Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs
Hieroglyphs from the tomb of Seti I (KV17), 13th century BC
Script type	Logographic usable as abjad
Time period	c. 3250 BC – c. 400 AD
Direction	Right-to-left, left-to-right
Languages	Egyptian language
Related scripts
Parent systems	(Proto-writing) Egyptian hieroglyphs
Child systems	Hieratic Proto-Sinaitic
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Egyp (050), ​Egyptian hieroglyphs
Unicode
Unicode alias	Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Unicode range	U+13000–U+1342F Hieroglyphs U+13430–U+1343F Controls
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Egyptian hieroglyphs (/ˈhaɪrəˌɡlɪfs/, /ˈhaɪroʊˌɡlɪfs/)^[1][2] were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 100 distinct characters.^[3][4] Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts were derived from hieroglyphic writing, as was the Proto-Sinaitic script that later evolved into the Phoenician alphabet.^[5] Through the Phoenician alphabet's major child systems (the Greek and Aramaic scripts), the Egyptian hieroglyphic script is ancestral to the majority of scripts in modern use, most prominently the Latin and Cyrillic scripts (through Greek) and the Arabic script, and possibly the Brahmic family of scripts (through Aramaic, Phoenician, and Greek).^{[not verified in body]}

The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age, around the 33rd century BC (Naqada III),^[6] with the first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dating to the Second Dynasty (28th century BC). Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language of the Middle Kingdom period; during this period, the system used about 900 distinct signs. The use of this writing system continued through the New Kingdom and Late Period, and on into the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, extending into the 4th century AD.^[7]

With the final closing of pagan temples in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost. Although attempts were made, the script remained undeciphered throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The decipherment of hieroglyphic writing was finally accomplished in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, with the help of the Rosetta Stone.^[8]

The number of words contained in all Ancient Egyptian (i.e. hieroglyphic and hieratic) texts known today is approximately 5 million, and tends towards 10 million if counting duplicates (such as the Book of the Dead and the Coffin Texts) separately. The most complete compendium of Ancient Egyptian, Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, contains 1.5–1.7 million words.^[9][10]