Ancient Egyptian scripts

Hieratic script

The Hieratic script was invented and developed more or less at the same time as the hieroglyphic script and was used in parallel with it for everyday purposes such as keeping records and accounts and writing letters. It was used until the 26th Dynasty, though by that time, it was only used for religious texts, while the Demotic script was used for most other purposes.

Notable features

A simplified and abbreviated form of the hieroglyphic script in which the people, animals and object depicted are no longer easily recognisable
Structurally the same as the hieroglyphic script
Written almost exclusively from right to left in horizontal lines and mainly in ink on papyrus
Written in a number of different styles such as "business hand" and the more elaborate "book hand"
There were a number of regional variations, one of which, a northern version, developed into the Demotic script by the 25th Dynasty

Hieratic glyphs and the hieroglyphs they evolved from

Hieratic glyphs representing single consonants and the hieroglyphs from which they evolved

Hieratic determinatives and the hieroglyphs they evolved from

Hieratic determinatives and the hieroglyphs from which they evolved

Sample of Egyptian written in the Hieratic script

Links

Information about the Hieratic script
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieratic
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/hieratic.html
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt//writing/hieratic.html
http://www.egyptologyforum.org/bbs/Stableford/Roberson,%20A_Very_Brief_Introduction_to_Hieratic.pdf
http://www.egyptologyforum.org/bbs/Stableford/HieraticPalaeo_I.pdf

Information about Ancient Egyptian

Egyptian languages

Ancient Egyptian, Coptic

Semanto-phonetic writing systems

Akkadian Cuneiform, Ancient Egyptian (Demotic), Ancient Egyptian (Hieratic), Ancient Egyptian (Hieroglyphs), Chinese, Chữ-nôm, Cuneiform, Japanese, Jurchen, Khitan, Linear B, Luwian, Mayan, Naxi, Sawndip (Old Zhuang), Sui, Sumerian Cuneiform, Tangut (Hsihsia)

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 15.03.23

[top]

You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, and if you like what you see on this page, you can use the buttons below to share it with people you know.

Talk in Arabic - Learn Egyptian, Iraqi, Levantine, Sundanese, Moroccan, Algerian or Saudi Arabic

If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.

Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site.

[top]