The ancient Egyptian language has affinities with the Semitic languages of Western Asia also others of North Eastern Africa which is referred to as Hamitic. Around 1580 to 1490 BCE there was a strong foreign influence that appeared in the ancient Egyptian language with the introduction of words from Asiatic language.
The Kushites borrowed the written language of the Egyptians and formed what is called the Meroitic language and they also had a cursive writing for Meroitic hieroglyphics which is known as Merotic cursive. The ancient Egyptians spoke many languages due to the trading routes along the Nile and Mediteranean coast. Not all the Egyptians knew what the Hieroglyphic writings meant not even some of the scribes knew what they were writing.
The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics contain well over 600 different hieroglyphics making it impossible for each hieroglyphic to represent a single idea or meaning. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic alphabet consisted mainly of consonants. The ancient Egyptian language contains two basic types of signs, logograms which are signs used to write a single word as in the symbol of a cows ear which would mean "ear" and could also mean "to hear"; and phonograms which were written to write sound meanings like the symbol of an eye would be used to write "I" as if you were writing "I was.".
There are three parts to phonograms the first known as monoliterals would referred to one consonant signs. The second is known as biliterals which consist of two consonant signs and third known as triliterals consisting of three consonantal signs. Phonetic complements are when phonetic biliterals and triliterals are added to monoliterals to facilitate pronunciation.
Determinatives are basically symbols that could mean several words because of the lack of vowels as in the English words "Time," "Tim," and "Tame." When we remove the vowels from these words we have T M. In order to determine what word is being referred to the ancient Egyptians used a picture or something that would clearly hint to the meaning of the word. Like an image of sheep for SH P to let us know they were referring to the word Sheep or an image of a pot after the symbol P T.
The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics alphabet which would be known as monoliterals include:
Symbol: Vulture English Transl.: a Sound: a as in ah in some cases replaced by y or a, glottal stop.
Symbol: Arm English Transl.: a Sound: a as in ah
Symbol: Foot English Transl.: b Sound: b as in bet
Symbol: Hand English Transl.: d Sound: d as in sadder
Symbol: Horned Viper English Transl.: f Sound: f as in fat *this sign is also used for v'*
Symbol: Ring stand English Transl.: g Sound: g as in get
Symbol: Twisted Flaxwick English Transl.: h Sound: emphatic h (a long a sound) as in hit
Symbol: House/Courtyard English Transl.: h Sound: h as in hot
Symbol: Reed English Transl.: Sound: i ee as in meet
Symbol: Snake English Transl.: j Sound: ju as in judge * also written dj (d as in dune)*
Symbol: Basket English Transl.: k Sound: k as in kick
Symbol: Lion English Transl.: l Sound: like the'r' in foreign words and "l" for l in a word
Symbol: Owl English Transl.: m Sound: m as in met
Symbol: Rib English Transl.: m Sound: m
Symbol: Crown English Transl.: n Sound: n
Symbol: Water English Transl.:n Sound: n as in net
Symbol: Stool English Transl.: p Sound: p as in pet
Symbol: Hill English Transl.: q Sound: laryngeal k as in k in kat with a deep throat as possible
Symbol: Mouth English Transl.: r Sound: like the r' in foreign words and l' for l in a word, r as in pero
Symbol: Pool English Transl.: s Sound: sh as in shot
Symbol: Folded Cloth English Transl.: s Sound: s as in set
Symbol: Tethering Rope English Transl.: t Sound: ch *org. t as in tune*
Symbol: Loaf Sound: t Sound: t as in toe
Symbol: Lasso or Cord English Transl.: w Sound: w if initial or otherwise 'oo'
Symbol: Quail Chick English Transl.: w/u Sound: w if initial like w in wet or otherwise oo' like the u as in glue
Symbol: Animals Belly with teats English Transl.: x Sound: voiced khy as in cue
Symbol:Placenta English Transl.: x Sound: voiceless kh as in ach
Symbol: Two Reeds English Transl.: y Sound: ee as in reed
Symbol: Door Bolt English Transl.: z Sound: s as in set
The ancient Egyptians also had numbers in their written language to express dates, time and was also used for math and science. The numerals 1 through 9 were written with vertical strokes which can be seen below:
Number 1 is hieroglyphic l, number 2 is hieroglyphic ll, number 3 is hieroglyphic lll, number 4 is hieroglyphic llll, number 5 is hieroglyphic lllll, number 6 is hieroglyphic lll on top and lll on the bottom, number 7 is hieroglyphic llll on top and lll on the bottom, number 8 is hieroglyphic llll on top and llll on the bottom, number 9 is hieroglyphic lllll on top and llll on the bottom and number 10 is hieroglyphic lllll on top and lllll on the bottom.
The ancient Egyptian symbol for the number 10 is a piece of rope which looks like an upside down U. For the number 100 is a coil of rope which looks like a coil. For the number 1000 would be a lotus plant. The symbol of a single finger represents the number 10,000. For 100,000 the symbol of a tadpole was used and the god Heh was used to represent the number 1,000,000.
To write the number 1,024 in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic you would first draw the lotus flower then two pieces of rope which look like upside down U, one on top of the other as in stacking them and then four vertical strokes with two strokes on top of the other two strokes as in stacking.
The ancient Egyptians also used hieroglyphic symbols to represent the seasons, year and days. The numbers followed after the symbol. For Month in ancient Egyptian would be what appears to be a crescent moon upside down with the number below and for the hieroglyphic day would be the symbol of a circle with a small circle inside and the numbers would follow after to represent the day.
When the names of pharaohs were written in hieroglyphics their names would be written inside cartouches and usually followed the symbols to state their Nomen and Prenomen name of a god used.
When reading ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics you always read towards the face of the hieroglyphic. This could be either right to left or left to right or even right down to center to left and up or down depending on the art. Reading hieroglyphics is never a consistent format it is different depending on the art or section you are deciphering.
