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From: EURMXK@sdcmvs.mvs.sas.com
Subject: Re: Egyptian (Re: Are all alphabets co-derivative?)
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Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 07:21:00 GMT
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In article <31DC4D8B.C63@banmatpc.math.acad.bg>,
Ivan A Derzhanski <iad@banmatpc.math.acad.bg> writes:
 
>D Gary Grady wrote:
>> Some descriptions of Egyptian hieroglyphics I've seen indicate that
>> while overall the writing was pictographic,
>
>It is not pictographic at all.  It is logographic, for the most part.
>(By definition, a pictogram can be interpreted in any language, in an
>essentially unlimited number of ways.  An Egyptian hieroglyphic text
>can only be read in one way, and in no other language.)
>
>> some signs were used "alphabetically" in recording things such as
>> names -- though I'm not sure what that actually means.
>
>It means that many (not just some) characters have a phonetic value,
>and can be used in writing any word (not just a name) which happens
>to contain a certain sequence of sounds.
>
The previous poster probably alludes to a 'custom' in the late
period to write 'foreign' names phonetically.  Names such as
Ptolemy and Cleopatra gave Champollion (and his predecessors) the
key to decipher the hieroglyphs.
 
Regards, 
Manfred Kiefer
 
>> By the way, from what I've read, Egyptian hieroglyphics makes use of
>> some appealingly clever ideas. For example, a drawing of an ear
>> normally means an ear,
>
>Say rather that a hieroglyph derived from a drawing of an ear stands
>for a certain Egyptian word which means `ear'.
>
>> but it can be followed by determinative modifier to create a related
>> meaning. A book (scroll) conveys the idea of abstraction,
>
>And is therefore used as a determinative in the writing of many words
>with abstract meaning.
>
>> so an ear and a scroll together represent hearing.
>
>... an Egyptian word which means `hearing'.
>
>--
>`The method employed I would gladly explain [...]
> If I had but the time and you had but the brain'
>                          (Lewis Carroll, _The Hunting of the Snark_)
>Ivan A Derzhanski  <iad@banmatpc.math.acad.bg, iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
>Dept for Math Lx, Inst for Maths & CompSci, Bulg Acad of Sciences
>Home:  cplx Iztok  bl 91,  1113 Sofia,  Bulgaria
