Biliterals
Biliteral signs each stand for two consecutive consonants, in a specific order (Ꜣḫ is not the same glyph as ḫꜢ, for example). There were dozens of biliteral glyphs. Here are just a few to start with:
| 𓉻 or 𓉼 ꜤꜢ Wooden column | 𓅭 zꜢ Pintail duck | 𓅨 wr Swallow |
| 𓍯 wꜢ Lasso | 𓈗 mw Water | 𓉐 pr House |
| 𓅡 bꜢ Saddle-billed stork | 𓍃 tm Sled | 𓁷 ḥr Face |
| 𓌳 mꜢ sickle | 𓁹 jr Eye | 𓅜 Ꜣḫ Crested Ibis |
Note that the glyph for ꜤꜢ is one of the few glyphs, like the “scroll” determinative 𓏛 we met in the last lesson, that can be oriented either horizontally or vertically.
As with everything else, you’ll learn the biliterals with practice, but notice that most of the ones we’ve introduced in this lesson end in -Ꜣ. We will be introducing more as we go for a few lessons.
Phonetic complements
Biliterals are usually followed and/or preceded by uniliterals which match half of the biliteral. These are called phonetic complements, because they assist in reading the biliteral.
Any given biliteral has a typical pattern for its phonetic complements. Many like 𓍯𓄿 wꜢ have their second sound after them. This pattern is perhaps the most common. However, some like 𓏏𓍃 tm have their first sound written before them, and a few like 𓃀𓅡𓄿 bꜢ have their first before them and their second after them. 𓉻𓂝𓄿 ꜤꜢ is a rare case: both its complements are written after it.
So these sets of glyphs should be transliterated: wꜢ, tm, bꜢ, and ꜤꜢ. They are not wꜢꜢ, ttm, bbꜢꜢ, and ꜤꜢꜤꜢ.
If a uniliteral adjacent to a biliteral does not match part of the biliteral, then the uniliteral is a separate sound: 𓅨𓏏 should be read as wrt, since wr doesn’t contain t. But if a uniliteral adjacent to a biliteral does match half of it, it’s usually a phonetic complement, with one pretty consistent exception to this: the biliteral 𓁹 jr followed by the uniliteral 𓂋 r should usually be read as jrr, not just jr. (I guess you could call it “jrregular” …)
Lists of biliterals are often alphabetized by their second consonants, because you may find it easy to look up the biliteral by referring to its phonetic complement, and the second complement is written more often than the first. In fact, you’ll notice that the table above is arranged in just that order, with the second consonant taking precedence.
Ideograms
We’ve learned about determinatives being used after the sounds of a word. But they can also express a word without its sounds. When a glyph is followed by the “single stroke” glyph 𓏤 (Gardiner code Z1), it generally means the object it depicts, as a word all by itself. For example, instead of writing the word for “sun” as 𓂋𓂝𓇳 rꜤ, with the sounds r and Ꜥ followed by the “sun” determinative, it can be written as the sun followed by the stroke: 𓇳𓏤. We would still transliterate this as rꜤ. Another common example is 𓁷𓏤 ḥr “face”.
An unusual case is the word 𓅭𓏤 zꜢ “son”. The word is usually written with the “man” determinative as 𓅭𓀀, but there are so many more references to sons than to ducks in many hieroglyphic texts that it seems the meaning of that glyph was transferred to “son”.
Another apparently exceptional case is the word 𓏞𓀀 zẖꜢw “scribe”. There’s no stroke here, but there is a “person” determinative. If the “scribe’s tools” glyph 𓏞 was a triliteral (we’ll meet triliterals in the next lesson) with the sounds zẖꜢ, it might make sense, but … it isn’t. The tools glyph appears as a determinative in words having to do with writing, but here it seems to be an ideogram which uses the “person” determinative instead of the “stroke” determinative.
When the word is feminine, it usually still has the -t, written before the stroke; for example 𓊖𓏏𓏤 njwt “town, settlement”. The sign 𓊖 depicts a crossroads, and is used as a determinative on many names of towns, cities, and other inhabited places.
Transliteration problems
One minor problem with ideograms is they don’t show how the word was pronounced, so you can’t easily transliterate them if you don’t already know the word. You hadn’t seen njwt before this lesson, so if we hadn’t told you how the word was transliterated, you might have said “Well I guess this means ‘town’ since it’s the determinative for towns, and it’s probably feminine because it has a -t, but that’s all I know.”
Fortunately, our final goal is not usually transliteration but translation, and you know the meanings of the ideograms from what they depict. Just be aware that this is a limitation.
Noun roots
A noun is secretly derived from a root form. In most masculine nouns, it’s the same as the noun; for example: 𓅱𓇋𓄿𓊞 wjꜢ “divine boat”. Some masculine nouns, though, actually are formed by having -j or -w added to a root. One example is 𓐍𓏏𓆑𓀏 ḫft.j “opponent, enemy”, which has the root ḫft– with the ending -j. Another is 𓇋𓏏𓂋𓅱𓈗 jtr.w “river”, which comes from a root jtr– plus -w.
Why is there a dot in the transliterations ḫft.j and jtr.w? Some Egyptologists write such a dot between the root and ending of a noun. This can be helpful, because not every -j or -w at the end of a masculine noun is one of these added endings. Sometimes the root itself does end with that consonant! We said that in jtr.w “river”, the -w is an ending, but in 𓃀𓅱 bw “place, location” and 𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳 hrw “day”, it’s actually part of the root.
If a masculine noun has a feminine counterpart, it is always formed by adding a -t to the root, not to the extra -w or -j if there is one. So the feminine of 𓅭𓀀 zꜢ “son” is 𓅭𓏏𓁐 zꜢt “daughter”, but the feminine of zẖꜢ.w would be zẖꜢt, since zẖꜢ.w has the root zẖꜢ-. As with the -w and -j masculine endings, some Egyptologists separate the feminine -t from the root using a dot, but not all do: sn.t or snt, mjw.t or mjwt.
Punctuation and uppercase letters
When we look at putting dots in the transliteration, keep in mind that the Egyptians used no punctuation and no spaces between words. But Egyptological transliterations do break words and frequently contain a few punctuation marks. We put them in transliteration for our own convenience.
Just as there are varying systems for transliterating the sounds, so there are varying systems used for punctuation. The marks most often used are the dot, a hyphen, and even an equals sign, which are used for breaking up parts of words to help us see how the word was derived, or joining compound words together. One Egyptologist might write sḏm=j nb.t-ḥw.t while another might write sḏm.j nbt-ḥwt for the same text, even if they agree that the one letter is j and not i.
Likewise, hieroglyphs have nothing like upper vs. lowercase letters. Some Egyptologists use uppercase letters if they begin proper nouns, but some do not, since the Egyptians themselves made no such distinction. The compound word nbt-ḥwt in the examples above would be written Nbt-ḥwt by some Egyptologists, because it is the Egyptian name of the goddess Nephthys. We do not do so in these lessons.
Summary: Biliterals, ideograms, and roots
- Biliteral signs represent a sequence of two consonants.
- Biliterals are usually written with one or two uniliterals adjacent to them corresponding to their first and/or second half (rarely both). These are called phonetic complements and are not to be pronounced separately (with rare exceptions like jr + r = jrr).
- Hieroglyphs can be used as ideograms, in which they mean the object they depict. A glyph is used as an ideogram by writing the “stroke” glyph 𓏤 (Z1) after it.
- An ideogram for a feminine word generally still has its -t written before the stroke.
- Some masculine nouns are actually built from a root, to which -j or -w has been added. If such a noun has a feminine counterpart, it is formed by adding -t to the root, not to the full masculine form.
- The hieroglyphic script has no punctuation or spaces between words. In transliteration, we usually make it easier for ourselves by using spaces between words, and hyphenating words in names.
Vocabulary
Our previous two lessons’ vocabularies have had no masculine nouns with endings on their roots. Only two end in -w, which were mentioned above: bw and hrw, and the w is part of the root for both of them. But this lesson’s vocabulary includes some nouns with these endings. Beginning with this vocabulary, whenever a noun is introduced, if it has an ending attached to its root, the ending will be separated from the root with a dot. This will only be shown in lesson vocabularies and the site’s complete lexicon; this dot will not be used in the text of lessons, except if it’s particularly relevant to the topic (as it is in this lesson).
However, we will not do so with feminine nouns and the ending -t. You may assume that for any noun ending in -t, (1) it is feminine and (2) that the -t is an added ending. If either of these things are not true, we will say so. They are true of every noun ending in -t we have learned so far.
New vocabulary for this lesson:
- 𓅜𓐍𓏏𓈀 Ꜣḫt “horizon” (det. 𓈀 “piece of land”)
- 𓇋𓏏𓂋𓅱𓈗 jtr.w “river”, “Nile” (det. 𓈗 water)
- 𓉐𓏤 pr “house”
- 𓌴𓁹𓄿𓄿 mꜢꜢ “see, regard”, var. 𓌵𓄿𓄿
- 𓈗𓏤 mw “water”
- 𓊖𓏏𓏤 njwt “town, settlement”
- 𓁷𓏤 ḥr “face”
- 𓐍𓏏𓆑𓀏 ḫft.j “opponent, enemy”, var. det. 𓀐, 𓀑
- 𓅭𓀀 zꜢ “son” (var. 𓅭𓏤)
- 𓅭𓏏𓁐 zꜢt “daughter”
- 𓏞𓀀 zẖꜢ.w “scribe”
- This word used to be transliterated zš or sš, but this is now believed to be incorrect.
- 𓇾𓈇𓏤 tꜢ “land” (det. 𓈇 irrigation canal, “arable/irrigated land”)
- This is an odd word that has the ideogram stroke but is also often written with a determinative (the canal). On the other hand, it is so common that it is sometimes written without even the stroke: 𓇾