Hieroglyphs (5 page)

Hieroglyp

hic scri

pt an

d E

gyptian lan

gua

ge

21

phs

ogly

Hier

breathed. This is not a classification the Egyptians used. It is purely an artificial phonetic order for the convenience of modern students of the language and represents the monoconsonants (one sound) of the Egyptians. As Middle Egyptian has about seven hundred signs altogether and this list is of twenty-four signs it is obvious that the other signs used by the Egyptians represent other types of sound and also that they are used to represent ideas. Biconsonantal signs have two sounds, usually one of the above in combination with one of the first four sounds:
mi
,

pA
,

nw
,

xa
. Triconsonantal

signs have three sounds:
xpr
,

anx
,

zbA
.

Sound and meaning signs: ideograms

This group of signs are almost like real picture writing as they represent the thing they depict and have the relevant sound value: 22