 |  |  |  |
| 26. WOODEN PANELS OF HESI. | 27. RAHOTP AND NEFERT. | 28. WOODEN FIGURE. | |
| Demotic. | Hieratic. | Hieroglyphic. | ||
| ent, “who” | nty | |||
| Perso (“Pharaoh”) | Per‘o ‘nḫ wz, śnb | |||
| yôt, “father” | ’itf | |||
| ‘ônkh, “live” | ‘nḫ | |||
| ekh, “know” | rḫ | |||
| ahe, “stand” | ‘ḫ‘ | |||
| eine, “carry” | ’in | |||
| ms (phon.) | ms | |||
| s (alph.) | s | |||
| s (alph.) | ś | |||
| m (alph.) | m | |||
| n (alph.) | n |
The early scribe’s outfit, often carried slung over his shoulder, is seen in the hieroglyph
. It consisted of frayed reed pens or brushes, a small pot of water, and a palette with two circular cavities in which black and red ink were placed, made of finely powdered colour solidified with gum. In business and literary documents red ink was used for contrast, especially in headings; in demotic, however, it is very rarely seen. The pen became finer in course of time, enabling the scribe to write very small. The split reed of the Greek penman was occasionally adopted by the late demotic scribes.
Egypt had long been bilingual when, in papyri of the 2nd century a.d., we begin to find transcripts of the Egyptian language into Greek letters, the latter reinforced by a few signs borrowed from the demotic alphabet: so written we have a magical text and a horoscope, probably made by foreigners or for their use. The infinite superiority of the Greek alphabet with its full notation of vowels was readily seen, but piety and custom as yet barred the way to its full adoption. The triumph of Christianity banished the old system once and for all; even at the beginning of the 4th century the native Egyptian script scarcely survived north of the Nubian frontier at Philae; a little later it finally expired. The following eight signs, however, had been taken over from demotic by the Copts:
| ϣ = š, from ši, dem. . ϩ = h, probably from ḥw (or ḥi), dem. . Ϧ (Boh.) = ḫ, from ḫi, dem. . (Akhm.) = ḫ, from ḫy, ḫt, dem. . ϥ = f, from f, dem. . ϭ = č from k (or ḫ), dem. . ϫ = ğ, from di (or ti), dem. . ϯ = ti, from dy·t, dem. . |
For origins of hieroglyphs, see Petrie’s Medum (1892); F. Ll. Griffith, A Collection of HRGs (1898); N. de G. Davies, The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, pt. i. (1900); M. A. Murray, Saqqara Mastabas (London, 1905); also Petrie and Griffith, Two HRGic Papyri from Tanis (London, 1889) (native sign-list); G. Möller, Hieratische Paläographie (Leipzig, 1909); Griffith, Catalogue of Demotic Papyri in the J. Rylands Collection (Manchester, 1909).
(F. Ll. G.)