Editing Egyptian hieroglyphs (section)

===Phonetic reading===
[[File:Egypt Hieroglyphe4.jpg|thumb|Hieroglyphs typical of the Greco-Roman period]]
Most non-[[determinative]] hieroglyphic signs are ''phonograms'', whose meaning is determined by pronunciation, independent of visual characteristics. This follows the [[rebus]] principle where, for example, the picture of an eye could stand not only for the English word ''eye'', but also for its phonetic equivalent, the first person pronoun ''I''.

Phonograms formed with one consonant are called ''[[Egyptian uniliteral signs|uniliteral]]'' signs; with two consonants, ''[[Egyptian biliteral signs|biliteral]]'' signs; with three, ''[[Egyptian triliteral signs|triliteral]]'' signs.

Twenty-four uniliteral signs make up the alphabetic elements. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing does not normally indicate vowels, unlike [[cuneiform]], and for that reason has been labelled by some as an ''[[abjad]]'', i.e., an alphabet without vowels.

Thus, hieroglyphic writing representing a [[northern pintail|pintail duck]] is read in Egyptian as {{tlit|egy|sꜣ}}, derived from the main consonants of the Egyptian word for this duck: 's', 'ꜣ' and 't'. (Note that ꜣ or [[File:Latin small letter egyptological Alef.svg|10px|]], two half-rings opening to the left, sometimes replaced by the digit '3', is the Egyptian ''[[Egyptian alef|alef]].'')

It is also possible to use the hieroglyph of the pintail duck without a link to its meaning in order to represent the two [[phoneme]]s ''s'' and ''ꜣ'', independently of any vowels that could accompany these consonants, and in this way write the word: {{tlit|egy|sꜣ}} 'son', or when complemented by other signs detailed below{{Clarify|reason=phrase seems ungrammatical; meant might be: "or when complemented by the context ''of'' other signs detailed further in the text"|date=September 2019}} {{tlit|egy|sꜣ}} 'keep', 'watch'; and {{tlit|egy|sꜣṯ.w}} 'hard ground'. For example:

<hiero>G38</hiero>{{spaced ndash}}the characters {{tlit|egy|sꜣ}};

<hiero>G38-Z1s</hiero>{{spaced ndash}}the same character used only in order to signify, according to the context, 'pintail duck' or, with the appropriate determinative, 'son', two words having the same or similar consonants:

<hiero>z:G38-A-A47-D54</hiero>{{spaced ndash}}the character {{tlit|egy|sꜣ}} as used in the word {{tlit|egy|sꜣw}} 'keep', 'watch'{{Clarify|date=June 2009|reason=please make this a clear English sentence: use "and", break up long sentence, and use correct punctuation, similar to the clearer examples below.}}

As in the [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] script, not all vowels were written in Egyptian hieroglyphs; it is debatable whether vowels were written at all. Possibly, as with Arabic, the semivowels {{IPA|/w/}} and {{IPA|/j/}} (as in English W and Y) could double as the vowels {{IPA|/u/}} and {{IPA|/i/}}. In modern transcriptions, an ''e'' is added between consonants to aid in their pronunciation. For example, {{tlit|egy|nfr}} 'good' is typically written ''nefer''. This does not reflect Egyptian vowels, which are obscure, but is merely a modern convention. Likewise, the ''ꜣ'' and ''ꜥ'' are commonly transliterated as ''a'', as in [[Ra]] (''rꜥ'').

Hieroglyphs are inscribed in rows of pictures arranged in horizontal lines or vertical columns.<ref name=Gardiner>Sir Alan H. Gardiner, ''Egyptian Grammar'', Third Edition Revised, [[Griffith Institute]] (2005), p. 25.</ref> Both hieroglyph lines as well as signs contained in the lines are read with upper content having precedence over content below.<ref name=Gardiner/> The lines or columns, and the individual inscriptions within them, read from left to right in rare instances only and for particular reasons at that; ordinarily however, they read from right to left–the Egyptians' preferred direction of writing (although, for convenience, modern texts are often normalized into left-to-right order).<ref name=Gardiner/> The direction toward which asymmetrical hieroglyphs face indicate their proper reading order. For example, when human and animal hieroglyphs face or look toward the left, they almost always must be read from left to right, and vice versa.

As in many ancient writing systems, words are not separated by blanks or punctuation marks. However, certain hieroglyphs appear particularly common only at the end of words, making it possible to readily distinguish words.

====Uniliteral signs====
[[File:Amada ( 110 miles south of Aswan, left bank ). Temple founded by Tuthmosis III.jpg|thumb|Hieroglyphs at Amada, at temple founded by [[Tuthmosis III]]]]
{{Main|Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian#Uniliteral signs}}
The Egyptian hieroglyphic script contained 24 uniliterals (symbols that stood for single consonants, much like letters in English). It would have been possible to write all Egyptian words in the manner of these signs, but the Egyptians never did so and never simplified their complex writing into a true alphabet.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gardiner |first=Alan H. |year=1973 |title=Egyptian Grammar |publisher=[[Griffith Institute]] |isbn=978-0-900416-35-4}}</ref>

Each uniliteral glyph once had a unique reading, but several of these fell together as [[Old Egyptian]] developed into [[Middle Egyptian]]. For example, the [[List of Egyptian hieroglyphs#S29|folded-cloth glyph]] ({{lang|egy|𓋴}}) seems to have originally been an [[voiceless alveolar fricative|/s/]] and the [[List of Egyptian hieroglyphs#O34|door-bolt glyph]] {{lang|egy|𓊃}}) a [[voiceless dental fricative|/θ/]] sound, but these both came to be pronounced {{IPA|/s/}}, as the {{IPA|/θ/}} sound was lost.{{Clarify|reason=This does not seem to be an example of a change from unique reading to non-unique reading, as suggested in the previous sentence. The ''reading'' of both glyphs is still unique; it's the ''writing'' of the sigle sound /s/ that has changed to non-unique.|date=September 2019}} A few uniliterals first appear in Middle Egyptian texts.

Besides the uniliteral glyphs, there are also the [[Egyptian biliteral signs|biliteral]] and [[Egyptian triliteral signs|triliteral]] signs, to represent a specific sequence of two or three consonants, consonants and vowels, and a few as vowel combinations only, in the language.

====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.)