--- Taner Girgin <taner.girgin@...> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I've recently joined your group. I am a 29 years old
> Turkish engineer. To be honest with you, though I
> did try calligraphy, my aim is to have some
> practical help with Egyptian hierogliphics to write
> a birthday message. I saved a web page that shows
> latin alphabet versus hierogliphics sketches. But
> according to the page, looks like some latin
> characters have the same hieroglphics counter-parts.
> Is that the case? Besides, there are figures
> representing more than one characters, or let's say:
> sounds.
>
> Is there someone out there who can help me? Any
> online reference would also be great.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Taner.
>

Hello, Taner!
I read your message about old Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The transcription usually employed was developed by
Egyptologists, & uses such symbols as <i-smooth
breath>, <double smooth breath>, <h-underdot>, <h, s,
t [with underbar]>, & <h-underbreve>. Here's a brief
run through some of the symbols:
�DOUBLE SMOOTH BREATH (SEMICOLON FORMATION): The
'alef (voiceless) glottal catch�I'd go with a
right-half ring. The hieroglyph symbol also renders
the *a* vowel /ah/.
�<I> TOPPED WITH SMOOTH BREATH: This symbol is used
by Egyptologists to render the quill-pen symbol for
the consonant *y*, which may appear single *or*
doubled; they use *i[smooth breath atop]* for the
single quill, *y* for the double quill (I think)�I'd
just go with *y*. It's also used for the *i* vowel
/ee/ or /ih/.
�<'> APOSTROPHE: Here renders the `ayin (voiced)
glottal catch (my choice is a left-half ring), also
the 2ndary vowel _shwa_ (usually appearing as <e>, but
my choice is for the actual [shwa] letter [turned-e]).
�<H> WITH UNDERDOT: The transliteration for the
pharyngeal *h* sound common among Middle Eastern
languages.
�<H> WITH UNDERBREVE: The usual romanization for the
velar *kh* fricative which got laryngealized in
Arabic. I usually render it by *kh*, or sometimes by
a phonic (Greek) [khi].
�<H> WITH UNDERBAR: The usual rendition for the
palatal fricative whose sound is nearly like the
preceeding. Sounds like a similar Armenian
palatalized <h> sound (which thence alternates with
/y/); it's sometimes seen as *ch*, *hh*, or even *�*.
I prefer to rewrite it using my rendition for a
palatal <h>�*h[acute]*, where the acute atop the <h>
indicates palatalization.
�THE <S>-LIKE SIGNS: Egyptologists usually use *s*
for the 1st, but *s[acute]* for the 2nd; however,
since the 2nd sign originally stood for an actual /z/
sound, I'd render that with *z*.
�<T> WITH UNDERBAR & <D> WITH UNDERBAR: The
underbarred letters <t, d> in Middle Eastern phonology
usually stand for the interdental fricatives that may
be symbolized (especially in Icelandic) with *�*, *�*;
however, they (in Egyptian) stand for the alveopalatal
affricates that Egyptologists occasionally write using
the Dutch-derived digraphs *tj*, *dj*. I replace
those with *ch* & *j*, respectively.
Also, the lion sign (r-w) may at times be used for the
lateral *l*, while the lasso sign (l-') would
sometimes stand for the *o* vowel /oh/ or /oa�/, & the
ankh ('-n-kh) rarely stands in for *e* /eh/ or /ey/.
You may also find a rotated leg (*f*) sign may
(rarely) fill in for its voiced counterpart *v*.
Additional hieroglyph signs are used for related
languages such as Mero�tic.
Thank You!

Robert Lloyd Wheelock



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