CHAP. V.

HIEROGLYPHIC ALPHABET.

311

pressed; and in Coptic they are so changeable as to give us little help. Sometimes, too, the consonant beginning a word was doubled, as Ssa, for Sa, or Saïs. (Perhaps also in Ssiris for Osiris.)

In hieroglyphics of the earliest periods there were fewer phonetic characters than in after ages, being nearer to the original picture-writing. The number of signs lso varied at different times; but they may be reckoned at from 900 to 1000. The period when hieroglyphics, the oldest Egyptian characters, 17. were first used, is uncertain. They are found in the Great Pyramid of the time of the 4th dynasty, and had evidently been invented long before, having already assumed a cursive style. This shows them to be far older than any other known writing; and the written documents of the ancient languages of Asia, the Sanscrit and the Zend, are of a recent time compared with those of Egypt, even if the date of the Rig Veda in the 15th century B.C. be proved. Manetho shows that the invention of writing was known in the reign of Athôthis (the son and successor of Menes), the second king of Egypt, when he ascribes to him the writing of the anatomical books; and tradition assigned to it a still earlier origin. At all events hieroglyphics, and the use of the papyrus, with the usual reed pen, are shown to have been common when the pyramids were built; and their style in the sculptures proves that they were then a very old invention.

Various new characters were added at subsequent periods, and a still greater number were introduced under the Ptolemies and Cæsars, which are not found on the early monuments; some, again, of the older times fell into disuse.

All hieroglyphics, including the linear kind, or ruuning hand 18. above mentioned, were written from right to left, from left to right, or in vertical columns (like Chinese), according to the space it was to fill; and the mode of reading it was towards the faces

of the animals, or figures. Thus

mighty," and

"Phrah, the

"his son who loves him," read from

left to right; but if they faced the other way they would read from right to left, as in the previous woodcut of section 6. This is a general rule, to which there are very few exceptions.

The mode of forming the characters or phonetic signs was by 19. taking the first letter of the name of those objects selected to be the representatives of each sound, thus: the name of an eagle, Akhóm, began with the sound A, and that bird was taken as the

20.

312

RESTRICTION OF SYNONYMOUS SIGNS. APP. BOOK II.

sign for that letter; an owl was chosen to represent an M, because it was the initial of Moulag, the name of that bird; and others in like manner; which may possibly explain the expression of Clemens, тà пpāτa σTXT, "the first letters," in opposition to symbolic signs. This use of the first letters of words necessarily led to the adoption of many signs for the same character, and the hieroglyphic alphabet was consequently very large. It is not, however, to be supposed that all the signs for one letter were employed indiscriminately: the Egyptians confined themselves to particular hieroglyphics in writing certain words; thus Amun was written would stand equally well for the mere letters

www

though

A, M, N. Again, ônkh, “life,” and many others, are always written

with the same characters, so that the initial
for the entire word; and if or

f

alone stands

are both used for mai,

or meri, "loved," and other letters have their synonyms, these variations are very limited, and are adopted with great discretion, though greater latitude is allowed in the names of foreign people. Each sign has even been thought to have its own inherent vowel. Besides the restricted use of synonymous signs, another very important index was adopted for separating words, and for pointing out their sense. This was the determinative sign already mentioned, which was a figure of the object itself following the phonetic word. A particular determinative of kind was also given to objects belonging to a collective genus, as the skin and tail of an animal, "bas," following a word, denoted some

"beast," thus

ana, signified an "ape." But the

skin, "bas," also stood for the word "skin," and it was therefore a specific as well as a generic determinative; and it was also a determinative of the God "Besa." They also occasionally accompanied a word by another determinative sign having the same sound; as the goose after the name of Apis; or the stone, “st," that followed the name of the god Set or Seth; &c.

A group accompanied by a sign signifying "land", pointed out some district or town of Egypt; as another indicative of a Country stood for "foreign land;" and a line or tooth,

e determinative of a "region." Several expletives were or various purposes; some as tacit signs being placed

CHAP. V.

PLURALS ABSTRACT IDEAS.

313

after substantives, adjectives, and verbs, as the papyrus roll, and others denoting verbs of action, &c.

In the formation of this written language the Egyptians began 21. with what is the oldest form of writing, representational signs. The alphabetic system was a later invention, which grew out of picturewriting; for, as drawing is older than writing, so picture-writing is older than alphabetic characters, and, as Bacon justly observes, "hieroglyphics preceded letters." But the Egyptians in their representational signs, did not confine themselves to the simple delineation of the object, merely in order to signify itself; this would not have given them a written language; they went farther, and represented ideas also, for two legs not only signified what they represented, but implied the notion of "walking," or "motion ;" and the former meaning might be pointed out by a particular mark, which showed that the object was to be taken in a positive sense: thus signified "walking,” but

was read "legs,'

which, in older times, was made by two separate legs; and a bull signified "strong," but when followed by a half-circle and a line, it read simply "a bull."

The plural number was marked by the same object thrice re- 22.

peated, as “God," "Gods," or by three lines following

it,

1

5

; but the Egyptians had no dual. (Of their mode of writing numbers, see n.' on ch. 36, B. ii.) A circle or sieve, with two short lines within or below it, signified "twice,”. The female sign was

a small half-circle after the word (whether singular or plural): thus an egg or a goose, signifying a "son," when followed by a half-circle, read “daughter.”

By certain combinations they portrayed an abstract idea, and 23. a verb of action was indicated by the phonetic characters that formed it being followed by an object representing the action: as

"rimi," with an eye and tears flowing from it,

signified "(to) weep," as well as "weeping" or "lamentation;" the word mounkh, followed by a mallet www, implied "(to) work” or "build," or any "work;" ouôn, followed by the valve of a door,

24.

314

ORIGIN OF ALPHABETIC WRITING. APP. BOOK II.

was "(to) open,", though this hare and zigzag line without

the valve would be a tense of the verb "to be."

Sometimes the phonetic word was omitted, and the determinative sign alone portrayed the idea, as a pair of eyes signified "to see" (without the word meio); a cerastes snake going into a hole signified "to enter," as its reversed position meant "to come out ;" and many others of a similar kind. It sometimes happened (as in other languages) that the same name applied to two different objects, and then the same hieroglyphic stood for both, as neb for "lord," and niben, "all;" iri signified an "eye" and "to make;" and, as Dr. Young says, however much Warburton's indignation might be excited by this child's system, it is, after all, only one of the simple processes through which a written language may very naturally be supposed to advance towards a more perfect development. Emblems were also extensively employed: as the asp signified a Goddess; the crowns of upper and lower Egypt the dominion of those two districts; and several of the Gods were known by the peculiar emblems chosen to represent them, the ibis or the cynocephalus being put for the God Thoth; a square-eared fabulous animal for Seth or Typhon; the hawk for Re and Horus; the jackal for Anubis ; and others.

But however ingeniously numerous signs were introduced to complete the sense, their mode of expressing abstract ideas was very imperfect; and another step was required beyond the use of homophonous words, emblems, and positive representations of objects. This was the invention of the phonetic system already noticed (p. 311), which was evidently allied to the adoption of words of the same sound, the initial being taken instead of the whole word. Thus, when the names of objects began with a similar sound, either of

them stood for the same letter: as

and

for M; a hoe

and a tank of water for M; siou, "a star;" a goose, sen, for s, &c. Here, as already shown, is the germ of alphabetic writing; and that a similar picture-writing was the origin of the Phoenician and the Hebrew, is proved by the latter having retained the names of the objects after their form could no longer be traced; aleph, beth, and gimel, signifying the "bull" ("chief,” or “head”), the "house," and the "camel." The names of these are also traced in the alpha, beta, gamma of the Greeks, who borrowed their letters from the Phoenicians.

CHAP. V.

HIEROGLYPHIC GRAMMAR.

315

It is not possible in so short a space to give even a summary of 25. the grammar of hieroglyphics; for this I must refer to Champollion's Grammaire Egyptienne; and I shall merely observe that, 1st, in combining the pronouns with a verb, a sitting figure of a man (or of a woman, or of a king) for "I" (or a small vertical line, or a reed-head, before the verb), a basket with a ring for "thou," a cerastes for "he," the bolt, or broken line, ("s") for "she," and

others, followed the verb, in this manner :

"I say;"

say;" and these same signs are also put for the various cases of the personal and possessive pronouns, wherever they are required.

2nd. The perfect tense is marked by n after the verb, and

before the pronouns thus

:

"he makes" becomes

"he made," or "he has made;" and the mode of expressing

the passive is by adding tou: thus

ጠቢ

* Mas is "

mes, "born," becomes

mestou-f, or mesout-f, "he was born" (natus est).
We also find mesntou-f (natus erat, or fuerat).

son "in Berber; and perhaps in Numidian, as in Masinissa.