Customer Reviews

How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

This book fills the gaping hole between the large reference grammars such as Gardiner's, the popular introductions that don't really teach any of the language, and the out-of-date material by Budge.

Written at the British Museum, this is a textbook for learning to read hieroglyphs such as you find on the walls of a museum. It is not a complete grammar and won't teach you how to read complex literture, but will give you a complete enough command of the language to read most common material.

The book is well-printed and nicely bound, and is small enough to take to the museum with you! It contains a wealth of material, a glossary, king lists, and information about Egyptian gods.

Many of the exercises are drawings or pictures of wall paintings or carvings, making the book fun to use. Answers to exercises are given at the back.

If you don't know which hieroglyphic book to pick, this is the one!

This is an excellent book to give the reader an introduction to studying or learning the ancient egyptian heiros. The book goes into a lot of detail about transliteration, and making the images turn into sounds. It does a good job explaining that the words are more about sounds than actual individual meanings. I found it a bit difficult to follow all the transliteration of sounds, and had to keep referring back to the charts to remember meaning (especially when you start using all the tick marks, and letter combinations). Otherwise, for those who are studying to be egyptologists, or really want to know how words may have been pronounced, this is an excellent start.

So far it is the best introduction to reading Middle Egyptian I have seen. It is ideal for studying at home in your own pace and in your own time and, maybe the most important feature, all by yourself.

The examples are actual writings taken from stelae from the British Museum, so you learn the real stuff, no messing around with artificial examples.

It is not an exhaustive and in depth course for the Middle Egytian language, but is the best way to get you started. I recommend it to every one who is interested in Middle Egytian, but does not know where to start.

This is THE book to start with. The book is so well-written and contains so many interesting genuine texts from stelae that the novice reader remains enthousiastic, and will continue to read through the more difficult parts. A very interesting aspect is 'human interest' the use of stelae from 'lower' people than kings: you get a glimpse of a man, his wife, his children, his servants, his position in society, what they thought to be important... Ok, the book is a bit limited in that it only deals with certain types of texts (Middle-Eg. stelae, offering formulae...), but be sure that, after reading, your next visit to a museum or Egypt will be very special: you can read!! A great experience. Thanks to the momentum gained from this book, you can now read the second monumental book on ancient Egyptian: James P. Allen's "Middle-Egyptian". A bit tougher, though, but complete.

After searching and searching for a good book on this subject, I happened upon this one. All the others taught you the occasional word, but mostly involved Egyptian history and traditions. This book was really about teaching you hieroglyphics.

It first must be stated that Egyptian is tough. There are no vowels. One hieroglyph can mean a zillion things. A ton of hieroglyphs can mean the same exact thing. Its tough. If you are bad at learning languages, walk away now.

That being said, if you're still interested in learning this language, this is the book to get. Its written in a workbook format, complete with exercises and a dictionary. I can't tell you exactly how accurate it is, although I'm sure it is, but I'll update when I actually take a class on this. In the meantime, this book is very thorough, starting with the basics and working its way to more involved deciphering.

This is a must for any blossoming Egyptologist, especially since its tough to find a class on this (heck, its hard enough finding a school for archaeology). Its not bad for bragging rights either, so if you feel like learning a dead language to show it off, you might enjoy this as well.

This book is essential for all sole learners and is now being used by educational institutions as an introductory resource for teaching ancient egyptian. It is up-to-date, well written, visually enticing, free of impenetrable linguistic jargon, and uses actual examples. Experienced readers have found a number of minor typographical errors, and these are described along with more general comments, at the Ancient Egyptian Language web site (sorry no URL's allowed here, but do a search).

This book utilises clear and attractive drawings of actual inscriptions displayed in the British Museum to teach their readers how to read Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. These inscriptions are primarily funerary in origin. The texts covered yield valuable insights into the ordinary and elite lives of the people of Ancient Egypt. What places this book above the others is the many exercises offered to practice and consolidate the learning. Detailed answers are provided at the back of the book, which is up-to-date, easily understandable, and well-written for all to comprehend the grammar structure and the language. It is recommended for beginners who truly enjoy the study of the Ancient Egyptian language and hieroglyphs.

Being new to hieroglyphs and using this book as my very first guide to study them I have to say it is very good. However, I do feel some knowledge of general vocabulary will be helpful before beginning a course such as this. I have learned quite a bit though, and believe it is the best beginners reference available at this time. As some of the other online reviewers of this book pointed out the reading/excercises cover artifacts that are in the British Museum so the hieroglyphs are the real deal and not made up. The kings list, that was mentioned however, only contains a small listing of kings and is not complete. These kings are all from the Middle and New Kingdoms (12th, 18th, 19th, & 20th dynasties).

This book is easy to learn from and a great book for beginning students, although it may not be of as much use if you are an advanced student of heiroglypic writing. As the other reviews say, this book is limited to just Middle Egyptian, it is not a comprehensive study and it does not contain complete sign lists. But it is based off of real inscriptions, so you don't have to wonder wether you are translating incorrectly or the author made up stupid sentences like in some language books.

I have been using this book to teach myself Egyptian Hieroglypic writting so that I can translate the inscriptions on items in our local museam. I like it very much, and find it quite easy to learn from, although I may have more experience with linguistics and language studies than many other Egyptophiles. My old copy of this book is missing, so I'm going to have to buy a new copy.