Ten-minute hieroglyphs - Lesson 7: Phonetic complements and more multiliteral signs

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson you will:

• understand how single-letter signs can act as 'phonetic complements' that help you read multiliteral signs; and

• have seen examples of the use of phonetic complements in the writing of some common words.

You'll expand your knowledge of hieroglyphic signs by learning some more multiliteral hieroglyphs in the follow-up activity.

What are phonetic complements?

You learned in Lesson 6 that, in addition to the signs that represent individual consonants, there are signs that represent two or three consonants together ('multiliteral signs').

If you've had a look at the tables of multiliteral signs in a textbook such as Allen, you may have been put off by their sheer number. You may also have noticed that some multiliteral signs can be used to represent more than one combination of consonants.

Help is at hand in the form of phonetic complements. A phonetic complement is a one-consonant hieroglyph that is written after, or occasionally before, a multiliteral sign, and that tells you one of the consonants in the multiliteral sign.

Here are some examples of words written using multiliteral signs that you learned last lesson, supported by one or more phonetic complements:

The word ꜥnḫ (meaning 'live') written with the triliteral sign ꜥnḫ followed by two uniliteral hieroglyphs - n and ḫ - acting as phonetic complements.

The word snt (meaning sister) written with the biliteral sign sn followed by a uniliteral n acting as a phonetic complement. The t at the end is NOT a phonetic complement.

Note that the phonetic complement is a 'helper', not an extra letter, so you don't transliterate it. This means that the first word is transliterated ꜥnḫ not ꜥnḫnḫ and the second is snt not snnt.

Tips for learners

• Phonetic complements are very common. If you see a uniliteral sign written after (or sometimes before) a multiliteral sign and repeating one of its consonants, there's a good chance it's a phonetic complement.

• 'Spelling' was more fluid in hieroglyphs than in English. If you look up a word in a dictionary, you may find several different examples of how it could be written - some perhaps using phonetic complements and others not.

  
  

Follow-up

• Use the Lesson 7 flashcards to learn your next set of multiliteral signs. This set contains eight 2-consonant signs and two 3-consonant signs.

• Test you learning with the Lesson 7 matching pairs game.

• Whenever you meet or learn a new multiliteral sign, improve your understanding by looking it up in a sign list and reading the entry.

Back to Lesson 6: Multiliteral signs

Lesson 8 will be posted soon and will cover ideograms and introduce even more multiliteral signs.