The History of the beginning-

 We all are acustom to our own form of reading and writting. Our writting system is based on the English language. We have an alphebet that consists of 26 letters that we put together to form words. One of the ways the ancient Egyptians put sounds together was by grouping together different symbols. They called their writting "mdju netjer".  Which meant 'words of the gods'. However,  these words did not consist of letters but mainly picture symbols, that represented an object of meaning. The writting was in a form known as hieroglyphics. This form was the earliest of Eygptian writting and the longest lived as well. The first sign of hieroglyphics was as far back as 3100 B.C, and was sketched onto pottery.3

    The writting and symbols-

The Ancient Egyptians had over 2,000 symbols that they used to express themselves and communicate. There are variations of hieroglyphics depending on the time period. The same way English has changed throughout time from Old Englsh to Modern Englsh. With many forms in between. One of the modern forms of hieroglypics is "Rebus". This means a picture puzzle that may be able to be sounded out when naming the picture or sound in the puzzle.

 

A puzzle in forms of Rebus with symbols we may use-

 

 1

 

 

The Hieroglyphic Alphabet

HIEROGLYPH	REPRESENTS	PRONOUNCED		HIEROGLYPH	REPRESENTS	PRONOUNCED
	vulture	ah (father)			reed	i (filled)
	two reeds	y (discovery)			arm & hand	broad a (car)
	quail chick	oo (too) or w (wet)			foot	b (boot)
	mat	p (pedestal)			horned viper	f (feel)
	owl	m (moon)			water	n (noon)
	mouth	r (right)			reed shelter	h (hat)
	twisted flax	h! (ha!)			placenta	kh (like Scotch 'loch')
	animal's belly	ch (like German 'ich')			folded cloth	s (saw)
	door bolt	s (saw)			pool	sh (show)
	slope of hill	k (key)			basket with handle	k (basket)
	jar stand	g (go)			loaf	t (tap)
	tethering rope	tj (church)			hand	d (dog)
	snake	dj (adjust)

 

 

 

 

Forms-

    Biliterals are when two or more characters are put together to form a sound or word. Because hieroglypics uses symbols, without biliterals they would have words or sentences that were too long. In a way this can be looked at in comparison to using "blonde" as oppose to "the girl with yellow hair" in the English language.

  Another part of hieroglypics is determinatives. This means that although when putting symbols together a certain explanation is meant to be understood, others may read it differentaly. For examples in the puzzle shown earlier, someone may mistake that for " I heart ewe" as oppose to "I heart you". This happened often being that symbols meant more than one thing. Therefore, the Egyptians used determinatives which was another small symbol put after the word to clarify its meaning. Hieroglypics did not consist of any spaces or  punctuation. Forexampleasentancelikethatinenlsh.

 

Understanding the writting-

    Today English is read from left to right. In ancient times in order to keep consistancy and understanding the symbols were read in columns or rows. The actual reading order was to be determined by which way the animial was facing. For example if an owl was facing left the writting would go from right to left.

 

Location-

   Hieroglypics were found on the walls of temples, on pottery or artwork and found on important monuments. Hieroglyphics that were of important value were called- "hieroglyphia", with the greek meaning of sacared carvings. Hieroglypics were a difficult way to write and interpret on a daily basis. The Eygptians had easier fonts called 'heirotic' and 'demotic'. They were simply less complex variations.

 

The end of Hieroglypics-

   Eygptian scripts began to die out around 400 AD. The last piece of writting was found on the Island of philae. Christianity was thought to be a reason of the disappearance of hieroglyphics and other forms of Eygptian scripts. One of the major replacements of scripts was 'Coptic' a form of greek writting that consisted of 24 letters. This was a big change from the complexity of thousands symbols used years earlier. Before being replaced in the 11th century by Arabic, a mix between the ancient Egyptian language and the language of 'Coptic'.

 

Although Hieroglypics can be translated today it is not a current way of reading or writting.

 

Sources-

 

3- http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/writing.htm

 

Collier, Mark. "How to read Egyptian Hieroglyphics: A step by step guide to teach yourself"