Editing Egyptian hieroglyphs (section)

====Phonetic complements====
Egyptian writing is often redundant: in fact, it happens very frequently that a word is followed by several characters writing the same sounds, in order to guide the reader. For example, the word ''nfr'', "beautiful, good, perfect", was written with a unique triliteral that was read as ''nfr'':
::<hiero>nfr</hiero>

However, it is considerably more common to add to that triliteral, the uniliterals for ''f'' and ''r''. The word can thus be written as ''nfr+f+r'', but one still reads it as merely ''nfr''. The two alphabetic characters are adding clarity to the spelling of the preceding triliteral hieroglyph.

Redundant characters accompanying biliteral or triliteral signs are called ''[[phonetic complements]]'' (or complementaries). They can be placed in front of the sign (rarely), after the sign (as a general rule), or even framing it (appearing both before and after). Ancient Egyptian scribes consistently avoided leaving large areas of blank space in their writing and might add additional phonetic complements or sometimes even invert the order of signs if this would result in a more aesthetically pleasing appearance (good scribes attended to the artistic, and even religious, aspects of the hieroglyphs, and would not simply view them as a communication tool). Various examples of the use of phonetic complements can be seen below:

<blockquote>
: <hiero>S43-d-w</hiero> – ''md +d +w'' (the complementary ''d'' is placed after the sign) → it reads ''mdw'', meaning "tongue".

: <hiero>x:p-xpr:r-i-A40</hiero> – ''ḫ +p +ḫpr +r +j'' (the four complementaries frame the triliteral sign of the [[Dung beetle#Scarab in ancient Egypt|scarab]] beetle) → it reads ''ḫpr.j'', meaning the name "[[Khepri]]", with the final glyph being the determinative for 'ruler or god'.
</blockquote>

Notably, phonetic complements were also used to allow the reader to differentiate between signs that are [[homophones]], or which do not always have a unique reading. For example, the symbol of "the seat" (or chair):

<blockquote>
: <hiero>Q1</hiero> – This can be read ''st'', ''ws'' or ''ḥtm'', according to the word in which it is found. The presence of phonetic complements—and of the suitable determinative—allows the reader to know which of the three readings to choose:

:*1st Reading: '''st''' – <hiero>Q1-t:pr</hiero> – ''st'', written ''st+t''; the last character is the determinative of "the house" or that which is found there, meaning "seat, throne, place";

:: <hiero>Q1-t:H8</hiero> – ''st'' (written ''st+t''; the "egg" determinative is used for female personal names in some periods), meaning "[[Isis]]";

:*2nd Reading: '''ws''' – <hiero>Q1:ir-A40</hiero> – ''wsjr'' (written ''ws''+''jr'', with, as a phonetic complement, "the eye", which is read ''jr'', following the determinative of "god"), meaning "[[Osiris]]";

:*3rd Reading: '''ḥtm''' – <hiero>H-Q1-m:t-E17</hiero> – ''ḥtm.t'' (written ''ḥ+ḥtm+m+t'', with the determinative of "Anubis" or "the jackal"), meaning a kind of wild animal;

:: <hiero>H-Q1-t-G41</hiero> – ''ḥtm'' (written ''ḥ +ḥtm +t'', with the determinative of the flying bird), meaning "to disappear".
</blockquote>

Finally, it sometimes happens that the pronunciation of words might be changed because of their connection to Ancient Egyptian: in this case, it is not rare for writing to adopt a compromise in notation, the two readings being indicated jointly. For example, the adjective ''bnj'', "sweet", became ''bnr''. In Middle Egyptian, one can write:
::: <hiero>b-n:r-i-M30</hiero> – ''bnrj'' (written ''b+n+r+i'', with determinative)

which is fully read as ''bnr'', the ''j'' not being pronounced but retained in order to keep a written connection with the ancient word (in the same fashion as the [[English language]] words ''through'', ''knife'', or ''victuals'', which are no longer pronounced the way they are written.)