Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system used for monumental inscription in the classical language of the Middle Kingdom period during this period, the system used about 900 distinct signs. The use of hieroglyphic writing arose from proto-literate symbol systems in the Early Bronze Age, around the 32nd century BC ( Naqada III), with the first decipherable sentence written in the Egyptian language dating to the Second Dynasty (28th century BC). Colorful Hieroglyphs in the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut from the New Kingdom.

Through the Phoenician alphabet's major child systems (the Greek and Aramaic scripts), the Egyptian hieroglyphic script is ancestral to the majority of scripts in modern use, most prominently the Latin and Cyrillic scripts (through Greek) and the Arabic script, and possibly the Brahmic family of scripts (through Aramaic, Phoenician, and Greek). The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts were derived from hieroglyphic writing, as was the Proto-Sinaitic script that later evolved into the Phoenician alphabet. Cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters. For the distinction between, / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.Įgyptian hieroglyphs ( / ˈ h aɪ r ə ˌ ɡ l ɪ f s/, / ˈ h aɪ r oʊ ˌ ɡ l ɪ f s/) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Bengali ancient alphabet