The Egyptian Writing Alphabet
The Egyptian writing alphabet, also known as hieroglyphics, originated around 3,200 BC. It was probably born out of Sumerian Script, used in many countries and languages surrounding Egypt in the Ancient world. The Egyptians themselves believed that the Egyptian writing system and hieroglyphics were a gift to them from the God Thoth.
From the Old Kingdom era to the Greco-Roman period, the Egyptian writing alphabet grew from about 800 characters to as many as 5,000! However, when the Romans took control of Egypt, hieroglyphics started to die out as the Egyptian temples were closed and Christianity took over the country.
Coptic, a type of Greek writing, soon replaced the Egyptian writing alphabet. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that historians started studying and deciphering the Egyptian writing alphabet for the first time after discovering the Rosetta stone.
History of the Egyptian Writing Alphabet
The Egyptian writing alphabet is thought to date back to 3,200 BC, with the first full piece of hieroglyphic writing ever discovered being from around 2,700-2,800 BC. Unfortunately, there’s not one specific person or group we can credit for inventing hieroglyphics.
However, the Ancient Egyptian people believed that the God Thoth gave them this writing system to help them grow in intelligence. The word ‘hieroglyphic’ itself even means ‘God’s words’ and, when translated to the original Greek, means ‘sacred carvings.’
Hieroglyphics and the Egyptian writing alphabet weren’t the first written system. Historians have said there was a connection between the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians (modern-day Iraq), who had started their version of this type of writing system before the Egyptian writing alphabet was born. We think that the people of Egypt were inspired and influenced by the Sumerian writing system of the Mesopotamians, which also had similar symbols to the Egyptian alphabet.
The pictorial script of symbols and pictures used to represent letters and words has also been traced back to hunter-gatherer traditions of rock carvings, long before the Egyptians. In the desert, these people would have needed to mark out the locations of nearby food, water, and shelter. So, Egyptians weren’t the first to use pictures in writing, but they successfully grew their alphabet to be a standardized written system.
How Was the Egyptian Writing Alphabet Used?
The Egyptian writing alphabet was seen as a gift by the people of Ancient Egypt, but only for some of the Egyptian people. The Egyptian writing alphabet was only used by the rich. Most of the population in Egypt couldn’t even read or write, so only scribes and wealthy people could write hieroglyphics and make sense of them. The writing was exclusive, which shows how different it was used in Ancient times compared to how we use our alphabet and writing today.
The Egyptians used hieroglyphics mainly for inscriptions in temples and special tombs. Later on, they also used this writing on a paper called Papyrus. They aimed to write messages and communicate information and create something artistic that looked nice. Because their use of hieroglyphics was so breathtaking, many other countries and cultures respected the Egyptians because of their art; this shows that the Egyptian writing alphabet wasn’t just about writing- it also had a show-off factor that could scare off enemy countries and attract good relations with others.
What’s In the Egyptian Writing Alphabet and How Does It Work?
The Egyptian writing alphabet is known to be one of the most complicated writing systems to understand in the world.
Something you might not know about the Egyptian writing alphabet is that it’s split into three categories of glyphs. Take a look at the list below!
- Phonetic Glyphs: This is made up of ‘phonograms.’ The meaning of phonograms depends on exactly how they’re pronounced. They work like the usual alphabet we’re used to as they’re made up of one consonant, although they were normally shown as pictures in Egypt.
- Logographs: This type of hieroglyph uses one image to represent an entire word instead of just a letter. A large part of the Egyptian writing alphabet was made up of logographs, and other countries like China also used them in their writing systems.
- Determinatives came at the end of a word and were used by Egyptians to show more clearly what a certain word was supposed to mean. They’re also pictures and symbols like the rest of the Egyptian alphabet.
As well as these different types of glyphs, there are also various sorts of hieroglyphic signs that were used:
- Word signs are pictures of animals, things, and people representing a word.
- Alphabet signs: Like our alphabet today, these signs show a single sound or letter.
- Syllabic signs: Just like alphabet sounds, syllabic signs also represent sounds. The difference is that they show sounds with more than one syllable or consonant.
Please look at the diagram of the Egyptian writing alphabet below to better understand the different sounds and symbols the Ancient Egyptians used in their writing!
How the Egyptian Writing Alphabet Changed Over Time
Because the Egyptians used hieroglyphics for almost 4,000 years, there were some changes over the centuries!
Hieroglyphics were the original form of the Egyptian writing alphabet, lasting from around 2,700-1,500 BC. There were some small changes throughout this time, but it wasn’t until Hieroglyphic Bookhand came about that things changed properly.
Hieroglyphic Bookhand was a simplified version of the original hieroglyphic symbols. They were still extremely similar shapes to the originals, but with a reduction in detail, it meant that things could be written more quickly.
This trend continued even further in 1,900 BC with the introduction of the Hieratic hieroglyphics. These symbols were simplified more dramatically to become more like modern-day alphabet letters. The Hieratic form didn’t replace the original; it was just the system used specifically for writing things down more quickly on materials like papyrus.
Around 400-100 BC, the Demotic form introduced even more simplifications to the Egyptian writing alphabet; this was the last significant change made before hieroglyphics, and the Ancient Egyptian way of life died out.
Fun Facts About the Egyptian Writing Alphabet
That was a lot of information, and, no doubt, you’re on the Egyptian writing alphabet now! That doesn’t mean we don’t have a few facts to share, though- take a look at these fun facts about the Egyptian writing alphabet.
- There were absolutely no vowels in the Egyptian writing alphabet, just consonants! That means the letters ‘a’, ‘e,’ ‘i’, ‘o’, and ‘u’ didn’t exist in the Egyptian language, so their words would have sounded very different from what we’re used to!
- The word ‘hieroglyph’ comes from the greek words ‘hieros’ (holy/sacred) and ‘glyphe’ (carving), which makes sense when we think about how the Egyptians carved hieroglyphics onto holy tombs of the Pharaohs.
- Hieroglyphics are usually read from left to right, like English, but sometimes they could be read in all directions! It keeps archaeologists on their toes when they’re excavating new tombs.
- Like vowels, there was also no punctuation used in the Egyptian writing system- things must have got pretty confusing!
- Scribes had to attend special schools to learn how to read and write and started this at 12 years old.
- Coptic replaced the Egyptian writing alphabet after hieroglyphics faded out during Rome’s invasion of Egypt.
