591.Apparently a stand. menx, utensils, ata....? Sep. box, B. M.; sarc. in Louvre. Tab. passim. D. 428. ten. D. 442. Horizontal line. u, one Shmoun, 8th region, u, one, indefinite article, D. 438. 598. Pyramidal object. St, Sp, Sothis, the dog- D. 356., star. G. 96. Pyramidal cake. sns, a kind of food, ra- M. c. xxxviii., 601. Ball of incense. 602. Imperfect, Spr, name of a god. barge of Socharis. M.t. iv.cccxi. 1. Sarc. B. M. perhaps 607. 12 Three looped s.sah, assemble, Orion. 614. Uncertain ob- 615. Tata-nn, "proper, pe- Tab. B. M. 305. culiar, appointed to." Unknown object. kar? sense unknown. Fragment, Dr. IN the progressive formation of the Old Egyptian system of writing, certain signs, which had gradually obtained a more general value, began at an early period to be set apart from the common mass of symbolic elements. The sycomore, for instance, as being a tree more especially common and useful in Egypt, became the representative sign of all trees. This is the transition from the visible to the ideal, from definite and individual to universal and generic ideas. It is the transition from the Representative to the Symbolical type, although, of course, the original meaning was still retained. In like manner, the sun's disk (ra) was affixed to several words or signs which express the divisions of time regulated by the sun, as hr, day, hunnu, hour; or those expressive of light, as ht, to illumine. The disk, so employed, does not express the word of which it is the symbol, it only determines the meaning of the preceding phonetic sign, the sense of which would otherwise remain doubtful to the reader, owing to the various significations of the same Egyptian roots. This mode of employing the signs opened up a fertile field for the depicting of ideas which did not admit of direct representation. Thus the sign egg, while it continued to depict the object represented, became also determinative after the name of a woman or goddess; the sucking child, raising the hand to its mouth, not only denoted a child in general (xn, xr), but also all offices connected with childhood; as rr, to dandle, &c. The principle on which we have separated the Ideographics from the Determinatives is therefore this: every ideographical sign becomes determinative as soon as it denotes more words than one, whether homogeneous, or quite distinct in their meaning, although belonging to the same comprehensive class of ideas. But these signs do not therefore cease to be ideographic, and as such to indicate the words for whose representation they were in the first instance employed. The Egyptian writing here exhibits the same law of development as we have observed in every language and every root. Thus the German word thier, signified originally a stag (deer), then a quadruped, and then an animal in general (compare Sp, plov). Again whelp, a young hound (in German, wolf), became the young of any animal; and the cock, which originally was the male chicken, became the male of all birds; and so on in a great variety of instances. The number of signs in the old language, which fulfil the functions of Determinatives, appears to amount to 163; 43 of these are a supplement to our previous list, and it is possible that the discovery of other monuments may hereafter furnish us with a few more. We may, however, confidently state that the principle of Determinatives was in full activity at the commencement of the chronological epoch. In certain cases a few of these signs appear to be introduced in order to determine the sound, rather than sense, of the preceding Phonetics: thus the block of stone in the name of the god Seth merely indicates that his name was pronounced in the same way as st (limestone); while the following figure of the ass-headed god is the second and real Determinative. 1. light: atn, disk; ra, the light: as sti, a sunbeam, Lettre, A. vi. 13.; G. 79. 97.; Tab. 551. B. M.; M. Cul xliv. 4. G. 96. and foll. 377.; Tablet, B. M. 551.; Hks. R. I. A. 1847. G. 377.; B. M. 551. 12. Same, holding names of gods (living G. 111. gods). Man kneeling on names and qualities of G. 129. and foll. the ground. Same, holding his hand to his persons. G. 378, 379., L.B. D. xxxix. 107. 2. Man seated, sitting: hms, to sit; hrt, to L. B. D. i. 3. 6. be peaceful; bka, to be 12. xxxvii. 101. 1. G. 387., L. B. D. xxix. 78. 21. |