Writing systems that do that are referred to as phonograms.Įgyptian also uses phonograms, spelling words as pictures that represent sounds. A system that represents sounds and 'spells out' words is much better suited for a language with all its nuances. Languages are incredibly complex with many intangible concepts. Same concept as the heart in 'I ❤︎ New York.'Īs you can imagine, this system won't get you far. This usage of hieroglyphs is called ideogram. You could use these to represent what it actually depicts, namely a house, mouth, or eye. Like the ground plan of a house 𓉐, a mouth 𓂋, or an eye 𓁹. Each hieroglyph depicts a real, tangible thing. There are about 500 common signs referred to as hieroglyphs. Coptic appeared around 100 AD and was spoken until about 1100 AD by the Christian Egyptian population.Middle Egyptian, from 2100 to 1600 BC as a spoken language but used for the rest of Egyptian history for hieroglyphic inscriptions (this is what most egyptologist focus on).Just like English evolved over time (think Shakespearean English), so did Egyptian.

The Egyptian language had a lifespan of more than four thousand years – the longest continuously attested language in the world! It first appeared in writing around 3000 BC and was actively used until the 11th century AD. What language does it represent?Īncient Egyptians spoke Egyptian – a dead language, just like Latin (modern Egyptians speak Arabic). Instead, for administrative tasks, Egyptians used a cursive form of hieroglyphs or hieratic (more to that below). Is it art or words?Ĭlearly, hieroglyphs were not intended for day-to-day use – that would have been quite impractical.

Some examples are craftily carved and look more like art than writing, and they were. These were created for eternity, either for the gods or for the afterlife. Hieroglyphs is the writing system ancient Egyptians used for inscriptions mostly on walls of temples and tombs, as well as statues, coffins, and sarcophagi. And because writing articles is how I learn (or refresh) best, I decided to create a little summary article and share it with whoever is interested. Allen's Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs for a refresher. Having forgotten so much of it, I picked up my edition of James P. If you think that's a weird career path, I fully agree.Īnyways, recently a colleague found out and asked if I could do a hieroglyphs intro at our next 'show and tell'. So, how does someone who writes about the most cutting-edge technologies (the future), write about Ancient Egypt (the past)? Well, turns out that, many years ago, I studied Egyptology. Since I'm publishing this on LinkedIn, chances are we are connected and you've seen some of my articles on cloud native technologies. You'll gain a broad understanding of their purpose, how they were read, and will hopefully look at them in a different way next time you'll encounter them in a museum or during a trip to Egypt.

If you've ever wondered how hieroglyphs work, what language they represent, and how exactly scholars were able to decipher them, this high-level introduction will hopefully shed some light on these questions.

Ancient egyp glyph meanings