Egyptian Hieroglyphics Alphabet

1. 1

   Find the letter you need

   The chart lists the sound signs used for English letters. Read across each row for the sign name, Gardiner number and the sound it represents.

2. 2

   Copy a single sign

   Press the copy button beside a sign to copy that hieroglyph as text. The sign can then be pasted into a document or message.

3. 3

   Write a name in the cartouche tool

   Type a name at the top of the page. The tool converts each letter to its sign and places the result inside an oval royal frame.

4. 4

   Print the chart

   Use the print button to make a clean paper copy of the alphabet for a classroom, a project or a study sheet.

Egyptian hieroglyphs are not a simple alphabet. A sign can stand for a sound, for a whole word or for a category that clarifies the meaning of a word. The chart selects the sound signs used to write English letters, so it is a practical alphabet rather than the full writing system.

Each row gives the sign a modern name such as Vulture, Foot or Owl.

Ancient Egyptian writing normally recorded consonants and left many vowels out. A reader supplied the vowels from the language and the context. That is why a modern transliteration can look like a string of consonants even when the original word was pronounced with several vowel sounds.

To write English names with hieroglyphs, people borrow signs for sounds that are close to the English letters. The result is a phonetic spelling, not a translation into the ancient language. For a long e or i, the reed sign is the usual choice; short vowels are often left out and supplied by the reader. The quail chick covers both u and w.

Some English letters do not have a separate sign in the traditional list. C and K share the basket sign, E and I share the reed, F and V share the horned viper, and U and W share the quail chick. When a sign is decoded, the first letter in the group is returned.

The letter X is written with two signs, a basket followed by a folded cloth. It is the only entry in this chart that uses more than one character. The decoder checks the two-sign group before it tries to read the signs separately.

The Sign column shows the hieroglyph, the Letter column shows the English letter or letters it can represent, and the Sound column gives the consonant value used by Egyptologists. The Name and Gardiner columns are reference labels for comparing the chart with a textbook.

Pronunciation hints are approximate; modern conventions add an e sound between consonants for convenience.

A cartouche is an oval loop around a royal name. The loop was a rope with a tie, and it marked where a name began and ended. The name tool on this page uses the same shape for decorative name writing.

The cartouche is a design object, not an official title. A name written this way is a transliteration; the oval makes it recognizable as Egyptian-style writing.

• Expecting one sign per English letter

  Some letters share a sign and X uses two signs. The chart is a workable mapping, not a one-to-one code.

• Reading hieroglyphs as a substitution cipher

  The signs represent sounds and ideas, not a secret alphabet for English. A letter-by-letter conversion is only a phonetic approximation.

• Ignoring the Gardiner number

  Two signs can look similar. The Gardiner code is the reliable way to compare a sign with a textbook or a museum record.