It is easy to see how the figure of any such animal would stand for the name of the animal. According to Dr. Birch, the original monosyllabic words usually began with a consonant, and the vowel sound between the two consonants of a syllable was an indifferent matter, because the name of an object was variously pronounced in different parts; thus a guitar, which is an ideograph meaning goodness, might be pronounced nefer or nofer; a papyrus roll, which stood for oblation, was called hetep or hotep.
Most phonetics remained as syllabic signs, but many of them in course of time lost part of the sound embodied in the syllable, and stood for a letter sound only. Thus, the picture of a lion, which at first stood for the whole sound labo, the Egyptian name of lion, in course of time stood only for l, the initial sound of the word; an owl first stood for mu, then for m; a water-jug stood first for nen, then for n, its initial letter.
Phonetics which represent letters only and not syllables may be called alphabetic signs, in contradistinction to syllabic signs.
Plutarch asserts that the ancient Egyptians had an alphabet of twenty-five letters, and although in later epochs of Egyptian history there existed at least two hundred alphabetic signs, yet at a congress of Egyptologists held in London in 1874, it was agreed that the ancient recognized alphabet consisted of twenty-five letters. These were as follows:—An eagle stood for a; a reed, ȧ; an arm, ā; leg, l; horned serpent, f; mæander, h; pair of parallel diagonals, i; knotted cord, ḥ; double reed, ī; bowl, k; throne or stand, ḳ; lion couchant, l; owl, m; zigzag or waterline, n; square or window shutter, p; angle or knee, q; mouth, r; chair or crochet, s; inundated garden or pool, sh; semicircle, ṭ; lasso or sugar-tongs-shaped noose, th; hand, t; snake, t′; chicken, ui; sieve, kh.
| 1 |  | a | Eagle | ’Aa | ||||
| 2 |  | ȧ | Reed | Au | ||||
| 3 |  | ā | Arm | Aa | ||||
| 4 |  | b | Leg | Bu | ||||
| 5 |  | f | Cerastes Serpent | Fi | ||||
| 6 |  | h | Mæander | Ha | ||||
| 7 |  | ḥ | Knotted Cord | Hi | ||||
| 8 |  | i | Pair of parallel diagonals | — | ||||
| 9 |  | ī | Double Reed | iu | ||||
| 10 |  | k | Bowl | Kâ | ||||
| 11 |  | ḳ | Throne (stand) | Qa | ||||
| 12 |  | l | Lion couchant | Lu or Ru | ||||
| 13 |  | m | Owl | Mu | ||||
| 14 |  | n | Zigzag or Water Line | Na | ||||
| 15 |  | p | Square or Window-blind (shutter) | Pu | ||||
| 16 |  | q | Angle (Knee) | Qa | ||||
| 17 |  | r | Mouth | Ru, Lu | ||||
| 18 |  | s | Chair or Crochet | Sen or Set | ||||
| 19 |  | s | Inundated (?) Garden (Pool) | Shi | ||||
| 20 |  | t | Semicircle | Tu | ||||
| 21 |  | θ | Lasso (sugar-tongs-shaped) Noose | Ti | ||||
| 22 |  | ṭ | Hand | Ti | ||||
| 23 |  | t′ | Snake | — | ||||
| 24 |  | ... | Chick | ui | ||||
| 25 |  | χ | Sieve | Khi |
About 600 B.C., during the XXVIth dynasty, many hieroglyphs, about a hundred in number, which previously were used as ideographs only, had assigned to them a phonetic value, and became henceforth alphabetic signs as well as ideographs. In consequence of this innovation, in the last ages of the Egyptian monarchy, we find many hieroglyphs having the same phonetic value. Such hieroglyphs are called homophones, and they are sometimes very numerous; for instance, as many as twenty hieroglyphs had each the value of a, and h was represented by at least thirty homophones. In spite of the great number of homophones, the Egyptians usually spelled their words by consonants only, after the manner of the ancient Hebrews; thus, hk stood for hek, a ruler; htp for hotep, an offering; km for kam, Egypt; ms for mes, born of.
The Egyptians began at an early age to use syllabic signs for proper names. Osiris was a well-known name; and as os in their spoken language meant a throne, and iri, an eye, a small picture of a throne followed by that of an eye, stood for Osiri, the name of their god.
An ideograph was often preceded and followed by two phonetic signs, which respectively represented the initial and final sound of the name of the ideograph. Thus a chessboard was an ideograph, and stood for a gift, and sometimes a building. It was called men, and sometimes the chessboard is preceded by an owl, the phonetic sign of m, and followed by a zigzag line, the phonetic sign of n. Such complementary hieroglyphs are intended primarily to show with greater precision the pronunciation of men, and they are known by the name of complements.
Phonetic hieroglyphs are often followed by a representation or ideograph of the object referred to. Such explanatory representations and ideographs are called determinatives, because they help to determine the precise value of the preceding hieroglyph.