The star ๐ผ hieroglyph ๐น๐๐ช is one of my favorite symbols! I am an Earth/Environmental scientist, and I love astronomy (I teach Earth Science and Astrophysics)! Fun Fact about me: I went to Kennedy Space Center for my Sweet 16!
The star ๐ผ hieroglyph ๐น๐ is so cool because it can function as a determinative, phonogram, and ideogram! Letโs take a look at how that works!
The word for star is โ๐ด๐๐ฟ๐ผโ and here the โ๐ผโ functions as the determinative, or the last symbol in the word that almost acts as punctuation to let the reader know the general meaning of the word. It can also be used as the determinative in the name ๐๐ of a specific star, like โSirius ๐ฎ๐๐ผโ
In words like โ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ Duat/afterlifeโ or
โ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ณ morning/tomorrow,โ the โ๐ผโ functions as a phonogram for the sound โdw3โ (almost like โduaโ).
The word โstar,โ while written like โ ๐ด๐๐ฟ๐ผ,โ can also just be written as โ๐ผ๐บ,โ and here the โ๐ผโ symbol functions as an ideogram, or a symbol that is used to write the word it represents.