transliteration of ancient egyptian

A table of common transliteration systems for ancient Egyptian is given in this article.

In the field of Egyptology, transliteration is the process of converting (or mapping) texts written in the Egyptian language to alphabetic symbols representing uniliteral hieroglyphs or their hieratic and demotic counterparts. This process facilitates the publication of texts where the inclusion of photographs or drawings of an actual Egyptian document is impractical. It should be emphasised that transliteration is not the same as transcription. Transcription seeks to reproduce the pronunciation of a text. For example, the name of the founder of the Twenty-second dynasty is transliterated as ššnq but transcribed Shoshenq in English, Chéchanq in French, Sjesjonk in Dutch, and Scheschonq in German. Because the exact details regarding the phonetics of ancient Egyptian are not completely known, most transcriptions are only theoretical in nature. Egyptologists, therefore, rely on transliteration in scientific publications.

Standards of Transliteration

As important as transliteration is to the field of Egyptology, there is no one single standard scheme in use for hieroglyphic and hieratic texts. Some might even argue that there are as many systems of transliteration as there are Egyptologists. However, there are a few closely related systems that can be regarded as conventional. Many non-German-speaking Egyptologists use the system described in Gardiner 1954, whereas many German-speaking scholars tend to opt for that used in the Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache (Erman and Grapow 1926–1953), the standard dictionary of the ancient Egyptian language. However, there is a growing trend, even among English-speaking scholars, to adopt a modified version of the method used in the Wörterbuch (e.g., Allen 2000). Although these conventional approaches to transliteration have been followed since most of the second half of the Nineteenth century to the present day, there have been some attempts to adopt a modified system that seeks to utilise the International Phonetic Alphabet to a certain degree. The most successful of these is that developed by Wolfgang Schenkel (1990), and it is being used fairly widely in Germany and other German-speaking countries. More recent is a proposal by Thomas Schneider (2003) that is even closer to the IPA, but its usage is not presently common. The major criticism levelled against both of these systems is that they give an impression of being much more scientifically accurate with regard to the pronunciation of Egyptian. Unfortunately this perceived accuracy is debatable. Moreover, the systems reflect only the theoretical pronunciation of Middle Egyptian and not the older and later phases of the language, which are themselves to be transliterated with the same system.

Electronic Transliteration of Egyptian

In 1984 a standard, ASCII-based transliteration system was proposed by an international group of Egyptologists at the first Table ronde informatique et égyptologie and published in 1988 (see Buurman, Grimal, et al., 1988). This has come to be known as the Manuel de codage (or MdC) system, based on the title of the publication, Inventaire des signes hiéroglyphiques en vue de leur saisie informatique: Manuel de codage des textes hiéroglyphiques en vue de leur saisie sur ordinateur. It is widely used in e-mail discussion lists and internet forums catering to professional Egyptologists and the interested public. Although the Manuel de codage system allows for simple "alphabetic" transliterations, it also specifies a complex method for electronically encoding complete ancient Egyptian texts, indicating features such as the placement, orientation, and even size of individual hieroglyphs. This system is used (though frequently with modifications) by various software packages developed for typesetting hieroglyphic texts (such as WinGlyph, MacScribe, InScribe, Glyphotext, WikiHiero, and others).

Transliteration of ancient Egyptian with Unicode

Advances in the Unicode standard have made it possible to almost fully transliterate Egyptian texts completely using a relatively complete Unicode font, without having to revert to a special transliteration font (as was often done in the past). The table of various transliteration schemes found below, for example, uses Unicode. There are, however, three characters that are not included in the Unicode 4.0 specification, but have been proposed for Unicode 4.1. These are the so-called Egyptian alef (represented here as <3>), yodh (represented here as <ỉ> Unicode U+1EC9), and ayin (represented here as <ˁ> Unicode U+02C1).

Demotic

As the latest stage of pre-Coptic Egyptian, demotic texts have long been transliterated using the same system(s) used for hieroglyphic and hieratic texts. However in 1980, Demoticists adopted a single, uniform, international standard based on the traditional system used for hieroglyphic, but with the addition of some extra symbols for vowels (which are frequently indicated in demotic) and other letters that were written in the demotic script. The Demotic Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (or CDD) utilises this method. As this system is likely only of interest to specialists, for details see the references below.

de Cenival, Françoise. 1980. "Unification des méthodes de translittération." Enchoria: Zeitschrift für Demotistik und Koptologie 10:2–4.
Johnson, Janet H. 1980. "CDDP Transliteration System." Enchoria 10:5–6.
Johnson, Janet H. 1991. Thus Wrote 'Onchsheshonqy: An Introductory Grammar of Demotic. 2nd ed. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 45. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tait, William John. 1982. "The Transliteration of Demotic." Enchoria 11:67–76.
Thissen, Heinz-Josef. 1980. "Zur Transkription demotischer Texte." Enchoria 10:7–9.

Table of Conventional Transliteration Schemes

class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \|	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| Erman & Grapow 1926–1953	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| Gardiner 1957	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| Buurman, Grimal, et al. 1988	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| Schenkel 1991	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| Hannig 1995	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| Allen 2000	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| Schneider 2003
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| A	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| 3	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| 3	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| A	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| 3	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| 3	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| 3	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ɹ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| i	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ỉ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ỉ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| i	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ỉ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| j	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| j	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ỉ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| i-i	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ỉj	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| y	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| y	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| y	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| y	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| y	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| y
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| a	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ˁ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ˁ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| a	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ˁ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ˁ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ˁ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ɗ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| w
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| b
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| p
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| f
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| m
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| n
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| r	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| r	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| r	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| r	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| r	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| r	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| r	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| l
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| h
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| H	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḥ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḥ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| H	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḥ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḥ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḥ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḥ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| x	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḫ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḫ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| x	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḫ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḫ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḫ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḫ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| X	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ẖ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ẖ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| X	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ẖ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ẖ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ẖ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ẖ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| z	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| z, s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| z	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ś	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ś	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| s	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ś
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| S	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| š	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| š	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| S	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| š	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| š	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| š	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| š
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| q	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḳ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḳ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| q	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḳ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| q	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| q	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḳ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| k
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| g
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| t
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| T	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ṯ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ṯ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| T	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| č	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ṯ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ṯ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| c
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| d	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| d	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| d	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| d	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ṭ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| d	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| d	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḍ
class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| D	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḏ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḏ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| D	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| č̣	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḏ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| ḏ	class="xl24" align="center" valign="middle" width="75" \| c̣

Samples of Various Transliteration Schemes

The following text (rendered using WikiHiero) is transliterated below in some of the more common schemes. M23-X1:R4-X8-Q2:D4-W17-R14-G4-R8-O29:V30-U23-N26-D58-O49:Z1-F13:N31-V30:N16:N21*Z1-D45:N25 Erman & Grapow 1926–1953 der aegyptischen Sprache''

ḥtp-dỉ-nśwt wśỉr ḫntỉj ỉmntjw nṯr ˁ3 3bḏw wp-w3wt nb t3 ḏśr

Gardiner 1953

ḥtp-dỉ-nswt wsỉr ḫnty ỉmntỉw nṯr ˁ3 3bḏw wp-w3wt nb t3 ḏsr

Buurman, Grimal, et al. 1988 de codage''

Htp-di-nswt wsir xnty imntiw nTr aA AbDw wp-wAwt nb tA Dsr

A fully encoded, machine-readable version of the same text is:

M23-X1:R4-X8-Q2:D4-W17-R14-G4-R8-O29:V30-U23-N26-D58-O49:Z1-F13:N31-V30:N16:N21*Z1-D45:N25

Schenkel 1991

ḥtp-dỉ-nswt wsỉr ḫnty ỉmntjw nčr ˁ3 3bč̣w wp-w3wt nb t3 č̣sr

Allen 2000

ḥtp-dj-nswt wsjr ḫnty jmntjw nṯr ˁ3 3bḏw wp-w3wt nb t3 ḏsr

Schneider 2003

ḥtp-ḍỉ-nśwt wśỉr ḫnty ỉmntjw ncr ɗɹ ɹbc̣w wp-wɹwt nb tɹ c̣śr

References

Allen, James Paul. 2000. Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Buurman, Jan, Nicolas-Christophe Grimal, Michael Hainsworth, Jochen Hallof, and Dirk van der Plas. 1988. Inventaire des signes hiéroglyphiques en vue de leur saisie informatique: Manuel de codage des textes hiéroglyphiques en vue de leur saisie sur ordinateur. 3rd ed. Informatique et Égyptologie 2. Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belle-Lettres (Nouvelle Série) 8. Paris: Institut de France.
Erman, Adolf, and Hermann Grapow, eds. 1926–1953. Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache im Auftrage der deutschen Akademien. 6 vols. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'schen Buchhandlungen. (Reprinted Berlin: Akademie-Verlag GmbH, 1971).
Gardiner, Alan Henderson. 1957. Egyptian Grammar; Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Griffith Institute.
Hannig, Rainer. 1995. Großes Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch–Deutsch: die Sprache der Pharaonen (2800–950 v. Chr.). Kulturgeschichte der antiken Welt 64 (Hannig-Lexica 1). Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Schenkel, Wolfgang. 1990. Einführung in die altägyptische Sprachwissenschaft. Orientalistiesche Einführungen. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Schneider, Thomas. 2003. "Etymologische Methode, die Historizität der Phoneme und das ägyptologische Transkriptionsalphabet." Lingua aegyptia: Journal of Egyptian Language Studies 11:187–199.