s w dʒ ʒ {HIT, BEAT}s w dʒ ʒ {HIT, BEAT}

swdʒ, ‘make healthy, safe’

swdʒ, ‘go’

swdʒ, ‘die’

Knowing how to correctly translate ancient writing systems could be a matter

of life and death … at least on TV.

Knowing how to correctly translate ancient writing systems could be a matter

of life and death … at least on TV.

Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is a script which can be characterized by the following:

•It is pictorial in that signs are images of actual objects. The sign may not necessarily refer to that object, however.•It combines phonetic signs (phonograms) and logograms with ideograms (determinatives)

“It is a complex system, writing figurative, symbolic, and phonetic all at once, in the same text, the same phrase, I would almost say in the same word.”

Jean-Francois Champollion

Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is a script which can be characterized by the following:

•The script records only the consonantal structure of the language•Phonograms can be either uniliteral (a sign representing a single consonant), biliteral (a sign representing 2 consonants), triliterals (a sign representing 3 consonants) or full logograms

3 t mn dj htp mjw

Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is a script which can be characterized by the following:

•Complementation of signs is common, both in the form of semantic complements (determinatives) as well as phonetic complements.

pr pr pr nfrw nfrw nfrt

nfr nfrw

Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is a script which can be characterized by the following:

•Honorific transposition of signs is common, reading signs and words outside of the order in which they are spelled.

Menkheperre

nṯrnfr

nb tʒwy

The good god.Lord of theTwo Lands.

r’r’

mnmn

ḫprḫpr

Thutmose III Hatshepsut Thutmose IIAkhenaten

Tutankhamen

??

Tutankhamen's Cartouches

Tutankhamen's Cartouches

nb

r‘ ḫpr

plural(-w)

Tutankhamen's Cartouches

nb

r‘

plural(-w)

mn

n t-w-t

‘nḫ

ḥḳʒ-ỉwnw-šm‘

ḫpr ỉ

mn

nt

‘nḫ

ḥḳʒ

ỉ

wt

ỉwnwỉwnwšm‘

"great queen"

"great queen"

"may she havelife and youth"

Coptic

Evidence for the Nature of Ancient Egyptian Vowels

(1) Comparison of Egyptian with other Afroasiatic languages (e.g., Chadic, Ethiopian, Arabic, Hebrew), e.g., Egyptian qʒ b and Semitic *qrb ‘interior’.

(2) Citations of Egyptian words in other ancient writing systems (e.g., Hittite):

- Tutankhamen's prænomen is transliterated Nib-khurur-riya(sh)in the Hittite document “Deeds of Suppiluliuma” (Güterbock 1956),suggesting that nb = nib, ḫpr = khupur and r‘ = riya(sh).

- The same document refers to Ankhesenamen as Daham-unzu ‘theking's wife’ indicating a dental pronunciation of the possessive t- aswell as unpronounced feminine suffixes (-t). Taken together, thissuggests the pronunciation ṱa-ham ‘his-wife’ and unsuw ‘king’.

(3) Reflexes in Coptic, which used a Greek-derived script that recorded vowels.

Based on these lines of evidence, Smith (2001: 55) proposes that the name of the Egyptian sun god underwent the following changes in pronunciation over time:

rí:‘uw (Old Kingdom) > rí:‘a (ca. 1400 BC) > re: (Coptic).

- Outline based on Loprieno (1995:29-30) and Reany (2001:54-59)

nb-ḫpr-w-r‘

ḥm-t-nsw-t

m-mʒ‘-‘ ḫrw

m-mʒ‘-‘ ḫ-r-ḫrw-w {OF THE MOUTH}

mʒ‘-‘ ḫrw

mʒ‘ ḫrw

•Meir

The Tomb of Senbi at Meir

A governor during the reign of Amenemhat I (1991-1962 BC), Senbi's rock-cut tomb was carved and lavishly painted with ‘Elysian’ scenes of the afterlife.

Tomb of Senbi at Meir

Tomb of Senbi at Meir

Tomb of Senbi at Meir

= scribe

write + {male, occupation}

Tomb of Senbi at Meir

Tomb of Senbi at Meir

Tomb of Senbi at Meir

Tomb of Senbi at Meir

stt rmw ỉn senbỉ mʒ‘ ḫrw‘Spearing fish (pl.) by Senbi, the justified"

‘m‘ʒ r ʒpdw ỉn senbỉ mʒ‘ ḫrw‘Throwing at birds by Senbi, the justified"

Tomb of Senbi at Meir