Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/834

Rh 796 HIEROGLYPHICS The simple letters used by tlie Egyptians in the earliest times to write these articulations are as follows : a a a i u f b p 1st Type fl % _* M] H_ J I. i.. -^ 1 1 - /L ^J Variants &amp;lt;s k k t 2! r 1st Type A & s=&amp;gt; ^ i Variants j ij T i s &quot; X h h Q 1st Type 1 A 1 I ra Variants ] T ? T ? MU J 1 During- the Pharaonic periods ten homophone letters were added : one is very ancient j some appear under the Ramessides; others under the Sai tic Twenty-sixth D} T nasty. Probably they were introduced in order to render it easier to fill spaces in sculptured inscriptions. It must be observed that all simple letters can in writing 1 radical forms be replaced by syllabic sig ns. These articulations have now to be examined under natural classes : their interchange has to be noticed, their use in the transcription of Latin, Greek, and Semitic words, and the rules according- to which Egyp tian words are transformed into Coptic words in the two chief dialects, the Sahidic and Memphitic. (This branch of the subject is of great importance for comparative philology, as our endeavour should be to ascertain as nearly as we can the fundamental sounds of ancient Egyptian, and then to compare these sounds with those of languages to which it has relation.) SOFT ASPIRATE, AND VAGUE VOWELS. Tlie Egyptian vowels have two distinct uses (1) as aspirates, or initials in the syllable, and (2) as vague vowels, either final or medial. The Copts have marked no difference of aspiration between the initial vowels of syllables in their language, which correspond to ancient words beginning with O, , or - o. I __XN3&amp;gt;. ., When these signs are employed as vowels, or &quot;matrea lectionis, it does not appear that one of them was used by preference for one sound more than another: they reman vague in the full force of the term. This vague &quot;a&quot; is unlike the | of prolongation of the Arabs, which (though otherwise susceptible of being coloured by all the not written. The a must, however, be considered a symbol, vague to the extent of the Hebrew X when not vowelled.) The final vague vowels do not vary much between themselves in the ancient texts ; the orthography of each word was very stable, and, besides, the choice of the- final vowel depended much on the preceding consonant, each sign having a vague vowel which it seems to prefer. (See the Section on &quot;Expletive Vowels and Complements of Simple Letters,&quot; and observe the usage of syllabic signs.) They sometimes interchange, and are even replaced by the vowels u and t, which as finals share their vague character. This system lasted to the latest periods of demotic writing. (Coptic shews the same in stability of a and the kindred vowels.) The three signs of the soft aspirate sometimes interchange: [j and vjs serve equally as initials in Greek and Eoman names, as well as in Egyptian words. The group of two a s, aa, was ordinarily written , a/7, and is found as variant of J initial. On the contrary ^ o seems preferentially used to express long vowels, or such as were emphatically pronounced. In the Semitic transcriptions it correspond.-) habitually to ]}, when that letter is initial. But it was not the same articulation. Under the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties, and particularly in the papyri, a great degree of exactness was sought in the transcription of Semitic words. The scribes^often then expressed the y by the syllabic o~=&amp;gt;, which has the value of act. It seems that the arm alone did not offer them an approximation which they judged sufficient. The Hebrews transcribed .. D by y in many words. The (JU of the Copts answers oftencr to - D than to the other vowels (and this seems a convincing proof that the signs of the u vowel had no stable sound). There are also some cases of permutation between a and the aspirate k, analogous to the variants between fl and X (but ve must be careful not to confound true variants with a root in Egyptian augmented by a preformative h). When the vowel a should form a syllable by itself it is often followed by the sign QA, which indicates the voice, by the represen tation of a man, his hand to his mouth. Transcriptions of proper names thus beginning, as I, Apo^ln*, shew that fJA should is used wiih a marked preference to transcribe the Semitic ordinarily be pronounced a. The final vague vowels could be omitted in writing; numerous variants shew there was no rule in this matter ; but the hieratic. pre serves them more habitually. In writing the medial vowel of a syllable of two (or three) consonants, it was very ordinarily placed after llie consonants and not between them; this is true of a, a, a, u, i. Thus the name of the divinity ^ 1 Jj, x^nsu, is constantly tran scribed by xws i i proper names. There is a striking instance of this orthography in the word /VVVWW (EE), aui for am, transcription of the Hebrew fy &quot;eye&quot; and &quot;fountain. List of cities of Syria taken by Thothmes III. U and i could be initial semi- vowels or vague vowels; initial answers in many Coptic words to the diphthongs OYCJU, OYE, &c., without being followed in writing by a second vowel : here it is an initial semi- vowel. U necessarily carried with it its aspiration; there are some variants with the aspirate 8, h. which recalls v. The A two signs N, (2. , interchange readily, and may be considered to be absolute homophones, but t&amp;gt; was much more frequently used ii. the earliest times. U, considered as a vowel, was vague, and in a larger measure thnn the Hebrew ), for we find it transcribed even by i and by e. It interchanges with i in Egyptian words, and sometimes even with a. In Hebrew we remark frequently the same oscillation between the sounds u and i in the kSri kgtib of the Biblical text. In Coptic this vowel has generally produced OY&amp;gt; Oj CO, but very often also and the other vowels or diphthongs ; the group D, an, answers to G, e, in the Coptic and the Greek transcriptions; it would be thus equivalent to K in the Masoretic system. Of the two signs for i, (I and , the second is evidently short hand for the first. / initial should always be considered to be a semi- vowel with the value ia, iu : in this use we ordinarily find (j (j . which better fills the initial space ;  serves oftener for i vague final. Thus the verb i, &quot;to go,&quot; was written with vague a initial for the aspirate, and (j (I , or  , as final vowels [j ^ , jj [j [j .A , or QD } , the legs determining the idea of movement : it is trans-riled ai; in Coptic I, 1, &quot;to go,&quot; &quot;come.&quot; We also find the variant ^b&amp;gt; J i u &amp;gt; which is regular in consequence of the vagueness of the vowels. (The two forms are traceable in Coptic.) The signs  [j and  interchange as much as their forms permit, which fit very differently into the composition of groups. /, semi-vowel, does not vary with any other letter; it is oidy found in a very small number of Egyptian words, but it is much used in the Semitic transcriptions ; the Coptic derivations are initial 1 and ei. /, the vague vowel, interchanges with u and a, a, an, ai. 1 he eek transcriptions oscillate principally between i, e, ei. The