Since Hieratic is simply a cursive form of Hieroglyphic, it has the same types of signs.  Beside the signs representing a single consonant (the "Egyptian alphabet") and determinatives, there are many signs which represent several consonants.  In this lesson a number of common bi- and tri-consonant signs are presented.  There are of coure many more!

You will notice that some of the signs are ones you saw in the last lesson as determinatives.  There is no firm distinction between phonetic signs and determinatives - it depends entirely upon the context in which the signs are used.

As in the preceding lessons, you can use the Exercises (3A, 3B, 3C) to practice your ability to recognise these signs.

 

Hieratic	Value	Hieroglyph		Hieratic	Value	Hieroglyph
	sA				km
	mA				pr
	nfr				nb
	pH				Htp
	Xn				sS
	nw				dwA
	gm				aHa
	pt				nTr
	ii				mr
	sw				xnt
	ir				sDm
	anx				DA
	ini				mwt

 

Reading Hieratic does take practice of course, and most especially since some signs are rather easily confused.  You can use Exercise 3A and Exercise 3B to help you become familiar with some of the signs.   Then you can try your hand at reading some simple sentences in Exercise 3C.  In all of these exercises you can use the interactive form to automatically submit your answers and questions via e-mail if you want assistance or confirmation.

 

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Lesson 2

Lesson 4