounds and sounding something like ‘mee’. The second sign, a reed, has the one-sound value
i
‘ee’ and
Hi
so adds to the

eroglyp

mi
and acts as a phonetic complement. The third sign, a quail chick, is another one-sound sign with the value
w
and the
hic scri

sound ‘oo’. These three signs give the word the sounds ‘mee-oo’ and this is the onomatopoeic word for ‘cat’. The fourth and final sign has
pt an
a different role to play. This is an image of a seated cat, its tail
d E

curling up onto its back, as occurs in real life and in so many bronze
gyptian lan
statuettes of cats. The sign ‘determines’ the meaning of the whole word but it does not have a sound value. For nouns (the names of things), these determinatives are very useful in showing where one
gua

word ends and another begins, especially as Egyptian has no
ge

punctuation, except perhaps for the dots written above lines of New Kingdom poetry written in hieratic. For verbs (words which describe actions) there is another set of determinatives which reflect the type of action described. This can range from the obvious:

wnm
to eat

Hwi
to hit

to the less clear:

sA
to be weak.

23

This word has a double determinative of a sparrow and a pustule.

Both have ‘bad’ connotations in Egyptian. It is thought that the sparrow was used because it can convey the idea of ‘smallness’ or

‘lack of something’, so that although in itself it was not necessarily bad or threatening it could convey the idea of something undesirable. The pustule is a sign associated with disease and

‘badness’, but is not instantly recognizable and in fact there has been some debate over the identification of this sign.

rx
‘rech’, to know

The determinative here is a piece of papyrus, rolled up and tied with string. As papyri contain writings and knowledge, the use of the determinative seems reasonably clear. This sign is a common determinative in words where it can be difficult to see the rationale for its use and it may in fact be used for much more abstract concepts. The determinative is therefore a kind of useful catch-all
phs

sign, as for example in

hr
‘her’, be pleased, satisfied.

ogly

Hier

Determinatives have a much more important role than just being word endings for they affect the whole meaning of a word and can lend subtle (or not) extra meanings to words depending upon the context in which they are used. For example the word
wn
can undergo the following transformations by changing the determinative:

Meanings:

to be stripped off (of hair or branches), hairless to hurry by (with running legs)

to open (with door-leaf )

light (with sun disk and rays of light)

child (with infant)

fault, blame (with sparrow, or sometimes with pustule sign) 24

Script and language: use and development

Egyptologists have divided the development of the language and scripts into stages. The current understanding of this development is dependent on the preservation of the material and the scholarly work undertaken so far. This means there are some gaps in our knowledge. Also, the rate of change in Egyptian was not constant and there is also some relationship with the type of text. Everyday texts such as letters or receipts demonstrate ‘new’ stages of the language earlier, whereas hieroglyphic temple and monumental texts show less variation but attain an archaic form.

Table 1 shows the way in which the scripts are used for certain types
Hi
of text at certain times. These time frames do not always correspond
eroglyp
to political changes in Egypt as shown in conventional
hic scri

chronological tables, but may reflect underlying cultural changes and reflect turning points in Egyptian society often masked by rigid
pt an
king lists. From Table 1 it can be seen that these points of change are
d E

around 2200 bc and the change from Old to Middle Egyptian,
gyptian lan

around 2600 bc with the use of Late Middle Egyptian, around 1300 bc and the use of Late Egyptian, which in turn heralds the gradual move through Archaic Demotic to Demotic complete
gua

around 700

g

bc, and finally the use of Coptic probably from some
e

time in the second century ad. The table does show that hieroglyphs were always in use in Pharaonic Egypt for its three-thousand-year history and that so long as monumental texts were required in temples to the old gods or tombs for the Egyptian religion, then hieroglyphs continued in use.

Stages of the language

Old Egyptian is the principal version of Egyptian used to write a group of texts in hieroglyphs called the Pyramid Texts. They were inscribed inside the pyramids of the kings and their queens from the reign of Unas in Dynasty 5 (
c
.2200 bc) onwards and are a set of spells, rituals, and descriptions of the route to the afterlife intended for use by the king. The idea was that the king could avert danger by 25

Table 1. Scripts and languages in use in Egypt
the use of these texts, that he could communicate with the gods he would meet on his way to the next life and that he could gain extra powers and magical abilities using these texts. In addition, he would be able to make the transition from death to a life as a star and join with the imperishable circumpolar stars, the souls of the gods; he could become Osiris, the king of the afterlife; he could also be transfigured as light and serve the sun-god Re in his solar boat sailing across the sky each day. It can be argued that the texts cover a wider range of genres and imply a diverse origin from chants and hymns to narratives and poetry. It is thought that these texts represent a culmination of very ancient beliefs and ideas concerned with royal rituals about the identity of the king and his relationship with the gods. It was clearly felt that it was important to have a
Hi