Hieroglyphs look like pictures, and it is natural to think each one means what it shows. In fact most signs in a text stand for sounds. Before you learn the signs one by one, you need the three jobs a sign can do. (You saw the language’s history in Why Learn Middle Egyptian; now we turn to the script.)
Key idea
A sign can be a phonogram (it writes sounds), a logogram or word sign (it writes a whole word, by its picture), or a determinative (it is not read; it shows what kind of word it ends). Many signs can do more than one job.
- Phonograms write one, two or three consonants: the ripple of water 𓈖 writes n, the game board 𓏠 writes mn, the heart and windpipe 𓄤 writes nfr.
- Logograms write a whole word by showing it: the plan of a house 𓉐 with a stroke is pr “house”; the falcon 𓅃 is ḥr “Horus”.
- Determinatives come at the end of a word and are silent: the seated man 𓀀 marks words for men, the walking legs 𓂻 words of motion, the papyrus roll 𓏛 writing and ideas.
Why it works
Why mix sound signs and picture signs? A script of pure pictures cannot write grammar (endings, pronouns, names), and a script of pure sounds would leave many words looking alike, because Egyptian writing gives no vowels. The mix gives both: sounds for precision, word signs for short common words, and determinatives to tell apart words with the same consonants.
Common mistake
Treating hieroglyphs as picture writing, so that the owl 𓅓 must mean “owl”. In a text it is almost always the sound m. Check: count the signs in a line; most of them are the two dozen one-consonant signs, which write sounds.
Worked example: What job?
In rꜥ “sun, Ra”, spelled 𓂋𓂝𓇳𓏤, what is the sun disk?
- The mouth 𓂋 writes r and the arm 𓂝 writes ꜥ: the sounds are complete.
- The sun disk adds no sound; with the stroke it shows that the word means the sun.
Answer: a determinative (here with a stroke)
Worked example: Sound or word?
The house sign 𓉐 with a stroke 𓏤: sound sign or word sign?
- The stroke marks a sign that means what it shows.
Answer: a word sign: pr “house”