we know that the two first are P and T, i.e. the first two letters of the name of Ptah; the third sign
must then have the value of H or something like it. If the signs
form the name of Ptah, then the sign which follows them must mean “loving,” or “loved.” Here again the Coptic helped the early decipherers in assigning a phonetic value to
, for the Coptic word for to love is “mere,” ϻϵρϵ, and they assumed that the value of the sign was “mer.” Now in the cartouche of Ptolemy on the Rosetta Stone after the name Ptah
, we have the signs
