Egyptian
edit
Top left: hieroglyph Aa1 (stylized); right: in color, 12th Dynasty.
Bottom left: hieratic, 5th Dynasty; right: 19th D. (similar forms common 11th-20th).
Glyph origin
edit
Disputed; a sieve and a human placenta have been proposed as possibilities. In the Archaic Period it was generally crosshatched horizontally and vertically, and this form sometimes appeared through the Old Kingdom. For most of Egyptian history through the New Kingdom a form with only horizontal striations was used. A form with diagonal striations instead was rare before the Libyan Period. This glyph was conventionally colored green. In some representations that lack striations, only its color differentiates it from other circular glyphs.
(áž«)
- Uniliteral phonogram for áž«.
- Logogram for áž« (âplacenta?, child; to be a childâ).
References
edit
- Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, âISBN, page 539
- Henry George Fischer (1988) Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy: A Beginnerâs Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, âISBN, page 12
- Peust, Carsten (1999) Egyptian Phonology: An Introduction to the Phonology of a Dead Languageâ[1], Göttingen: Peust und Gutschmidt Verlag GbR, page 48
- Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1929) Wörterbuch der Ă€gyptischen Spracheâ[2], volume 3, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, âISBN, page 217