Owl (hieroglyph)

Owl in hieroglyphs

The Ancient Egyptian Owl hieroglyph is Gardiner sign listed no. G17 for the owl-in-profile, but the head faces the observer.

The owl hieroglyph is used in the Ancient Egyptian language hieroglyphs for the alphabetic consonant letter m.^[1]

The Egyptian hieroglyph alphabetic letters

The following two tables show the Egyptian uniliteral signs. (24 letters, but multiple use hieroglyphs)

a	i	y	'	(w,u)	B
P	F	M	N	R	H1
H2	Kh1	Kh2	S	(Sh)=Š	Q/K2
K	G	T	Ch—Tj	D	Dj
L/(R) (special) (Ptolemaic, etc.)	--	--	--	--	--

a	i (ee)	y ii	' ah, (aïn)	w, (u) (oo)	B
P	F	M	N	R	H1
H2	(Kh)1	(Kh)2	S	Sh (Sh)	K emphatic
K	G	T	Tj Ch Tsh	D	Dj
(additionally 4 for vert/horiz)	--	--	--	--	--
M (horiz) M2-Plinth	N (vert) (see: N (red crown))	S (vert) S (folded cloth)			M (3rd-M -2nd-vert) M3-Baker's tool
(additionally 3 for equivalents)	--	--	--	--	--
(2-reeds) is— (2-strokes) y2-Two strokes	(quail) is— (coil) letter w, u (see w2-Coil)		T (no. 2) T2-Pestle

See also

• Plinth (hieroglyph)
• Gardiner's Sign List#G. Birds

References

1. ^ Schumann-Antelme, and Rossini, 1998. Illustrated Hieroglyphics Handbook, uniliteral: U16, p. 48-49.

• Schumann-Antelme, and Rossini, 1998. Illustrated Hieroglyphics Handbook, Ruth Schumann-Antelme, and Stéphane Rossini. c 1998, English trans. 2002, Sterling Publishing Co. (Index, Summary lists (tables), selected uniliterals, biliterals, and triliterals.) (softcover, ISBN 1-4027-0025-3)