Analysis:
The definition of Hieroglyphic symbols is “A form of writing which uses little pictures to represent actions or things; most particularly the form used by the ancient Egyptian culture.” (Hieroglyphic Symbols 2004)
Hieroglyphics is recognized as a written Egyptian language. There are three different types of symbols that make up this language. These are briefly described below:
(1) Alphabetic signs.
These signs represent a letter or sound produced by that sign.
(2) Syllabic symbols.
These symbols characterize sounds produced by a group of letters. The groups of letters are called a syllable.
(3) Determinative signs.
These signs are assigned to a specific object
or idea, such as man, woman, horse, tree etc.
The direction, which the symbols are facing, will
determine whether the writing is to be read from
left to right or from right to left or from top
to bottom.
(http://www.seaworld.org/Egypt/hiero.html 2004)
In 1798 Napoleon's armies conquered the Egyptian Nile Delta. In 1799 a French soldier working at a fort on the Rosetta branch of the Nile River, stumbled upon a stone tablet in Egypt. The stone has thus come to be known as The Rosetta Stone and is now in the British Museum. The message and the words on the tablet were written separately in three languages namely Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic, (a simplified form of ancient Egyptian writing) and Greek. Jean Francois Champollion translated the tablet. It was after this event that interest was created in study of ancient Egypt, which discipline is known as Egyptology. (The Finding of Rosetta Stone’ 2004)
The French scholar Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832) is credited for laying the foundation of modern scientific Egyptology. It was he who in 1808 started to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs at the age of 18. A brilliant linguist, it took him 18 years to decipher the hieroglyphs.
He and the Italian archaeologist Ippolito Rosellini led an expedition to Egypt in 1824 for research in the field. When he returned to France Champollion was made a member of the French Academy and became the subject Egyptian antiquities was introduced at the Collège de France and he was the first person to chair this department.
After the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing on the Rosetta Stone, Champollion proceeded to work out the grammar and to compile a dictionary of the ancient Egyptian language. Among his writings are Summary of the Hieroglyphic System of the Ancient Egyptians (1824), the Egyptian Grammar (1836-1841) and Egyptian Dictionary (1842-1843). The last two were published posthumously.
Hieroglyphic writing is one of the oldest scripts in the world and was used for almost 3500 years. Though the script is mainly pictorial (man, animal, birds, trees, water etc.) it is more than just picture writing and is said to be richer than our language. It is also very difficult to learn. (The Finding of Rosetta Stone’ 2004)
The signs in hieroglyphs indicate sounds (called phonograms) or represent complete words (called ideograms). For example, the word "brook" would be spelled in hieroglyphs as "brk". But such a combination of signs could cause confusion as it could also spell "brick", "break", or "brake". To distinguish between these hieroglyphs makes use of signs called "determinatives". Thus to avoid confusion and to indicate "brk" as "brook", the determinative for water would be placed at the end of the word. (The Finding of Rosetta Stone’ 2004) |