Form, Layout, and Specific Potentialities of the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Script

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-30
Author(s):  
Pascal Vernus
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing

Egyptian hieroglyphic script is figurative; its signs are images depicting the realia of the pharaonic universe in the same manner as do the figurative arts. To become script signs these images undergo three constraints: calibration, dense and harmonious arrangement, and orientation (i.e. direction of reading). Its figurativity, its flexible manner of engaging with the writing surfaces, and its complex system of encoding the linguistic data provide the hieroglyphic script with important specific potentialities that were carefully exploited in its symbiotic adaptation to objects and monuments and in its enriching the linguistic messages it conveyed with ideological connotations. Egyptian hieroglyphs—but not the very hieroglyphic writing system!—were borrowed in the Meroitic hieroglyphic script and chiefly in the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet. Via this alphabet and its Semitic successors, some hieroglyphs are ultimately the ancestors of European characters.

Origins of Writing in Northeastern Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Coleman Darnell
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Western Desert ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Mixed System ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Early Date ◽  
Upper Egypt ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing

The Egyptian hieroglyphic script is one of the longest attested continuous uses of a writing system in world history. Between the late fourth century CE and the early nineteenth century, knowledge of the hieroglyphic script was lost, and the complexities of its mixed system of phonetic and ideographic signs delayed decipherment until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the work of Jean-François Champollion and other pioneers. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing originated between 3300 and 3100 bce, on the basis of evidence attested in funerary and petroglyphic contexts; the early date of phonetic hieroglyphic writing in Upper Egypt confirms the independent development of the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian writing systems. Rather than emerging abruptly and fully formed during the reign of a Dynasty 0 ruler c. 3250 bce, hieroglyphs appear to have a millennium-long “proto-history.” Decorated ceramics, small inscribed objects, and a large corpus of Upper Egyptian and Nubian rock art indicate that visual communication prior to true writing in Upper Egypt could express key early political and religious concepts, developing a form of “iconographic syntax.” Careful examination of predynastic iconography thus provides the conceptual missing link in the origins of writing in Northeastern Africa. The marginal environments of ancient Egypt—the Western Desert and Sinai Peninsula—also preserve evidence for the development of the world’s first alphabetic script, a writing system that emerged c. 1800 bce from contact between ancient Egyptian scribes and Semitic speakers who participated in Egyptian expeditions, with signs deriving from Egyptian scripts. During the 2nd century bce, the Meroitic script, with signs also originating in both cursive and hieroglyphic Egyptian scripts, developed in the ancient Nubian kingdom of Meroe and remained in use for as many as 700 years.

On the Status and Purposes of Ancient Egyptian Art

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Baines
Keyword(s):  
Professional Group ◽  
Artistic Style ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing ◽  
The Status ◽  
Range Of Functions ◽  
Cultural Involvement

No term in the ancient Egyptian language corresponds neatly with Western usages of ‘art’, and Egyptologists have often argued that there is no such thing as ‘Egyptian art’. Yet aesthetically organized structures and artefacts constitute the majority of evidence from Egypt, a legacy created mainly for a small élite. The genres of these materials, all of which had functions additional to the purely aesthetic, are similar to those of many other cultures. They constitute a repository of civilizational values, related to the system of hieroglyphic writing, that was maintained and transmitted across periods. Civilization and artistic style are almost identified with each other. Funerary material constitutes one central context for artistic forms; others are temples and such poorly-preserved locations as palaces. The importance attached to artistic activities in Egypt, high-cultural involvement in them, and idiosyncratic developments can be illustrated from many periods. Egyptian art is a typically inward-looking and almost self-sustaining product of a professional group. It is no less ‘art’ for the wide range of functions and purposes it fulfilled.

scholarly journals KOREAN HANGUL AND MONGOLIAN SQUARE SCRIPT

2019 ◽  
pp. 97-106
Author(s):  
Vladimir N. Mushaev ◽  
◽  
Zhanna A. Mukabenova ◽  
Arvan A. Karmanov ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Republic Of Korea ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Korean Hangul

Korean is the official language in the Republic of Korea and the DPRK, where it is called Hangul and Chosongyl respectively. For a long time, Koreans had used a complex system of Khancha before in 1444 King Sejon the Great created the Korean alphabet, but Khanch remains an important element in the life of Koreans to these days. The current research aims to find out what writing system was the predecessor of the new writing system, particularly, whether the Mongolian square script could have become the “progenitor” of Korean writing. The question of the origin of Hangul is interesting and, at the same time, challenging for many researchers. In Russia, L. R. Kontsevich, a Soviet and Russian Orientalist-Korean scholar, studied this issue. In this article we examine the theory of American Korean scholar Gary Ledyard and his assumption about Hangul originating from the Mongolian square script.

Homeless hieroglyphs

Antiquity ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (234) ◽  
pp. 122-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Graham
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing ◽  
History Of

Recently, more than ever, Mesoamericanists have had reason to share in the regret felt by Egyptologists at one aspect of the history of antiquities-looting in Egypt - one clearly tinged with tragic irony. For, as Brian Fagan (1975: 11, 261) and others have pointed out, attempts to remove sculpture from ancient Egyptian sites on a large scale began only in the 1820s, and that was just the period when Champollion was achieving his basic decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. Since the coveted basrelief sculptures usually had to be prised from their settings by using chisels and crowbars, any associated hieroglyphic inscriptions tended to end up in smithereens. Champollion himself, as he travelled through Egypt seeking and transcribing texts, became appalled at the destruction, yet more than half a century would pass before collectors and museums came to recognize the damage they were causing through their purchases.

L’iconicité des hiéroglyphes égyptiens

2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-114
Author(s):  
Simon Thuault
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Psychological Issues ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing ◽  
Shed Light

SummaryAlthough mutilation is a well-known process of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system, its involvement in signs’ figurativity and iconicity has benefited of less attention. Yet, the mutilation practice could have deep consequences for the grammatological nature of hieroglyphs, implying alterations in our analysis of the whole Egyptian scriptural functioning. Thus, this paper aims to shed light, through examples of mutilated signs, on the iconic essence of the affected hieroglyphs: does the alteration of a sign impact its iconicity and, due to this, its raison d’être in a clause or a lexeme? Since there are kinds of mutilation, do they result in various implications in our linguistic analysis of the sign? Moreover, what metonymical relations can we observe in this process? These linguistic and psychological issues will allow to complete our understanding of the mutilation practice and, consequently, of the essence of hieroglyphic signs.

The Rosetta Stone, Copying an Ancient Copy

2020 ◽  
pp. 214-228
Author(s):  
Ilona Regulski
Keyword(s):  
Direct Access ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Rosetta Stone

There had been no proper understanding of the ancient Egyptian language and script until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and its eventual decryption in 1822. The Rosetta Stone not only provided the means to decipher ancient Egyptian but also elicited an unprecedented appreciation for accurately copied inscriptions. Work on the Rosetta Stone was groundbreaking with regard to both the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian writing system and the subsequent recognition that direct access to objects was the basis for solid research. This chapter focuses both on the Stone as an ancient copy itself and on the early copying of the Stone.

Choice of voice in Maya hieroglyphic writing

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-257
Author(s):  
Kosuke Matsukawa
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Active Voice ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing

Maya hieroglyph writing was the prestigious writing system of the Maya civilization and was carved on stone or wooden monuments mainly during the Classic Period (ca. AD 250–900). Three types of voice (active voice, passive voice, and mediopassive voice) have been identified in Maya hieroglyphs. These three types of voice are not used randomly, and usually one of the three voice types is preferred for each verb. The choice of voice in Maya hieroglyphs seems to be constrained by the contextual nature of texts as historical records and the nature of the respective agent and patient. In this paper, I analyze what kinds of factors constrain the choice of voice in Maya hieroglyphic writing.

Coptic texts

2020 ◽  
pp. 1095-1110
Author(s):  
Terry Wilfong
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Egyptian Religion

The term Coptic describes both a written and a spoken stage of the Egyptian language. This was the final written stage of the ancient Egyptian language, when the traditional Egyptian writing system, based on predominantly phonographic and logographic signs, was replaced by an alphabetic script. The article delineates the emergence of Coptic in the Roman period, and its subsequent development over several centuries and through various religious contexts, beginning with indigenous Egyptian religion and ending with Christianity and other religions contemporary with it. It also discusses the increasing use of Coptic texts for the study of such general topics as law and social and economic history.

Egyptian

2020 ◽  
pp. 274-280
Author(s):  
Balázs J. Irsay-Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Nile Delta ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Distinct Group ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing ◽  
Coptic Church ◽  
Modern Egypt

Ancient Egyptian constitutes one of the main branches of the Afro-Asiatic phylum. It was used as a written and spoken language in the Lower Nile Valley and the Nile Delta by the ancient Egyptians. Though its latest form, Coptic, was gradually replaced by Arabic as a spoken language from the tenth century ad onward, it remains the liturgical language of the Coptic Church in modern Egypt. With hieroglyphic and hieratic writing appearing in the late fourth millennium bc, it is the language with the longest documented history, more than four millennia, during which profound diachronic changes occurred. The decipherment of the hieroglyphic writing in 1822 led to the establishment of a new academic discipline—Egyptology—but also to the realization that Ancient Egyptian forms a distinct group together with other African languages, such as Berber and Cushitic, as well as Semitic.

The Classical art of memory as immaterial writing

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-520
Author(s):  
Renata Landgráfová
Keyword(s):  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Ancient Egyptian

The Classical art of memory is analyzed as a form of mental writing. The ancient authors of works on the art of memory often likened their art to a sort of writing, and a careful analysis of the methods of formation of agent images — the signs of the art of memory — shows that it very closely parallels the methods of sign formation in logophonetic writing systems (such as ancient Egyptian or Chinese). Thus the Classical art of memory can be viewed as an immaterial (and personalized) writing system.

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