Hieroglyph

File:Foster Beach Hieroglyph.jpg

A Hieroglyph found on The rocks on Foster Beach in Chicago

A hieroglyph is a character of a logographic or partly logographic writing system. The term originally referred to the Egyptian hieroglyphs, but is also applied to the ancient Cretan Luwian, Mayan and Mi'kmaq scripts, and occasionally also to Chinese characters. It was also used by Ancient Egyptians. Ancient Egyptian writing consisted of over 2,000 hieroglyphic characters where as the English only consists of 26. Each hieroglyphic characters represent a common object from their day.

Etymology

The word Hieroglyphs derives from the Greek words ἱερός (hierós 'sacred') and γλύφειν (glúphein 'to carve' or 'to write', see glyph), and was first used to describe Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Greeks who came to Egypt prior to and during the Ptolemaic Period (305 B.C.E. - 30 B.C.E.) observed that while demotic script was employed for secular documents, pictorial characters were frequently found in religious contexts - carved on temple walls and funerary structures, as well as on official monuments.

The word "hieroglyphics" is derived from the fact that the Greeks called Egyptian hieroglyphs τά ἱερογλυφικά γράμματα 'hieroglyphic letters'; however, they sometimes simply dropped the word γράμματα, "letters," calling them τά ἱερογλυφικά 'the hieroglyphics' ('letters' being understood). This was used in informal use.

In the same way, although the term "hieroglyphics" is still used today, this usage adds a tone of informality (such as in the above example of Greek practice). An alternative is to use the noun "hieroglyphs" for both the language as a whole and for the individual characters that compose it, or to use the term "hieroglyphic" as an adjective (e.g., a hieroglyphic writing system).

Types

Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs

Hieroglyphs typical of the Graeco-Roman period

Cursive hieroglyphs

A section of the Papyrus of Ani showing cursive hieroglyphs.

Cursive hieroglyphs are a variety of Egyptian hieroglyphs commonly used for religious documents written on papyrus, such as the Book of the Dead. It was particularly common during the Ramesside Period and many famous documents, such as the Papyrus of Ani, utilize it. It was also employed on wood for religious literature such as the Coffin Texts.

Cursive hieroglyphs should not be confused with hieratic. Hieratic is much more cursive, having large numbers of ligatures and signs unique to hieratic. However, there is, as might be expected, a certain degree of influence from hieratic in the visual appearance of some signs. One significant difference is that the orientation of cursive hieroglyphs is variable, reading right to left or left to right depending on the context, whereas hieratic is always read right to left.

Dongba script

An old Naxi painted storyboard

The Dongba, Tomba or Tompa script is a pictographic writing system used by the ²dto¹mba (Bon priests) of the Naxi people. In the Naxi language it is called ²ss ³dgyu 'wood records' or ²lv ³dgyu 'stone records'. Together with the syllabic geba and the Latin alphabet, it is one of the three types of Naxi scripts. Dongba script is about a thousand years old. Although the glyphs look like crude pictographs that only represent simple materialistic objects, they are actually ideograms capable of representing abstract ideas. Dongba writings are sometimes used as a rebus. It is a mnemonic system, and cannot by itself represent the Naxi language; different authors may use the same glyphs with different meanings, and it is often supplemented with the syllabic geba script for clarification.

Facing pages of a Naxi manuscript, displaying both pictographic dongba and smaller syllabic geba.

The Dongba script is an independently developed ancient writing system. According to Dongba religious fables, the Dongba script was created by the founder of the Bön religious tradition of Tibet, Tönpa Shenrab (Tibetan: ston pa gshen rab) or Shenrab Miwo (Tibetan: gshen rab mi bo). Unfortunately, there is currently no accurate record of the exact date of the Dongba script origin and many suspected that the fables provided only fictional explanation to the foundation of this script. From Chinese historical documents, however, it is certain that Naxi script was used as early as the 7th century during the early Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynastry in 10th century, Dongba script was widely used by the Naxi people.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Robinson, Andrew. The story of writing with over 350 illustrations, 50 in color. New York: Thames & Hudson 2003. ISBN 0500281564
• Andrew Robinson (2007). Alphabets, Hieroglyphs and Pictograms, London: Thames & Hudson.
• Angelika Rauch (1997). The Hieroglyph of Tradition, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press.
• Douglas J (2007). Egypt and the Egyptians, UK: Cambridge University Press.

• Cruz-Uribe, Eugene. 2001. "Scripts: An Overview." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, edited by Donald B. Redford. Vol. 3. Oxford, New York, and Cairo: Oxford University Press and The American University in Cairo Press. 192–198 [194–195].

• Davies, William Vivian. 1990. "Egyptian Hieroglyphs." In Reading the Past: Ancient Writing from Cuneiform to the Alphabet. London: British Museum Press. 74–135.

External links

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