it is śtn, “king.” Further, owing to the vast number of signs employed, to prevent confusion of one with another in rapid writing they were generally provided with “phonetic complements,” a group being less easily misread than a single letter. E.g.
, wz, “command,” is regularly written
, wz (w); but
, ḥz, “white,” is written
, ḥz(z). This practice had the advantage also of distinguishing determinatives from phonograms. Thus the root or syllable ḥn is regularly written
