In the first column you can find the ascii signs used on mailinglists for the transliteration
of the hieroglyphic monoliteral signs. The chart follows the
Manuel de Codage transliteration system, which is the standard; however, those who have 'moral' problems
with using vowel signs to represent consonant signs, use the transliterations given between square brackets.
In the second column you'll find a description of the official transliteration code found in normally
printed material.
[Note: some browsers may make a mess of these tables. I'll try to correct this one day.]
ascii___________transliteration_____________hieroglyph_______________Gardiner
(in e-mail) (in books)[name]
A [or: 3] double apostrophe {(Egyptian) vulture} G1
[aleph]
i [or: j] apostrophy-dotted-{i} {(flowering) reed(stalk)} M17
or: {j} [yod]
a [or: '] inverted apostrophe {(human fore)arm} D36
[ayin]
w {w} [waw] {(quail) chick} G43
b {b} {(human) foot} D58
p {p} {stool (of matting)} Q3
f {f} {horned viper} I9
m {m} {owl} G17
n {n} {(rimple of) water} N35
r {r} {(human) mouth} D21
h {h} {(reed) shelter} O4
H dotted-{h} [2nd h] {(twisted) wick} V28
x contact-lens-{h} [3rd h] {placenta [shaded-circle]} Aa1
X underscore-{h} [4th h] {animal's [cow] belly} F32
z {z} {(door-)bolt} O34
or: {s}
s {s} {folded cloth} S29
or: {s}-grave
S hacek-{s} [shin, esh] {pool} N37
q {q} {hill-slope} N29
or: dotted-{k}
k {k} {basket with handle} V31
g {g} {pot-stand} W11
t {t} {(bread) loaf} X1
T underscore-{t} [2nd t] {tether} V13
d {d} {(human) hand} D46
D underscore-{d} [2nd d] {cobra} I10
y {y} or {jj} or {j} {double reed} twice M17
(no concensus) or {dual strokes} Z4
In paper sources, the aleph looks like 3, the ayin like ‘.
If you have the Transliteration font on your machine, then the 'alphabet' above
(which is no alphabet) looks like this:
A i a w b p f m n r h H x X z s S q k g t T d D y
The {j} for yod of course represents the original Germanic j (i.e. /y/), and not
the Romanesque English j (i.e. /dzj/).
Like in paper sources, the root of a word and any grammatical endings are seperated by a dot {.}, and nouns and verbs are seperated from suffixes by two stripes {=}. (Unfortunately, in the US, modern writers tend to be sparce with dots and often use a dot instead of =. Another area in which no consensus exists.)
When quoting Egyptian words, underscores {_ _} are often used in email instead of quotation marks, so as to avoid collision with the ayin (_'_).
Example: _Xrd.w=sn_ = "their children", _.w_ being plural ending, _=sn_ suffix pronoun.
Vocalisation:
{@} is used for the sh(e)wa, while in paper sources an upside-down-{e} is employed
{:} is used to indicate a long vowel [{i:}, {e:}, {a:}, {u:}, {o:} ] like in paper sources.
Linguistic signs used in paper and email:
{/ /} indicates a phoneme, how something sounded versus how it was written,
{<} and {>} indicate that one word form derives from, resp. developped
into, another word form, and
{*} indicates a hypothetical reconstruction.
Note that it will
not be possible to use the international standard signs for phonemes, so an approximation
in English will have to do.
Example: Afroasiatic _*lib_ "heart" > Ancient Egyptian _jb_ (*/yib/)
A sign list is available on the AEL website, made by Marc Line to function as index to Faulkner's dictionary.
There are many different Coptic transliteration fonts for use in e-mail or font programs around, most of them not very intuitively or satisfactory (cf. EEF thread, June '98). We'll settle for this set on AEL/EEF:
ascii_____transliteration____ Coptic name
(e-mail) (books)
a {a} alpha
b {b} bida
g {g} gamma
d {d} dalda
e {e} ei
z {z} zita
E roofed-{e} eta
T {th} thita
i {i} iauda
k {k} kappa
l {l} laula
m {m} mi
n {n} ni
X {ks} ksi
o {o} o
p {p} pi
r {r} ro
s {s} sima
t {t} tau
u {u} ue
P {ph} phi
K {kh} khi
% {ps} psi
O roofed-{o} au
S hacek-{s} shai
f {f} fai
H {x} [khori] (Akhmimic)
x {x} khai (Bohairic)
h {h} hori
j {j} tjantja
c {c} kyima
+ {ti} ti
^ Supralinear Stroke (use before affected letter)
' Supralinear Dot (use before affected letter)
" Dierisis (use before affected letter)
alpha to au of course derive from the Greek alpha to omega (see below),
and shai to ti are added signs from Demotic.
Occassionally these pass by, and for them a fairly standard email/Ascii transcription
code exists on the Net (oh miracle!).
For Greek, the non-obvious ones are fairly intuitive,
often based on form-resemblance (e.g. theta - q (Q), eta - h (H), chi - x,
psi - y, omega - w) or sound-resemblance (digamma - v, ksi - c,
phi - f). Note that the Greek and Coptic transcription codes are not fully
matching (eta, theta, ksi, phi, chi, psi, omega), partly because in the Greek transliteration,
capital codes are used for capital Greek letters.
Hebrew Greek
Ascii_____name Ascii______name
) aleph a alpha
b beth b beta
g gimel g gamma
d daleth d delta
h he e epsilon
w waw v digamma
z zayin z zeta
x heth h eta
+ tet q theta
y yod i iota
k kaph k kappa
l lamed l lamda
m mem m mu
n nun n nu
s samekh c ksi
( ayin o omicron
p pe p pi
c tsade [san]
q qof [qoppa]
r resh r rho
& sin s sigma
$ shin
# sin/shin
t taw t tau
u upsilon
f phi
x chi
y psi
w omega
j final sigma
| iota subscript
+ diaeresis
. dagesh
) smooth breathing
( rough breathing
: shewa
a patah
f qamets
i hireq
e segol
" tsereh
o holam
u qibbuts
U shureq
P.S.
Greek Phoenician
zeta form of: zayin
name of: tsade
san form of: tsade
name of: zayin
ksi form of: samekh
name of: shin
sigma form of: shin
name of: samekh
The san appeared only in some local Greek alphabets, and was dropped
out of use by Classical times. Also the qoppa was obsolete
by then, and so was the digamma. These three signs remained
in use to indicate numerals: alpha to epsilon for 1 to 5, digamma
for 6, zeta to pi for 7 to 80, qoppa for 90, rho to omega for
100 to 800, and san for 900 [so out of order and now called
sanpi or sampi]. Later other signs came in use for 6, 90, and 900.