INTERNATIONAL WEEK: Hieroglyphics

It's INTERNATIONAL WEEK. And the English department is looking at EGYPT. So, instead of a Book of the Week this week, I thought you could have a go at something a bit different...

Besides pyramids and sphinxes, the Egyptians are known for hieroglyphics, or a form of picture writing. Hieroglyphics uses small pictures which represent different words, actions, or ideas. There were over 700 of these letters. Some pictures stood for whole words. A series of wavy lines meant "water." All of the letters in heiroglyphcs were consonants. The Egyptians did not write vowels and did not use any punctuation.

Hieroglyphics, is made up of three types of symbols. Alphabetic signs correspond to a letter or sound produced by that sign. Syllabic symbols stand for sounds produced by a group of letters, a syllable. Determinative signs relate to a specific object or idea, such as man, woman, and water. Hieroglyphics can be read from left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. The direction depends on the direction the symbols are facing.

To celebrate INTERNATIONAL WEEK at George Mitchell, why not try writing something in hieroglyphics yourself? You could start by just writing your NAME; or, if you are feeling even more ambitious, you could write someone else a message.

Here are three different sites which will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know:
http://www.kidzone.ws/cultures/egypt/hieroglyph.htm
http://www.seaworld.org/fun-zone/fun-guides/egypt/hieroglyphics.htm
http://www.greatscott.com/hiero/hiero_over.html

And if you want to 'cheat', why not try this ONLINE TRANSLATOR:
http://www.quizland.com/hiero.htm