1886.] OUO [Brill ton. 



employed indifferently for any of them. This circle of meanings 

 would be still more widely extended when mere similarity, not 

 strict identity, was aimed at. 



Such was plainly the origin of phoneticism in the Egyptian 

 hierogl} r phic inscriptions. Take the word nefer. Its most com- 

 mon concrete signification was "a lute," and in the picture 

 writing proper the lute is represented by its figure. But nefer 

 had several other significations in Coptic. It meant, a colt, a 

 conscript soldier, a door, and the adjective good. The picture 

 of the lute therefore was used to signify every one of these. 



It will be observed that this is an example of a pure ikono- 

 graph. The picture is that of the object in full, a lute ; but pre- 

 cisely in the same way the second class of figures in picture 

 writing, those which are wholly symbolic, may be employed. 

 This, too, finds ample illustration in the Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

 Instead of the picture of a house, the figure of a square was em- 

 ployed, with one side incomplete. Phonetically, this conveyed 

 the sound per, which means house, and several other things. 



It will readily be seen that where a figure represents a number 

 of homophouous words, considerable confusion may result from 

 the difficulty of ascertaining which of these is intended. To 

 meet this, we find both in Egyptian and Chinese writing series 

 of signs which are written but not pronounced, called "determi- 

 natives." These indicate the class to which a word has reference. 

 They are ideographic, and of fixed meaning. Thus, after the 

 word nefer, when used for conscript, the determinative is the 

 picture of a man, etc.* 



There is little doubt but that all the Egyptian syllabic and 

 alphabetic writing was derived from this early phase, where the 

 governing principle was that of the rebus. At the date of the 

 earliest inscriptions, most of the phonetics were monosyllabic ; 

 but in several instances, as nefer, above given, neter, which 

 represents a banner, and by homophony, a god, and others, the 

 full dissyllabic name was preserved to the latest times. The 



♦The following elements occur in the old Egyptian writing: 



1. Ideographic— (a) Pictures or ikonographs. 



(b) Symbols. 



(c) Determinatives. 



2. Phonetic. — (a) Words. 



(b) Syllables. 



(c) Letters. 



