There were more than 5,000 ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Only about 700-800 were used in writing. The proportions of use are approximately the same as in Chinese writing. But what do we know about this ancient writing system?
I will start with the official part of the historical interpretation of this process and what modern history generally knows about the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Penetration into the history of Ancient Egypt has long been hampered by the barrier of Egyptian writing. Scientists have been trying to read Egyptian hieroglyphs for a long time. They even had at their disposal the ancient manual “Hieroglyphics,” written in the 2nd century. n. e. a native of Upper Egypt, Horapollo, and since the time of Herodotus it was known that the Egyptians used three types of writing: hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic. However, all attempts to overcome the “Egyptian letter” with the help of the works of ancient authors remained in vain.
In the study of this writing and in the decipherment of hieroglyphs, the most outstanding results were achieved by Jean Francois Champollion (1790–1832)
The Rosetta Stone became the key to unraveling Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic writing.
The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite slab found in 1799 in Egypt near the small city of Rosetta (now Rashid), near Alexandria, with three identical texts engraved on it, including two in the ancient Egyptian language - inscribed in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Egyptian demotic a script that is an abbreviated cursive script of the late Egyptian era, and one in ancient Greek. Ancient Greek was well known to linguists, and the comparison of the three texts served as the starting point for deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The text of the stone is an inscription of gratitude, which in 196 BC. e. Egyptian priests addressed Ptolemy V Epiphanes, another monarch from the Ptolemaic dynasty. The beginning of the text: “To the new king, who received the kingdom from his father”... During the Hellenistic period, many similar documents within the Greek ecumene were distributed in the form of bi- or trilinguistic texts, which subsequently served linguists well.
The stone was discovered on July 15, 1799 by the captain of the French troops in Egypt, Pierre-François Bouchard, during the construction of Fort Saint-Julien near Rosetta on the western branch of the Nile Delta during the campaign of Napoleon's army in Egypt.
Clickable
The main obstacle in deciphering was the lack of understanding of the Egyptian writing system as a whole, therefore all individual successes did not give any “strategic” result. For example, the Englishman Thomas Young (1773–1829) was able to establish the sound meaning of the five hieroglyphic signs of the Rosetta Stone, but this did not bring science one iota closer to deciphering Egyptian writing. Only Champollion was able to solve this seemingly insoluble problem.
First of all, Champollion examined and completely rejected Horapollo's Hieroglyphics and all attempts at deciphering based on his concept. Horapollo argued that Egyptian hieroglyphs are not sound, but only semantic signs, signs-symbols. But Champollion, even before Jung’s discovery, came to the conclusion that among the hieroglyphs there were signs that convey sounds. Already in 1810, he expressed the opinion that the Egyptians could write foreign names with such phonetic signs. And in 1813, Champollion suggested that alphabetic characters were also used to convey suffixes and prefixes of the Egyptian language.
He examines the royal name “Ptolemy” on the Rosetta Stone and identifies 7 hieroglyphic letters in it. Studying a copy of the hieroglyphic inscription on the obelisk, originating from the temple of Isis on the island of Philae, he reads the name of Queen Cleopatra. As a result, Champollion determined the sound meaning of five more hieroglyphs, and after reading the names of other Greco-Macedonian and Roman rulers of Egypt, he increased the hieroglyphic alphabet to nineteen characters.
He established in the course of his research and concluded that the Egyptians had a semi-alphabetic writing system, since they, like some other peoples of the East, did not use vowels in writing. And in 1824, Champollion published his main work, “Essay on the hieroglyphic system of the ancient Egyptians.” It became the cornerstone of modern Egyptology.
Look at these hieroglyphs and their phonemes:
Doesn't it seem strange to you that certain images are passed off as phonemes? It's not even a syllabary! Why is it so difficult to depict sounds? You can depict a simple symbol and associate a sound with it, as can be seen in other peoples and cultures. But in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs there are pictures, images.
You can look at the translation, decipherment, and in my opinion, deep misconception or even nonsense of Egyptologists
And Egyptologists cannot take a single step away from this! After all, all this is based on the authority of Champollion himself!
Look at this. This is a whole series of meanings, figurative writing. You can probably even say that this is a universal language that any bearer of intelligence can understand. Then the conclusion is - are we reasonable that we still cannot read this? It's my opinion. And this is a doubt in the method, where everything is based on phonetic comparisons of the imagery of hieroglyphs from the beginning of the 19th century. I got it a long time ago. Only now I decided to express it in this article.
It is quite possible that something technical is being shown here
Probably only the lazy have not heard about these technical hieroglyphs under the ceiling in one of the Egyptian temples
There are symbols here that look like aircraft, and probably more than one type.
Stones will probably be thrown at me once again, saying that I am talking nonsense and everything has long been translated. Or maybe the codebreakers were putting an owl on a globe, earning their living?
I don’t want to completely tilt everyone towards absolute forgery and misconceptions based on the works of Champollion. But it’s worth thinking about whether everything is once again as Egyptologists tell us. After all, Napoleon went to Egypt for a reason, and it is possible that the Rosetta Stone is a simple fake. Moreover, the quality and size of the inscriptions on it do not correspond to the size of the hieroglyphs of the early kingdoms of Ancient Egypt.
As an addition.
Unstressed vowels can be omitted or replaced with similar ones. Instead of V put f, and instead l- sign (ideogram lion).
By doing this exercise, you practice transliterating your own name in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Like any transliteration, your version only approximately corresponds to the original. At the end of male names, draw a figurine of a sitting man, and at the end of female names, draw a figurine of a woman. Both of these signs are classified as determiners.
Having selected the necessary hieroglyphs, try to arrange them into a rectangle, as in the examples below:
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The last name in the left column is taken from ancient texts. This shows that our technique of writing names in hieroglyphs is not new and not purely educational: it is borrowed from the Egyptians themselves, who used it to reflect foreign names in writing, such as the Greek rulers Cleopatra, Ptolemy or Alexander.
Egyptian writings
Type: logophonetic
Language family: Egyptian
Localization: Egypt, North Africa
Propagation time: 3100 Don.
e. - 400 AD
The hieroglyphs either directly “depicted” the word, for example, the image of a bull meant the word “bull”, or indirectly hinted at the content of the word, for example, the image of a club - the weapon of neighboring tribes - meant the name of their country “Libya”. First Egyptian writings
-the hieroglyphs were clearly pictorial in nature:
In total, up to 5,000 different Egyptian hieroglyphs are known, but no more than 700-800 were used in each era.
Among the Egyptian hieroglyphs there are: 1) monoconsonant
nal signs (about 30), denoting the consonant sounds of the Egyptian language;
2) two-three consonantal signs for the phonetic transmission of morphemes;
3) ideograms - to designate whole words;
4) determiners - auxiliary (unpronounceable) ideographic signs that clarify the meanings of words.
Demotika
Hieroglyphics Hieratic
for many centuries it was used to write texts of various contents on papyrus. In the VIII-VII centuries. BC e. a new letter appears - demotic. Demotic writing differs from hieratic writing in much greater italics and an abundance of ligatures, which makes reading demotic texts difficult. The latest demotic texts date back to the 5th century. n.
e.
Ultimately, most texts became demotic, losing any hint of their hieroglyphic origin. Demotic writing was preserved only for writing texts of a cult nature.
The last demotic inscription found on the Rosetta Stone lost all resemblance to hieroglyphics to the point that it resembled ordinary Aramaic writing.
In a number of alphabets, the letter was represented on the principle of similarity to objects and things, in the form of which its outline was guessed. Nowadays, children's alphabets are drawn this way, for clarity, depicting the letter A in the form of a watermelon, and the letter Z, respectively, in the form of an apple. Studying the symbolism of letters allows us to recognize the connections underlying hieroglyphs, sacred traditions, and cosmogony.
Traditions of absolutely all peoples who were characterized by their own letters, indicate that they were given to people by the gods.
The ancient Egyptians simply called their hieroglyphs "the language of the gods." There are legends that the ancient Egyptian annats were written even before the Flood by the god of writing Djehuti or Thoth, depicted either with the head of an ibis or in the form of a dog-headed baboon monkey. He was identified with the first scientist on our planet, the founder of philosophy and all secret sciences - Hermes Trismegistus (“three times greatest”). If such a person does not exist in nature, then, in the words of Voltaire, “he should have been invented.” The ancient Greeks believed that in the guise of Thoth the Egyptians represented the “messenger of the gods” Hermes, but in their pantheon Hermes never played such an important role as was assigned to the god Thoth in Egypt.
Egyptian legend says that the god Thoth, long before the Flood, inscribed on a table in hieroglyphs, or sacred images, the principles of all knowledge. After the Flood, the second Thoth - Hermes Trismegistus, or “the first Hermes” (for the Romans - Mercury) translated the contents of these tables into vulgar language.
Marsilio Fichino wrote in his notes: “ Egyptian the priests, when they needed to point out divine truths, did not use letters, but drew figures of plants, trees and animals;
In contrast to alphabetic writing, which is aimed at maximum simplicity and accessibility for the widest segments of the population, symbolic writing is aimed at maximum sacredness, closedness, and accessibility only to those initiated into the mysteries of this writing and the corresponding cult.
Below is a page from the Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary with examples of ancient alphabets:
Instructions
A very long time ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs with images of celestial bodies, parts of the human body, musical instruments and weapons seemed like a riddle that could never be solved. Until in 1799, during the Napoleonic expedition, they found the Rosetta Stone - a basalt slab with an identical inscription in three languages: ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic, ancient Egyptian demotic and ancient Greek. These inscriptions were discovered by the French explorer François Champollion in 1822. The science of Egyptology dates back to this time.
In appearance, hieroglyphs are drawings of various living creatures. Each hieroglyph either denoted a word, for example, an image of a duck, meant the word “duck,” or indirectly hinted at the content of the word. For example, the image of two legs meant “walking, running.”
In total, more than 5,000 Egyptian hieroglyphs are known, but no more than 700-800 were used in each era. Among the hieroglyphs there are: single-consonant signs denoting the consonant sounds of the Egyptian language, there are about 30 of them; two-three consonantal signs conveying morphemes; ideograms denoting entire words and determiners - auxiliary or unpronounceable signs that clarify the meaning of words.
The meaning of many words is still known approximately. This mainly concerns the naming of stones, animals, and medicines. This is due to the fact that in addition to ordinary writing, secret writing was also used in Egypt, which has not yet been solved.
In ordinary (unciphered) Egyptian texts, but it is impossible to pronounce them out loud due to the lack of vowels in hieroglyphography. The ancient Egyptians had no difficulty voicing texts (pronouncing them with vowel sounds). But this knowledge has not reached us. Therefore, for convenience, Egyptologists agreed to insert a vowel “e” between consonant sounds. So, for example, the auxiliary sign ^ conveyed the combination “s + unknown vowel + n”. Conventionally, this is read as “sep”. And a whole series of guttural vowels and semivowels such as the Russian “y” are also conventionally read as “a”, “i”, “u”. This method of conditional vocalization has nothing to do with the real phonetics of the Egyptian language.
The names of the Egyptian pharaohs Akhenaten, Nefertiti, the gods Ra, Isis, known throughout the world. Actually they sounded like Ekhneyotn, Nephret, Re, Esse. This is also an approximate reconstruction given on the basis of the later Coptic language.
If you are interested in Egyptology and want to read ancient Egyptian texts on your own, then study special reference books and read books by leading Egyptologists. Be sure to purchase the five-volume Egyptian dictionary, which contains about 16,000 words.
Video on the topic
Sources:
- How the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs was solved
- Egyptian hieroglyphs and their meaning in Russian
Hieroglyphs or pictograms are a type of writing that is one of the oldest on earth. We can say that it is a specific written sign that is used in some writing systems. Almost all of them have their own designation, and many have several translations or meanings. This type of writing was and is used in some countries, cities, or among some peoples.
You will need
- - various scientific literature on decryption
- - certain knowledge in the field of translations
- - study of the ancient language you need
Instructions
Egyptian writing arose at the end of the fourth millennium BC based on pictorial writing. In such a letter, every word was expressed in a drawing. For example, “captivity” was depicted as people with their hands tied. Such signs were called hieroglyphs, and the writing system itself was called hieroglyphics. The ancient Egyptians believed that writing was given to them by the god of wisdom, Thoth. They called the letters themselves “Mdue ntr” - “Words of God” and believed in their magical protective power. Hieroglyphs could be painted on the walls of temples, tombs, steles and obelisks, statues, sarcophagi, clay shards and papyrus scrolls.
It takes a lot of time to learn to read and decipher hieroglyphs correctly. To begin with, you can learn the names of several kings and queens, remembering the hieroglyphs themselves, that is, their spelling. The names are easy to find; they were always written in an oval frame - a cartouche, designed to protect the royal name and the pharaoh himself from evil forces. Hieroglyphs are read from left to right, right to left or top to bottom. To determine where to start reading, you need to look for symbols such as birds or people. They always face the beginning of a sentence.
To read or translate ancient hieroglyphs, you will not only need books on deciphering letters, but you will also have to study the history of a certain state, the rise and fall of civilization. It is also necessary to have an idea where to start translating, how to correctly divide hieroglyphs into individual characters. Splitting text into characters is usually used when deciphering Mayan letters. And this is not an easy task. It is necessary to correctly separate the hieroglyphs, put them in the right order, and then just translate them.
It is much easier to decipher modern Chinese and Japanese characters. There is a lot of useful and necessary information in libraries, bookstores, and the Internet. For example, dictionaries or language tutorials. You can sign up for courses and classes in these languages.
Helpful advice
If you do not have knowledge of ancient languages or you do not have certain literature, you can contact a specialist. A specialist, a scientist in languages, in deciphering hieroglyphs - this is the best option for a person who does not have certain knowledge.
Sources:
- deciphering hieroglyphs in 2018
Many have souvenirs from Egypt, where there are inscriptions in the form of hieroglyphs. Of course, I want to understand what is written there. The best thing to do was ask the seller. But what if the idea to decipher the inscription came much later?
Egyptian hieroglyphs are perhaps one of the most common and popularized variants of ancient writing. There are many common misconceptions regarding Egyptian hieroglyphs, and sometimes ordinary people simply do not know this topic even in the most superficial way.
Therefore, we consider it quite relevant to talk briefly about the language of Egypt, some development trends, the esoteric meanings of this language and the semantic elements of Egyptian culture as a whole.
History of appearance
In the beginning there was a word - this fact is known to many and from this fact it is not difficult to conclude about the high importance of language. In each individual culture, languages developed in a special way, but for the most part they were always based on various magical or religious beliefs. They made language not just a way of communication, but a way of influencing reality.
There are a huge number of similar examples, for example, the modern Hebrew alphabet includes letters, each of which has a secret meaning. Chinese characters have not only a direct, but also a metaphorical meaning, and often the meaning of a word hidden in a character indicates a deep understanding of the world and the wisdom of the people. In fact, almost every language (or group of languages) has a very interesting one.
From the very beginning, it should be noted that hieroglyphs are characteristic of many ancient civilizations. In fact, if you look at the development of not only Egyptian, but also Chinese, and the Sumerian-Akkadian language and writing in particular, you can see many similarities.
In particular, the structure of the evolutionary development of these languages is almost identical, although in each variant there are differences that are determined by the characteristics of culture and perception.
In general, hieroglyphs moved along an approximately identical path of development, from a picture representation to a more schematic one. Thus, at the initial stage in the language where hieroglyphic notation was used, only pictures were used that corresponded to the designated object.
For example, the word was actually written as a schematic image of a man in profile, and an identical version with the word woman. Further, the language (and written speech in particular) continues to develop and hieroglyphs acquire various additional meanings and functions.
For example, if a name is written in hieroglyphs, then after the word the hieroglyph “man” or “woman” is added so that the reader can understand which gender the given name belongs to.
How could they write down names in Egypt if they only used pictures that meant certain words? Here, a different direction was used in the development of written speech, which involved the use of a variety of phonemes. Simply put, some hieroglyphs began to correspond to sounds.
Further, the Egyptian language moved towards systematization and reducing the number of hieroglyphs. In order to write down long texts, scientists considered it more expedient to use not a huge number of a wide variety of hieroglyphs, but to use phonetic writing and various clarifying elements that make it possible to understand in what sense a particular set of hieroglyphs should be read.
Over time, hieroglyphic writing became obsolete and changed in Egypt to more modern forms of the language.
Even during the period of using hieroglyphs, there was a so-called hieratic - a special writing method used for papyrus texts(hieroglyphs were mainly used for wall paintings) something like Egyptian cursive writing.
In addition, demotic writing is developing towards the new era, which eventually completely replaces hieroglyphs. If you look at the Egyptian texts written in demotic, then in appearance they are practically indistinguishable from the Arabic script or similar versions of the written language.
Moreover, even schematic demotics are based on Egyptian hieroglyphs. It’s just that over time they simplified and became more schematic, and easier-to-write alphabet icons appeared.
Hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt with decoding in Russian
When you travel to Egypt, you can see many souvenir alphabets sold by local merchants. In particular, near the pyramids and in other places saturated with tourists, stylized papyri are offered, on which certain hieroglyphs and the corresponding meanings of the letters of the Latin alphabet are indicated.
Moreover, sometimes you can see a similar alphabet translated into Russian and actually learn the way words are written in hieroglyphs.
Of course, this looks a little strange, because... It’s unlikely that Egypt thought about adapting its own language to the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet. Nevertheless, there is still a rational meaning in such correspondences.
Indeed, in the Egyptian language, over time, indeed phonetic equivalents began to be used for some hieroglyphs, simply put, a certain part of the hieroglyphs, in addition to the direct meaning, began to be assigned an additional purely phonetic one.
Thus, it is possible to talk about the existence of the Egyptian alphabet. Although, of course, the sound scale of the Egyptian language did not correspond to the phonetic spectrum of the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet. The sounds had their own specificity, and some differed from the alphabet you were used to.
There is nothing surprising in this; such examples still exist. For example, in the languages of the Romance group, the sound y is practically not used, nor is any letter or defthong used to denote such a letter.
Thus and some sounds of the Egyptian language may be unfamiliar to you, and some familiar sounds may be absent in this language.
Therefore, such correspondence alphabets should be considered in a certain sense a convention. Although, as a hobby, you can actually learn to write words in Egyptian hieroglyphs and, moreover, not only you yourself, but also Egyptologists or other people who can read hieroglyphs can understand your writing.
The correspondence of Russian letters to hieroglyphs can be seen in the picture.
The Egyptian alphabet uses 24 basic letters. Let us remind you that this classification is to a certain extent conditional, since different hieroglyphs can be used for identical letters and sounds. However, there are the most common hieroglyphs that are used as the alphabet.
What do the symbols mean?
In addition to hieroglyphs, a variety of Egyptian symbols are often better known. Many words that related to a religious cult could well be written from their constituent parts. For example, the word Ra could consist of the hieroglyphs mouth + arm bent at the elbow, which phonetically gave the combination of sounds r + a.
In addition, there was a separate hieroglyph for writing, which looked like the hieroglyph “man” but had a special headdress; we are talking about the hieroglyph pharaoh or king, which could additionally mean the supreme deity.
In addition to the indicated spelling options, there was also a religiously mystical version that used the hieroglyph of the eye (something like an all-seeing eye) or the Sun to designate Ra, that is, symbolic overtones and a metaphor were also used here. Horus could also be designated by the hieroglyph of eyes, since there was a common udjat symbol - the eye of Horus, which was also used as a protective amulet.
Mysticism in Egypt was developed in a very significant way and each of the symbols used had a powerful charge and deep meaning. The symbolism of Egyptian religion is deep and multifaceted. In addition, we should not forget about the development of the purely practical aspect of the Egyptian religion, from which many more modern cults most likely developed.
Egyptian symbolism underlies many modern religions. Thus, Egyptian symbols should be considered more ancient and, in a certain sense, the basis for modern mystical symbolism. Therefore, if you want to use powerful symbols and amulets, we advise you to turn your attention towards Egyptian symbols.
- Ankh- probably the most common symbol, which almost everyone knows about, is a cross whose upper part is ring-shaped, is a symbol of eternity and is often associated with the Breath of Life, which Egyptian deities endow with chosen people passing into the afterlife, should be interpreted in general as a symbol of eternal life, a favorable sign.
- Shenu- looks like an oval, in fact, it is something like a rope ring, which has neither beginning nor end, it is a protective symbol, the name of the owner was written in the shena and the outer ring protected the owner of this name from adversity, you can still buy an amulet representing with your name written in.
- Feather Maat– looks like a symbol of a feather and represents the attribute of Maat, which is the embodiment of morality, balance and justice, this attribute indicates a commitment to fairness and justice.
- Udjat– the eye of Horus, is a symbol of healing and protection.
- Ra- can be depicted as a circle with a dot, or as a circle with symbolic rays, is in many ways the basis of Egyptian cosmogony and mythology, represents the supreme deity, the source of all blessings.
Ba- depicted as a hawk with a human head, symbolizes the soul, but in the Egyptian religion the presence of seven souls was attributed to man, for example, there was a doctrine of Ka, which is more similar to the eternal and individual soul.
Nevertheless, the Ba is a significant symbol, something like an astral shell in which the personality can act even after mummification, as it was believed that the Ba could also be contained in the statues that were erected for the pharaohs.
As a rule, such symbols were used not only in written speech, but also separately to perform some religious and mystical rituals or to create amulets.
How to use signs?
In order to try to do Egyptian magic, you don’t really need any lengthy research or similar efforts. Many texts have been translated and studied, and a significant part of the written monuments that have survived to this day are:
- fortune telling books
- religious books
- books describing spells and performing various rituals
In addition, you can use purely practical elements of the teaching and perform certain tasks. Most, of course, are inaccessible to the common man, but some involve only the use of spells and certain symbols.
Therefore, if you understand the meaning of various symbols and can depict similar signs, then you can easily take advantage of the work of the Egyptian mystics. Let us remember that this tradition is one of the oldest available to contemporaries and has high potential.
In addition, it is advisable to use Egyptian signs for amulets. For example, it is always useful to use a protective amulet like Shenu with your own name. The remaining signs also have a powerful positive charge and can be used as a personal talisman and for any space, for example, at home or office.
Of the most powerful signs, the feather of Maat, the eye of Horus and the Ankh should be noted. These signs have slightly different meanings, but can also be used in combination, since each is generally favorable for almost every person, although we are talking about respectable people, since in Egypt significant attention was paid to morality and ethics.
