Page:EB1911 - Volume 09.djvu/75

Rh reigned in different countries forming a compact and not very large area—perhaps from South Arabia to Asia Minor, and from Persia to Crete and Egypt. Whether they all sprang from one common stock of picture-writing we shall perhaps never know, nor can we as yet trace the influence which one great system may have had on another, owing to the poverty of documents from most of the countries concerned.

It is certain that in Egypt from the IVth Dynasty onwards the mode of writing was essentially the same as that which was extinguished by the fall of paganism in the 4th century Its elements in the hieroglyphic form are pictorial, but each hieroglyph had one or more well-defined functions, fixed by convention in such a manner that the Egyptian language was expressed in writing word by word. Although a picture sign may at times have embarrassed the skilled native reader by offering a choice of fixed values or functions, it was never intended to convey merely an idea, so as to leave to him the task of putting the idea into his own words. How far this holds good for the period before the IVth Dynasty it is difficult to say. The known inscriptions of the earlier times are so brief and so limited in range that the system on which they were written cannot yet be fully investigated. As far back as the Ist Dynasty, phonograms (see below) were in full use. But the spelling then was very concise: it is possible that some of the slighter words, such as prepositions, were omitted in the writing, and were intended to be supplied from the context. As a whole, we gain the impression that a really distinct and more primitive stage of hieroglyphic writing by a substantially vaguer notation of words lay not far behind the time of the Ist Dynasty.

The employment of the signs are of three kinds: any given sign represents either (1) a whole word or root; or (2) a sound as part of a word; or (3) pictorially defines the meaning of a word the sound of which has already been given by a sign or group of signs preceding. The number of phonograms is very restricted, but some signs have all these powers. For instance, is the conventional picture of a draughtboard (shown in plan) with the draughtsmen (shown in elevation) on its edge:—this sign (1) signifies the root mn, “set,” “firm”; or (2) in the group represents the same sound as part of the root mnḫ, “good”; or (3) added to the group shows that the meaning intended is “draught-board,” or “draughts,” and not any of the other meanings of snt. Thus signs, according to their employment, are said to be (1) “word-signs,” (2) “phonograms,” or (3) “determinatives.”

Word-signs.—The word-sign value of a sign is, in the first place, the name of the object it represents, or of some material, or quality, or action, or idea suggested by it. Thus Much investigation is still required to establish the origins of the values of the signs; in some cases the connexion between the pictures and the primary values seems to be curiously remote. Probably all the signs in the hieroglyphic signary can be employed in their primary sense. The secondary value expresses the consonantal root of the name or other primary value, and any, or almost any, derivative from that root: as when is not only ḥtp, an “offering-mat,” but also ḥtp in the sense of “conciliation,” “peace,” “rest,” “setting” (of the sun), with many derivatives. In the third place, some signs may be transferred to express another root having the same consonants as the first: thus by a play upon words can express not only śḏm, “hear,” but also śdm, “paint the eyes.”

Phonograms.—Only a limited number of signs are found with this use, but they are of the greatest importance. By searching throughout the whole mass of normal inscriptions, earlier than the periods of Greek and Roman rule when great liberties were taken with the writing, probably no more than one hundred different phonograms can be found. The number of those commonly employed in good writing is between seventy and eighty. The most important phonograms are the uniliteral or alphabetic signs, twenty-four in number in the Old Kingdom and without any homophones: later these were increased by homophones to thirty. Of biliteral phonograms—each expressing a combination of two consonants—there were about fifty commonly used: some fifteen or twenty were rarely used. As Egyptian roots seldom exceeded three letters, there was no need for triliteral phonograms to spell them. There is, however, one triliteral phonogram, used for the plural ending of adjectives in y formed from words ending in t (whether radical or the feminine ending).

The phonetic values of the signs are derived from their word-sign values and consist usually of the bare root, though there are rare examples of the retention of a flexional ending; they often ignore also the weaker consonants of the root, and on the same principle reduce a repeated consonant to a single one, as when has the phonetic value ḥn. The history of some of the alphabetic signs is still very obscure, but a sufficient number of them have been explained to make it nearly certain that the values of all were obtained on the same principles. Some of the ancient words from which the phonetic values were derived probably fell very early into disuse, and may never be discoverable in the texts that have come down to us. The following are among those most easily explained:—

(It seems as if the two values y and were obtained by choosing first one and then the other of the two semi-consonants composing the name. They are much confused, and a conventional symbol ỉ has to be adopted

For some alphabetic signs more than one likely origin might be found, while for others, again, no clear evidence of origin is yet forthcoming.

It has already been explained that the writing expresses only consonants. In the Graeco-Roman period various imperfect attempts were made to render the vowels in foreign names and words by the semi-vowels as also by having been reduced in speech by that time to the power of, only. Thus, is spelt Ptwrmys, Antoninus, ’Nt’nynws or Intnyns, &c. &c. Much earlier, throughout the New Kingdom, a special “syllabic” orthography, in which the alphabetic signs for the consonants are generally replaced by groups or single signs having the value of a consonant followed by a semi-vowel, was used for foreign names and words, e.g.

{|align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
 * align="right"|||, “chariot,” was written
 * colspan="3" align="right"|in Coptic ⲃⲉⲣⲉϭⲱⲟⲩⲧ.
 * align="right"|||, “tower,” was written
 * colspan="3" align="right"|in Coptic ⲃⲉⲣⲉϭⲱⲟⲩⲧ.
 * align="right"|||, “tower,” was written
 * align="right"|||, “tower,” was written
 * align="right"|||, “tower,” was written


 * colspan="3" align="right"|
 * align="right"|||, “harp,” was written
 * align="right"|||, “Hamath,” was written
 * align="right"|||, “harp,” was written
 * align="right"|||, “Hamath,” was written
 * align="right"|||, “Hamath,” was written
 * align="right"|||, “Hamath,” was written


 * }

According to W. Max Müller (Asien und Europa, 1893, chap, v.), this represents an endeavour to express the vocalization; but, if so, it was carried out with very little system. In practice, the semi-vowels are generally negligible. This method of writing can be traced back into the Middle Kingdom, if not beyond, and it greatly affected the spelling of native words in New Egyptian and demotic.

Determinatives.—Most signs can on occasion be used as determinatives, but those that are very commonly employed as phonograms or as secondary word-signs are seldom employed as determinatives; and when they are so used they are often somewhat differentiated. Certain generic determinatives are very common, e.g.:—