Reading transliteration
Transliteration represents Egyptian writing with a conventional set of Latin letters and special characters. Translation expresses its meaning in another language. Keep these two tasks separate: first establish what the text says in Egyptian, then decide how to express it in English. 3, 4
Three ways of showing one word
| Representation | Example | What it communicates |
|---|---|---|
| Hieroglyphic sign | 𓄤 | An Egyptian sign used to write nfr |
| Transliteration | nfr | The consonants represented |
| English translation | good or beautiful | A meaning selected for the context |
The familiar reading “nefer” is a conventional Egyptological pronunciation. The inserted vowels are not all written in the hieroglyphs. Ancient pronunciation is studied through several kinds of evidence, but a learner’s spoken reading should not be labelled an exact reconstruction.
Characters to recognise
| Character | What to notice |
|---|---|
| ꜣ | Aleph, a distinct transliteration character |
| ꜥ | Ayin, different from ꜣ |
| ḥ | An h with a dot below |
| ḫ and ẖ | Two further distinct consonant symbols |
| š | Commonly read as sh in teaching pronunciation |
| ṯ and ḏ | Distinct from plain t and d |
Different publications use slightly different systems. This guide uses j where some older resources use i, as in jw and jnk. Basic typed encodings may use A for ꜣ, a for ꜥ, H for ḥ, x for ḫ, X for ẖ, S for š, T for ṯ and D for ḏ. These are encoding conventions, not extra Egyptian letters. 3
Reading the punctuation
In this guide, a dot separates an ending from a word: pr.f means “his house”. In sḏm.n.f, dots help identify the verb form and its attached pronoun. These marks belong to modern analysis; they were not written as full stops by Egyptian scribes. 5
Try it yourself
Which gives the meaning of a word: transliteration or translation? Does nfr tell you all its ancient vowels?
Reveal the answer
Translation gives the meaning. The transliteration nfr does not supply all the ancient vowels.
Continue exploring with the dictionary or return to the hieroglyphic studio.