It has already been explained that the writing expresses only consonants. In the Graeco-Roman period various imperfect attempts were made to render the vowels in foreign names and words by the semi-vowels as also by

, the consonant ע which

originally represented having been reduced in speech by that time to the power of א, only. Thus, Πτολεμαιος is spelt Ptwrmys, Antoninus, ’Nt’nynws or Intnyns, &c. &c. Much earlier, throughout the New Kingdom, a special “syllabic” orthography, in which the alphabetic signs for the consonants are generally replaced by groups or single signs having the value of a consonant followed by a semi-vowel, was used for foreign names and words, e.g.

תבכרמ,“chariot,” was written , in Coptic .
לדגמ,“tower,” was written , , .
רונכ,“harp,” was written .
תמח,“Hamath,” was written .

According to W. Max Müller (Asien und Europa, 1893, chap, v.), this represents an endeavour to express the vocalization; but, if so, it was carried out with very little system. In practice, the semi-vowels are generally negligible. This method of writing can be traced back into the Middle Kingdom, if not beyond, and it greatly affected the spelling of native words in New Egyptian and demotic.

Determinatives.—Most signs can on occasion be used as determinatives, but those that are very commonly employed as phonograms or as secondary word-signs are seldom employed as determinatives; and when they are so used they are often somewhat differentiated. Certain generic determinatives are very common, e.g.:—

; of motion.
; of acts involving force.
; of divinity.
; of a person or a man’s name.
; of buildings.
; of inhabited places.
; of foreign countries.
; club; of foreigners.
; of all actions of the mouth—eating and speaking, likewise silence and hunger.
; ripple-lines; of liquid.
; hide; of animals, also leather, &c.
; of plants and fibres.
; of flesh.
; a sealed papyrus-roll; of books, teaching, law, and of abstract ideas generally.

In the earliest inscriptions the use of determinatives is restricted to the