Hieroglyph

"Hieroglyphics" redirects here. For the hip hop group, see Hieroglyphics (group).

Hieroglyphs typical of the Graeco-Roman period

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A hieroglyph (meaning: sacred carving) is a character of a logographic or partly logographic writing system. The term originally referred to the Egyptian hieroglyphs used by Ancient Egyptians, but is also applied to the ancient Cretan Luwian, Mayan and Mi\'kmaq scripts, and occasionally also to Chinese characters. Ancient Egyptian writing consisted of over 2,000 characters whereas the English alphabet consists of only 26. Each hieroglyphic character takes the form of a common object from their day.

Egyptian hieroglyphs are divided into three classes - Sound signs or Phonograms, which represent sounds directly, Labeling signs or Determinatives, which come after words and indicate which category of word is being presented, and Word signs or Ideograms or Logograms which represent entire words.

References

• Andrew Robinson (2007). MAS214, Macquarie University Text Book,The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs and Pictograms, London: Thames & Hudson.
• Janice Kamrin (2004) Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A practical guide. New York, Abrams

See also

• Hieroglyphica
• Character (sign)

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Hieroglyphs

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