The Determinatives in the Pyramid Texts Writing System
Maha Mohamed Rashad Mahmoud Yehia;
Abstract
The essence of Egyptology is the combination of a wide range of different kinds of evidence. Textual sources, written in an ancient language using hieroglyphs and their derivatives, not only sketch out Egyptian history but also provide a profound insight into the ancient mind and into the socio-economic affairs that are central to all complex societies.
The pyramid texts are the oldest collection of religious spells known to us from ancient Egypt. This collection forms the basis of much of the later religious theology and literature of ancient Egypt. The passages were eventually separated and categorized, as will as illustrated and eventually evolved into the Book of the Dead.
Determinatives, are signs needed in a specific word in specific text to gave the word its general meaning, they are very important; with the absence ofthe vowels in the Egyptian writing they could have a role to secure the pronunciation of the words in which they appear, because they were originally prototypes signs had a specific pronunciations which were well k.J.own to the people before writing, and then used after the invention of writing to help people for pronunciation the words. In such cases it might be more truly said that the phonogram determined the sound of the ideogram, than that the ideogram determines the sense of the phonograms.
I discussed the problems concerning the definition of ideograms, phonograms and logogram,
etc. It is not in first place about terminology, it is about the hieroglyphic writing system. Once the elements or units of the system have been identified and the relations between these units have described the naming of the unit is of secondary importance. What is important is how the units are defined according to their function in the system.
Then I mentioned the importance of the determinative as a classifier of word in ancient
Egypt
In chapter 2, I collected all the determinatives from the nine pyramids typologically and classified them in tables according to the distribution of Gardiner. In addition to some other determinatives that were mentioned in the pyramid texts in detail and were found in different shapes (e.g. fire determinatives; meat determinatives; sceptre determinatives) which were written very accurately and in different shapes to show the normalisation in the writing system ofthe Pyramid Text.
The pyramid texts are the oldest collection of religious spells known to us from ancient Egypt. This collection forms the basis of much of the later religious theology and literature of ancient Egypt. The passages were eventually separated and categorized, as will as illustrated and eventually evolved into the Book of the Dead.
Determinatives, are signs needed in a specific word in specific text to gave the word its general meaning, they are very important; with the absence ofthe vowels in the Egyptian writing they could have a role to secure the pronunciation of the words in which they appear, because they were originally prototypes signs had a specific pronunciations which were well k.J.own to the people before writing, and then used after the invention of writing to help people for pronunciation the words. In such cases it might be more truly said that the phonogram determined the sound of the ideogram, than that the ideogram determines the sense of the phonograms.
I discussed the problems concerning the definition of ideograms, phonograms and logogram,
etc. It is not in first place about terminology, it is about the hieroglyphic writing system. Once the elements or units of the system have been identified and the relations between these units have described the naming of the unit is of secondary importance. What is important is how the units are defined according to their function in the system.
Then I mentioned the importance of the determinative as a classifier of word in ancient
Egypt
In chapter 2, I collected all the determinatives from the nine pyramids typologically and classified them in tables according to the distribution of Gardiner. In addition to some other determinatives that were mentioned in the pyramid texts in detail and were found in different shapes (e.g. fire determinatives; meat determinatives; sceptre determinatives) which were written very accurately and in different shapes to show the normalisation in the writing system ofthe Pyramid Text.
Other data
| Title | The Determinatives in the Pyramid Texts Writing System | Other Titles | استخدامات المخصص فى نصوص الاهرامات فى مصر القديمة | Authors | Maha Mohamed Rashad Mahmoud Yehia | Issue Date | 2006 |
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