Sign lists
Below is an inventory of some sign lists of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Although a globally agreed upon sign list would be
extremely helpful, this objective has not yet been reached.
The names I assign to the sign lists are my own, and
are meant to simplify the discussion.
Basic lists:
Extended lists:
This is the sign-list published on pp. 442-543 of
A. Gardiner. Egyptian Grammar.
Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1957.
The name of each sign consists of an element from the set
{A, ..., Z, Aa}, followed by a blank, followed by a number.
To indicate variant signs, the number is sometimes followed by one
or two asterisks, or the number may be enclosed in brackets.
The following are included:
- A 1 thru A 55 and A 59, and A 14* and A 17*.
- Note that A 59 is given between A 25 and A 26.
- Not named is the combination of signs given at A 1
("seated man and woman with plural strokes").
- B 1 thru B 7.
- C 1 thru C 12 and C 17 thru C 20.
- D 1 thru D 63, and D 27*, D 34* and D 46*.
- Note that D 46* is given between D 47 and D 48.
- E 1 thru E 34, and E 8*.
- F 1 thru F 52, and F (46) and F (47).
- Note that F (46) is given between F (47) and F 48.
- G 1 thru G 54, and G 7*, G 7** and G 26*.
- H 1 thru H 8, and H 6*.
- I 1 thru I 15, and I 5*.
- Note that I 5* is given between I 3 and I 4.
- K 1 thru K 7.
- Note that K 7 and K 6 are given in reverse order.
- L 1 thru L 7.
- M 1 thru M 44, and M (22).
- N 1 thru N 42, and N (35).
- Note a slightly different shape for N 18 is given
between S 26 and S 27 and between X 4 and X 5.
- Note that a combination of three occurrences of N 33 is given
between Z 3 and Z 4.
- O 1 thru O 51.
- Note that the reversed form of O 30 is given
between U 12 and U 13.
- P 1 thru P 11, and P (1).
- Q 1 thru Q 7.
- R 1 thru R 25.
- S 1 thru S 45, and S 14* and S 17*.
- Note that S 17* is given between S 22 and S 23.
- T 1 thru T 35, and T 7*, T 8* and T 9*.
- U 1 thru U 41.
- V 1 thru V 39, and V 31*.
- Note that V 39 is given between S 34 and S 35.
- W 1 thru W 25, and W 10*.
- X 1 thru X 8.
- Y 1 thru Y 8.
- Z 1 thru Z 11.
- Aa 1 thru Aa 32.
- Note that Aa 4 is given between W 10* and W 11.
- Note that Aa 23 and Aa 24 are given between U 35 and U 36.
- Note that Aa 32 is given between T 10 and T 11.
There is an inconsistency in the orientation of L3 on p. 477
and on p. 545. The latter is generally considered to be an error.
This is the "Zeichenliste" published on pp. 1025-1103 of
R. Hannig. Grosses Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch-Deutsch:
die Sprache der Pharaonen (2800-950 v.Chr.).
Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1995.
There are the following differences with Gardiner57:
- Names ending in one asterisk (or two asterisks, resp.)
in Gardiner57 end in "a" (or "b", resp.) in Hannig95A:
- A 14a, A 17a,
- D 27a, D 34a and D 46a,
- E 8a,
- G 7a, G 7b and G 26a,
- H 6a,
- I 5a,
- S 14a and S 17a,
- T 7a, T 8a and T 9a,
- V 31a,
- W 10a.
- Some names where the number is enclosed in brackets in
Gardiner57 end in "a" in Hannig95A:
- F 46a and F 47a,
- N 35a,
- P 1a.
- M (22) from Gardiner57 is absent from Hannig95A.
- N 12a, N 12b, N 33a, O 29a and Z 4b are new names.
There was a
proposal N1637
(from 1997-09-18 by Michael Everson)
to include hieroglyphic in the UCS.
This proposal was superseded by
N1944, which was
superseded by Unicode 5.2 (see below).
Concerning the order of the signs, the list
closely follows the original publication by Gardiner (1957),
even when the order is inconsistent with the numerical order of the names.
However, there are some differences with Gardiner57:
- The names that start with Aa in Gardiner57
start with AA in N1637.
- There is no space between the element from {A, ..., Z, AA} and the
following number.
- Names ending in one asterisk (or two asterisks, resp.)
in Gardiner57 end in "A" (or "B", resp.) in N1637:
- A14A, A17A,
- D27A, D34A and D46A,
- E8A,
- G7A, G7B and G26A,
- H6A,
- I5A,
- S14A and S17A,
- T7A, T8A and T9A,
- W10A.
- N (35) from Gardiner57 becomes N35A in N1637.
- F (46), F (47), M (22), P (1) and V 31*
from Gardiner57 are absent from N1637.
The list contains 761 signs, excluding the
codes for cartouches, transformation and positioning of signs, and shading.
This sign list (from 2007-09-28 by Michael Everson),
with 1071 signs, is part of
N3349.
For more explanation, see the earlier version
N3237 (from 2007-04-10 by Michael Everson and Bob Richmond),
with 1063 signs.
These proposals supersede N1637 (1997)
and N1944 (1999).
Apart from the signs from Gardiner's grammar, the list also contains
a few signs proposed by Gardiner himself in other documents,
and some sign groups for numerals from Möller's
volumes on hieratic palaeography.
The list is now part of Unicode 5.2
in the range 13000-1342F.
There is a free font and
more information.
This is the "extended library" published on pp. 1117-1168 of
the same publication as Hannig95A above.
I implicitly assume every sign
from Hannig95A is also a sign of Hannig95B.
Indicated are some sign names without accompanying signs, such
as A 33b and A 64. These sign names are not part of the
sign list.
This is the sign list in Part I of
N. Grimal, J. Hallof, and D. van der Plas. Hieroglyphica.
Utrecht, Paris, 1993.
Note that D24 and D25 are not printed in order, but are given
in the addendum on p. "1 D-7".
I count 4688 sign names in this list. However, some signs
seem to have more than one name (e.g.
B15A=B25;
C12F=C14;
M36A=M177A).
It seems that Hieroglyphica93-I does not include all signs
it should have included. This pertains to each sign at the end of a sublist
for one of the elements from {A, ..., Z, Aa}, with the exception of T and Z.
The missing signs however do occur somewhere in part II.
We let Hieroglyphica93 denote the complete list of signs
from Hieroglyphica (1993), consisting of
those from Hieroglyphica93-I, and those
that in addition occur somewhere in part II of the same publication,
which are
A476 (p. "2 A-10"),
B86 (p. "2 B-3"),
C262 (p. "2 C-1"),
D350 (p. "2 D-5"),
E200 (p. "2 E-4"),
F156 (p. "2 N-3"),
G265 (p. "2 G-2"),
H37 (p. "2 H-1"),
I102 (p. "2 I-3"),
K26 (p. "2 K-1"),
L28 (p. "2 L-1"),
M209 (p. "2 M-4"),
N114 (p. "2 N-4"),
O262 (p. "2 O-1"),
P97 (p. "2 P-2"),
Q39 (p. "2 Q-1"),
R108 (p. "2 R-2"),
S175 (p. "2 S-6"),
U119 (p. "2 U-1"),
V114 (p. "2 V-2"),
W99 (p. "2 W-3"),
X12 (p. "2 X-2"),
Y24 (p. "2 Y-2") and
Aa70 (p. "2 Aa-1").
It is reported in the introduction of Hieroglyphica (1993)
that the complete sign list includes 4706 signs. However,
with the 24 additional signs that occur only in part II,
I count 4688+24=4712 sign names.
It seems that Hieroglyphica93 is identical to Hannig95B
except for the format of the names of the signs:
in the case of Hieroglyphica93,
- there is no space between the element from {A, ..., Z, Aa} and the
following number, and
- if the number is followed by a letter, then this is capitalized.
This is the sign list available as
http://www.ccer.ggl.ruu.nl/hiero/
As the indication "Extended Library, version 2, january 2000" suggests,
this list is even more extended than Hieroglyphica93, and as far as I can
see, this list includes all signs from Hieroglyphica93.
The
proposal
N1944
(from 1999-01-09 by Michael Everson)
to include hieroglyphic in the UCS
replaces the earlier proposal N1637 (see above).
See also additional comments in
document N2132.
The proposal was superseded by Unicode 5.2.
In the order of Unicode numbers,
the first 761 signs in the list are identical to the signs
from N1637 and occur in the same order.
This is followed by
codes for cartouches, transformation and positioning of signs,
and shading.
Thereafter we find the signs that were not in
N1637.
It seems that the list includes all signs from
Hieroglyphica93, but it omits redundant alternative names for
signs.
The format of the names of the signs is identical to that
of N1637, except that each number is padded with zeros to
make it exactly 3 digits long.
There is one erratum: F039A should be F039.
This is the list of hieroglyphs on pp. 51-213 of
J. Buurman et al.
Inventaire des signes hieroglyphiques en vue de leur saisie
informatique.
Institut de France, Paris, 1988.
the last printed version of what
is commonly known as the `Manuel de Codage'. It seems to
be roughly a subset of Hieroglyphica93,
since the latter contains e.g. additional signs
A359 thru A476. However,
MdC88 also contains some signs not included
in Hieroglyphica93 (see below).
We mention MdC88 for the sake of completeness,
but it is of little importance
since it is strewn with
inaccuracies and ambiguities, most notably the following:
- Page 15 states that O38a from an earlier version of the
Manuel de Codage has been replaced by phonetic value qnbt,
which according to p. 49 consists of O38 and X1. However,
on p. 162 there is a different sign called O38A [qnbt].
It is not clear whether this clash of names was already
present in the older version of the MdC, or whether the
name O38A was `recycled' in MdC88.
Page 15 also states that R8a was replaced by phonetic
value nTrw, but nevertheless R8A is present in the
list of hieroglyphs, on p. 173.
This contrasts with M22a, which is stated on p. 15 to be
replaced by phonetic value nn, and accordingly
it is not found in the list of hieroglyphs.
- Further, it is stated on p. 15
that S27a has become Aa23G,
but there is a sign S27A on p. 181, which has an
appearance very different from Aa23G on p. 212;
was the name S27A `recycled'?
(The same situation holds for T32a (see T32A on p. 190)
and S123 (on p. 182).)
In addition, the sign given for Aa23G on p. 18 differs
from that given on p. 212.
- There is sloppy treatment of orientation.
Although orientation is clearly significant in some
cases, cf. D54 versus D55 and D292 (p. 97),
in other cases signs are mirrored without any apparent
reason, as e.g. G172 on p. 124 (see Hannig95B
or Hieroglyphica93 for the correct orientation).
Although in this case the correct orientation is
obvious, this is less so in the case of G168 (p. 124),
which in fact occurs here in a different orientation than
in Hannig95B and Hieroglyphica93.
- T3A (pp. 18 and 184) is called T3B in Hannig95B and
Hieroglyphica93.
- Aa7A (pp. 18 and 211) is absent from Hannig95B and
Hieroglyphica93.
- It is not clear whether the list includes signs with
suffixes "v", "u" or "h" given on p. 19.
It is apparent that these suffixes do not have a universal
meaning, since in the case of P8, V20, Aa30 and Aa32
the suffix "h" indicates
a rotation of 90 degrees counter-clockwise, whereas in the case of
T22, the rotation is 90 degrees clockwise.
- It is not clear whether the list includes signs for
numerals 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, etc. given on p. 19.
It is also not clear whether to include 4A and 8A.
The EGPZ specification
was proposed by Saqqara technology in June 2007.
It is somewhat of an oxymoron
in its ambition to obtain formal status while offering no verifiable
justifications for including a particular subset of signs from existing
lists, while creating total chaos by adopting and extending
a parallel and competing list of Gardiner names to those from
Unicode 5.2.