With the alphabet (The Alphabet V: t ṯ d ḏ) you can spell anything, but scribes rarely did. Most words use signs that write two consonants at once, the biliterals. There are about a hundred of them in common use; a dozen cover most texts.
Key idea
A biliteral sign writes two consonants, in a fixed order: the house 𓉐 writes pr, the game board 𓏠 mn, the swallow 𓅨 wr, the basket 𓎟 nb. It writes those sounds in any word that contains them.
| Sign | Code | What it shows | Reads | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 𓉐 | O1 | plan of a house | pr | pr “house”, prj “go out” |
| 𓏠 | Y5 | game board with pieces | mn | mn “remain”, jmn “Amun” |
| 𓅨 | G36 | swallow | wr | wr “great” |
| 𓎟 | V30 | basket | nb | nb “lord; every”, nbt “lady” |
| 𓁷 | D2 | face | ḥr | ḥr “face; on” |
| 𓏌 | W24 | pot | nw | in jwnw “Heliopolis” |
| 𓇾 | N16 | flat land with sand | tꜣ | tꜣ “land” |
| 𓏙 | X8 | conical loaf | dj | dj “give” |
| 𓉻 | O29 | wooden column | ꜥꜣ | ꜥꜣ “great”, pr-ꜥꜣ |
| 𓇓 | M23 | sedge plant | sw | nsw “king” |
Notice that mn is written with the game board and then the water sign 𓈖. The water only repeats the n, as a reading aid. Such helpers are called phonetic complements, and you will study them soon. For now: a biliteral is often followed by one-consonant signs that repeat its last (or both) sounds.
Why it works
Why are there two-consonant signs at all? They began as word signs. The house was the word pr “house”; scribes then used the same picture for the sound pr in other words, such as prj “go out”, much as a picture of a bee and a leaf can write English “belief”. That rebus principle is how most sound signs came to be.
Common mistake
Reading a biliteral as one sound, so that the basket 𓎟 is just “n” or just “b”. It always stands for two consonants, n and b in that order. Check: count the letters in your transliteration; each biliteral should contribute two.
Worked example: Two sounds
What does the swallow 𓅨 write?
- G36, the swallow.
- It is a biliteral: w and r.
Answer: wr
Worked example: Read a word
Read 𓎟𓏏 (the basket over the bread loaf).
- The basket writes nb.
- The loaf adds t, here the feminine ending.
Answer: nbt “lady”