How did ancient egyptians come up with the hieroglyphics?

Answer 1

The writing system of the ancient Egyptians is extremely complex and must have developed gradually over a long period of time - our knowledge about this development is very limited, so it is not possible to give a definitive answer.

One of the obvious ways the writing developed is by association, using words in the ancient Egyptian language. The word for a mouth in ancient Egyptian is r (that is, the consonant r + a vowel that was not written). Ignoring the unwritten vowel, the picture of a mouth could be used to write the sound r in words that have nothing to do with mouths.

Similarly one word for a house is pr (p + an unknown vowel + r); by ignoring the unwritten vowel the sign of the ground plan of a house can be used to write many other words that include the sounds pr but have nothing to do with houses, such as pry (hero or champion), prw (excess or surplus) and prr (to advance against an enemy position) - this last word simply combines the signs for house and mouth.

Obviously hieroglyphs were designed only to write the ancient Egyptian language and sounds are included that are not found in many other languages, such as English.

Answer 2

They developed hieroglyphs very simply by using the names of everyday objects that could be depicted with symbols.

For example, the ancient Egyptian word for a mouth was r + an unknown vowel. Ignoring this vowel (since hieroglyphs never wrote any vowels), you can draw the shape of a mouth seen from the front and used it to express the sound r.

The word for a house was p+an unknown vowel+r = p-r. Ignoring the vowel, this could be used to write other words that sound similar, such as the verb "to go out" or the word meaning "an estate"; in such cases an additional sign was added to help confirm which word was meant. So the sign for a house plus the sign of two legs (indicating motion) was read pr, "to go out".

The word for a knife in ancient Egyptian was s+an unknown vowel+sh+an unknown vowel+m = s.sh.m. This could be used to write words that sounded similar, such as the noun meaning procedure or conduct, which probably had the same consonants but different vowels.

This is like taking the English word "hat" (which could easily be drawn with a recognisable picture) and using it to express the words "hot", "hit" or "heat", using other signs to confirm which one is intended.

Answer 3

The writing system of the ancient Egyptians is extremely complex and must have developed gradually over a long period of time - our knowledge about this development is very limited, so it is not possible to give a definitive answer.

One of the obvious ways the writing developed is by association, using words in the ancient Egyptian language. The word for a mouth in ancient Egyptian is r (that is, the consonant r + a vowel that was not written). Ignoring the unwritten vowel, the picture of a mouth could be used to write the sound r in words that have nothing to do with mouths.

Similarly one word for a house is pr (p + an unknown vowel + r); by ignoring the unwritten vowel the sign of the ground plan of a house can be used to write many other words that include the sounds pr but have nothing to do with houses, such as pry (hero or champion), prw (excess or surplus) and prr (to advance against an enemy position) - this last word simply combines the signs for house and mouth.

Obviously hieroglyphs were designed only to write the ancient Egyptian language and sounds are included that are not found in many other languages, such as English.

Answer 4

The origins of Egyptian writing are simply too ancient and obscure to form any kind of theories. We do know that both hieroglyphs and hieratic script (a more cursive form of the same signs) seem to have developed at the same time, but how this was accomplished is unknown.

Without further discoveries of the very earliest written texts there is not enough evidence to answer your question.