Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary (Books on Egypt and Cbalbca) Paperback – Illustrated, 8 Feb. 2007

Why the Title? A Dictionary normally supplies a straight meaning, but this one demonstrates how Ancient Egyptians tended to group words into categories - so it has the touch of a Thesaurus about it.In my case I’ma working my way through the 25th Chapter of the Book of the Dead in 'The Egyptian Language' by E.A. Wallis Budge (an amazing man for producing so many useful aids for would-be Egyptologists). He supplies a trans-literation and a translation in that work & here’s the key: he also produced THIS Dictionary so look up the word here & there’s a slight difference ,HERE, I suggest you use the INDEX of this book showing the meaning your knowledge expands as here: HOMAGE (‘netch’) is expanded by BOW IN HOMAGE (‘kes’) & BOWINGS (‘kesu’). For me that is a path AWAY from complete acceptance. Did the original convey such subtlety? Possibly not – but the more you study that civilisation the more to exercise your brain. On P 207, for example ‘nefer’ covers to be good/ happy/ beautiful/ gracious/ well-doing. Ever meant somebody with all that?How does this come to happen? Each discovery of ‘nefer’ in ancient scripts comes immersed with in differing requirements/ styles. So welcome to the wardrobe that was Ancient Egypt.An easy 5 points.

On first seeing this volume I was disappointed in the quality of the production. Some Hieroglyphic phrases have elements missing off the end of the phrase and additional information, not attached at the bottom of the page, has been omitted on turning over to the next page. Editing and proof reading have been less than perfect. However, as for content, it is exactly what I have been searching for and I have learnt a great deal from studying it already. It is a book I keep to hand and refer to regularly when attempting transliterations. I would hate to be without a volume now.

Having loved anything to do with Egypt it was great to find this dictionary and begin to understand the mysteries of this ancient language