Topic summary

Egyptian uniliteral signs

Egyptian uniliteral signs

The Egyptian hieroglyphic script contained 24 uniliterals (symbols that stood for single consonants, much like English letters) which today we associate with the 26 glyphs listed below. (Note that the glyph associated with w/u also has a hieratic abbreviation.)

The traditional transliteration system shown on the left of the chart below is over a century old and is the one most commonly seen in texts. It includes several symbols such as 3 for sounds that were of unknown value at the time. Much progress has been made since, though there is still debate as to the details. For instance, it is now thought the 3 may have been an alveolar lateral approximant ("l") in Old Egyptian that was lost by Late Egyptian. Some scholars believe that consonants transcribed as voiced(d, g, dj) may actually have been ejective or, less likely, pharyngealized like the Arabic emphatic consonants. A good description can be found in Allen. For other systems of transliteration, see transliteration of ancient Egyptian.

an Egyptian vulture 3acalled aleph,
a glottal stop[l] or [ɾ]silent, [j], and [ʔ]a reed ỉi/acalled yodhan initial or final vowel; sometimes [j]a pair of reeds yydouble yodhno record [j]pair of strokes
or river (?) an arm ʿacalled ayin,
a voiced pharyngeal fricativeperhaps [d][ʕ]; [d] perhaps retained in some words and dialects or a quail chick or its
hieratic abbreviation ww/ucalled waw
[w] ~ [u]a lower leg bb[b] ~ [β]a reed mat or stool ppaspirated[pʰ]a horned viper ff[f]an owl mm[m]a ripple of water nn[n][n], sometimes [l]a mouth rrsee [ɾ], sometimes [l]
(always [l] in some dialects) a reed shelter hh[h]a twisted wick ḥhan emphatic h,
a voiceless pharyngeal fricative[ħ]a placenta ḫkh
a voiceless velar fricative[x]an animal belly with tail ẖkha softer sound,
a voiceless palatal fricative[ç]a folded cloth ssOld Egyptian sound for
"door bolt" is unknown,
but perhaps was z or th[s][s]a door bolt [θ] or
or
a garden pool šsh[ʃ]slope of a hill ḳ or qkan emphatic k,
a voiceless uvular plosiveejective[qʼ]a basket with a handle kkaspirated[kʰ]
in some words, palatalized[kʲ]a jar stand ggejective [kʼ]a bun ttaspirated [tʰ]a tethering rope ṯ or tjchas in English churchpalatalized [tʲ] or [ʧ]a hand ddejective [tʼ]a cobra ḏ or djjas in English judgeejective [tʲ’] or [ʧʼ]

Gardiner lists several variations:

bag of linen gAppears in a few older words unknown (Possibly: Finger) mOriginally biliteral imcrown of Lower Egypt nOriginally ideogram nt for 'crown of Lower Egypt' pestle tOriginally biliteral ti