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Reading Hieroglyphs

The “Ripple of Water” Hieroglyph

Letโ€™s read some hieroglyphs ๐“Šน๐“Œƒ๐“ช!

The โ€œRipple of Water ๐“ˆ–โ€ has always been one of my favorite symbols because โ€œ๐“ˆ–โ€ is a uniliteral phonogram that has a sound like โ€œNโ€! As a kid ๐“๐“‡Œ๐“€• I loved it because you use โ€œ๐“ˆ–โ€ to write both โ€œNicole ๐“ˆ–๐“‡‹๐“Žก๐“ฏ๐“ƒญ๐“โ€ and โ€œNonno ๐“ˆ–๐“ฏ๐“ˆ–๐“ˆ–๐“ฏ๐“€€โ€œ in hieroglyphs ๐“Šน๐“Œƒ๐“ช! I also loved this symbol because it is an easy one to write/draw! I am no artist and while I can definitely read hieroglyphs ๐“Šน๐“Œƒ๐“ช, writing them is another story! I would have failed scribe ๐“Ÿ๐“€€ school!! 

While a simple symbol, the โ€œRipple of Water ๐“ˆ–โ€ has many uses in Middle Egyptian! On its own, ๐“ˆ– can mean: to, for, of, through, in, because, not, cannot, unless, no, they, we, us, and our! Thatโ€™s a lot of words! When reading inscriptions, you can figure out the meaning based off of the context clues! 

โ€œWe, us, and ourโ€ can also be written as: ๐“ˆ–๐“ฅ. โ€œTheyโ€ can be written as: ๐“ˆ–๐“ฎ or ๐“ˆ–๐“ญ. 

The โ€œRipple of Water ๐“ˆ–โ€ is used a lot on its own but is also used a lot as part of larger words and names! Here are some examples:

๐“‡‹๐“ˆ–๐“Šช๐“…ฑ๐“ƒฃ – Anubis

๐“‡‹๐“ ๐“ˆ–๐“…“๐“„‚๐“ – Amenemhat II

๐“‡‹๐“ˆ–๐“‚‹๐“ˆ™ – Rock

๐“‡๐“‡‹๐“ˆ–๐“‡ณ – Today

๐“†“๐“Œƒ๐“‡‹๐“ˆ– – Words Spoken By

๐“Œข๐“ˆ–/๐“Œข๐“ˆ–๐“ – Brother/Sister

๐“ˆ–๐“„ฟ – This, These, The