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By Andrea Martinez
Hieroglyphics
History
of Hieroglyphics
Sources
Index
Hieroglyphics-
The egyptian written language, began in the Pre-historic era as picture-
writing, similar to the ones found in the stone age caves. Later, a difficulty
arose- The egyptians realized that some things can not be described
as pictures. Hence, the idea to 'spell' the word. For example, combining
'bee and leaf to make belief in english'. This is only a guess by Language
experts at the beginnings of hieroglyphics, because the hieroglyphics that
were discovered in 3100 B.C. already had a developed language.
Hieroglyphics
are made up of three types of symbols: Alphabetic signs, Syllabic symbols,
and determinative signs.
.
Alphabetic signs are signs that to a letter or sound produced by
that sign.
Syllabic
symbols are symbols that stand for sounds made by a group of letters;
a syllable.
Determinative
are defined as signs that relate to a specific object or idea, like
man, woman, and water. Hieroglyphics can be read in many ways, unlike english
which is left to right. Hieroglyphics can be read from left to right, right
to left, or top to bottom. The direction depends on the direction that
the symbols face.
The
writing of Ancient Egypt consists of over 2,000 hieroglyphic characters.
Each seperate hieroglyph represents a common object. Hieroglyphs represent
two different things, like the sound of an object, or an idea that is associated
with the object. In Hieroglyphics there are no spaces between the words.
Click
here to have your name translated into hieroglyphics!!
History
of Heiroglyphics
Click on the picture below to see a photo gallery!
For more information, here are some good sites:
http://www.jimloy.com/hiero/alpha.htm
http://www.seaworld.org/Egypt/hiero.html