Egyptian has just two genders: masculine and feminine. (no neuter)
How can you distinguish them?
- feminine words have the ending t (it is added to the root of the word)
- masculine words have no special ending (but some may add w or j to their root)
(some of the masculine words end with t, but it is just a part of their root - not an added ending)
Example:
(in personal nouns the gender is clearly marked by determinative)
nb
lord, ruler
nbt
mistress
Some of the most visited forums where you can discuss anything about ancient Egypt, ancient history, archaeology etc.:
Egyptian Dreams Discussion Board
http://forum.egyptiandreams.co.uk/
KingTutOne
http://www.kingtutone.com/board/
Archaeology Fieldwork
http://www.archaeologyfieldwork.com
The House of Netjer ("house of the god")
http://www.netjer.org/forums/ubbthreads.php
Egypt Travel Information Forums
http://ask-aladdin.com/forum/
Gb
Wsir
Another related site is Egyptology Blog - Egyptology news from around the world (http://www.egyptologyblog.co.uk/) written by Mark Morgan.
I also read Luxor News (http://touregypt.net/TEBlog/luxornews/?p=72) by Jane Akshar who is living in Egypt and talking about life and happenings in Luxor.
Zahi Hawass’ Egypt (interview)
An exclusive guided tour of Egypt with the world’s foremost Egyptologist!
STOP 2: Bahariyya Oasis
STOP 3: The Western Desert
STOP 4: Upper Egypt
STOP 5. The Valley of the Kings and its latest treasures
STOP 6: The Egyptian Museum
link: http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6567
Hieroglyphic text could be written from both left to right and right to left (when it is in a horizontal line). From right to left was more common.
In a vertical line, it is always written from top to bottom.
If the signs are written one above the other in the same line, we first read the upper one.
See sxr "plan" .
When you see an ancient text, how can you know what is its orientation? There is a rule - every human and animal faces the beginning of the text.
More info and examples:
Learning Egyptian Hieroglyphs - Lesson 1
http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/.../glyphs_1.html
(Also has other lessons about hieroglyphs)
Direction of Writing in Egyptian
http://www.jimloy.com/hiero/direct.htm
Direction of Writing
http://www.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~rosmord/Intro/node8.html
sxr - plan
s
x
r
- this is a determinative for abstract things which could not be depicted (determinatives are not transliterated)
As you see, some of the signs are combined for better use of space and estetic reasons.
Basic Lessons in Hieratic
http://home.prcn.org/sfryer/Hieratic/
More about hieratic:
http://www.crystalinks.com/hieratic.html
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/hieratic.html
A2
-determinative (it is not transliterated)
-signify an action: speaking, eating, drinking... or an emotion: think, feel, love...
* category A is called "Man and his occupations"
In Sir Alan Gardiner's sign list every hieroglyph has its own code. For example, a duck sign is G39. The letter tells us which category does the hieroglyph belong to, and the number - its place in it.
For complete list of hieroglyphic signs see:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/ankh/gardiner.html
http://www.jimloy.com/hiero/gardner0.htm
Ancient Egyptian had several phases and (chronologically) they are:
- Old Egyptian (2600-2100) - the oldest form of the language.
This was the simplest writing.
- Middle Egyptian - developed during the Middle Kingdom.
It is called the classical form of the language.
In this blog, I use Middle Egyptian!
- Late Egyptian - spoken during the
At that time, Middle Egyptian was still used in writing.
There were some additional signs for the sounds
that weren't present in Greek.
Still used in Coptic (Egyptian Christian) church.
It was present throughout Old, Middle and Late Kingdom.
Hieratic was written with reed brush and ink on papyrus.
sS
scribe
sS is another biliteral.
is a determinative - it tells you it's a person (a man).
Biliterals are glyphs with 2 consonants.
Some of them are:
sA
pr
nb
Aw
kA
(just as the alphabet, you should learn them by heart)
Links to see:
Hieroglyphics and Their Decipherment
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/Hieroglyphics.htm
(hieroglyhics is actually a wrong name for the egyptian signs - that is an adjective (as in "hieroglyphic text") -the signs are called hieroglyphs
The Decipherment of Hieroglyphs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/decipherment_01.shtml
Books and articles
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/hieroglyphs/2.html
The Decipherment of Egyptian Hieroglyphic Text
http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/hieroglyphics.htm
Hieroglyph Story
http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/2884/?letter=H&spage=3
Jean Francois
Champollion -
Biography
Giants of Egyptology - Jean Francois Champollion
http://www.egyptology.com/kmt/winter95_96/giants.html
The Father of Egyptology
http://touregypt.net/featurestories/champollion.htm
Books about Egyptian for beginners:
"Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs" by James P. Allen - Great to start with! (at amazon.com)
Use of computers and internet helped studding everything and therefore languages like ancient Egyptian. Discussion list or mailing list is a community that assembles scholars but also everyone else interested in the subject. They are useful in your learning as you can read other people's opinions (in our case many professionals, like Egyptologists, historians and archaeologists) and participate in discussion yourself.
One extremely important is GlyphStudy - Middle Egyptian Study group that has been created especially for learning Egyptian hieroglyphs. It goes through the book "Middle Egyptian" by James Allen and it is now begging the 13th chapter.
Sign up ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GlyphStudy) and hurry up before they complete it!
You should also be a member of the ones below. They are dealing with ancient Egyptian language and culture.
www.rostau.org.uk/Aegyptian-L/
AEL - Ancient Egyptian Language Email List
http://showcase.netins.net/web/ankh/eefmain.html
EEF - The Egyptologists' Electronic Forum
If you are looking for some info about ancient Egyptian language or its script, try here:
www.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~rosmord/Intro/Intro.html
"A Short Introduction to Hieroglyphs" by Serge Rosmorduc
www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html
Ancient Egypt - Language - Part of this site is dedicated to Middle Egyptian grammar, writing, signlist and titulary.
www.jimloy.com/egypt/egypt.htm
Jim Loy's Egyptology Page has a nice introduction for beginners and also contains basic grammar, hieroglyphic dictionary, his translations of some inscriptions etc.
www.eyelid.co.uk/hiero1.htm
Mark Millmore's introduction and alphabet.
See also:
www.greatscott.com/hiero/index.html
www.virtual-egypt.com/newhtml/hieroglyphics/
