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The Ancient Egyptians used glyph-like images of everyday things to create a written language. Their system was phonetic – based on the spoken word for a glyph. Writings were deciphered by reading an object's sound aloud, like an ancient picture puzzle.
The lessons in the Egyptian Hieroglyphs course begin with an explanation of rebus picture puzzles and how they are like hieroglyphic writing and end with a discussion of how hieroglyphic reading direction is determined.
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Lessons
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Hieroglyphic writing is like a picture puzzle – solved by reading images aloud
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Hieroglyphs can represent sounds, things and ideas associated with the object represented.
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The hieroglyphs of the alphabet were the simplest sounds in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
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Some phonetic hieroglyphs represented more complex sounds, acting as combinations of simpler sounds.
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Determinative characters act to clarify meanings by adding context to phonetic characters.
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Vowels were not part of ancient written languages. They were spoken, but not written.
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Modern writing is written left to right. Hieroglyphic writing could be written either direction.
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Links, books and magazines for further learning.
