Egyptian Hieroglyphic Trivia Quiz

Answer: sacred carvings

Hieroglyph comes from two Greek words meaning "sacred writing". This in turn came from the Egyptians' own word for their language meaning "divine speach".

Answer: a hieroglyph

One symbol is called a hieroglyph. The system of language as a whole is known as hieroglyphic - NOT hieroglyphics. Ideograms are specific hieroglyphs that represent the things they depict, and phonograms are hieroglyphs which represent sounds.

Answer: determinatives

Determinatives are symbols that are used to determine the sense of a word. For example, the word 'wn' in ancient Egyptian could mean either 'light' or 'hurry' depending on what sign is placed at the end of the word. If a sun with rays is put at the ending, this would indicate that light is meant. If legs are put at the ending, hurry is meant. Determinatives are not meant to be pronounced, but only serve to assist the reader.

Answer: The noun ends with the symbol of the bread loaf (t)

Feminine nouns end with a bread loaf, transliterated as 't'. Plural masculine nouns end with a quail chick, transliterated as 'w'.

Answer: Hieratic

Hieratic was in effect a form of cursive writing; it is a faster way to write what would otherwise be very detailed hieroglyphs. Hieratic is often far removed from the original hieroglyphic and it may be difficult to see the relation between a hieratic symbol and the original hieroglyph. Coptic developed from early Christians in Egypt - they spoke the Egyptian language, but did not want to associate their religious writings with 'pagan' symbols, and so began writing Egyptian using the Greek alphabet. Demotic is late stage Egyptian which was commonly spoken near the end of the civilization. Majescule simply means upper case ...

Answer: Left to right, right to left, or in columns

When you are looking at a text, read into the faces of the animals.

Answer: Read into the faces of the animals

The direction in which the animals face is almost always the direction you read into, with the exception of a few religious texts.

Answer: A form of ancient Egyptian is still used today, so it is not a dead language

Coptic is the final stage of the Egyptian language, and was commonly spoken until at least the 17th century. Egyptians began using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century, and this new system became known as Coptic. Coptic flourished as a literary language from the second to thirteenth centuries, and is used as the official liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Revitalization efforts have been underway since the nineteenth century, but many linguists claim it never truly became extinct.

This would make Egyptian the oldest and longest living language in the world.

Answer: The idea that sounds can be represented by symbols

In the earliest forms of writing, pictographs (signs meaning exactly what they depict) were used exclusively. This becomes problematic for writing abstract words which have no clear method of represenation. For example, if we wanted to used pictographs to write the word 'eye', we would draw a picture of an eye.

But it becomes more difficult when we want to write more abstract words like 'love' or 'hate'. The rebus principle is the idea that sounds can be represented by symbols - the word 'apple' bears no resemblance to the fruit, but rather each letter represents the spoken word 'apple'.

This discovery allowed for much easier writing, and is considered one of the most important discoveries of mankind.

Answer: The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone was discovered by the French in 1799, and was instrumental in cracking hieroglyphic. It contains a passage translated into Middle Egyptian, Demotic, and Greek.