1885.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 65 



characters represent syllables ; thus | n-t-r (pronounced nuter) 

 " god,'' (j) n-f-r (nefer) " good," ^j; s-t-n (suten) " king," \ 

 n-z-m (nezem) " sweet," I h-s (lies) " sing," "^^ u-r (ur) 

 " great," ^^.^ n-n (nen) " not," ^ q-a (qa) " carry," ^^^ 

 q-m (qem) " hnd," f| )^ q-m-a (qema) " create," °^^^^ s-b-k 



(sebek) " crocodile," y"^ n-f (nef) " wind". These may also 

 be written in full with the letters of the alphabet and proper 

 determinatives. 



The use of phonetics was, in one way, of the utmost import- 

 ance to the scribe in distinguishing signs that could have differ- 

 ent pronunciations ; thus the i<^ has two pronunciations seb and 



dua. The star i<: itself would begin the word in -jk J| 3J. 



The second character _J| being a h, the star can only have the 



pronunciation seb " a wall," in '~k IS \ _^^ Jl the second 



character is ^( u, hence :>lc is here rt^wa "adoration." J| and -^ 

 are here complements of ^. 



The determinatives were important in distinguishing between 

 ho7nonyms. Our language is rich in words, having the same 

 pronunciation, which we distinguish either by different spelling 

 (right, rite, wright, write) or by the sense (right — opposed to 

 left, right — correct). The Egyptian language was very poor in 

 verbal roots, and used the same arrangement of consonants or 

 vowels for between two to twenty different words, whose mean- 

 ing was only changed by the determinatives ; thus \ verbal 

 root an-x changes meaning according to the determinative: | 

 |j "to live," T ^ "an ear," J "^ "to swear," J 



