Thanks for the insight, Steve.
Robert
Robert
--- In [email protected], Stephen Ryan <stephen.ryan@3...> wrote:
> i found these sources:
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The word in Egyptian for "to transform" or "to come into existence" is
'kheper' and is written with the hieroglyph for a beetle . As a
result of its activity, the beetle became the embodiment of the
creator god Khepri, who brought the sun from the underworld and moved
it through the sky. The god Khepri is represented as a man with a dung
beetle for a head.
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... we are lucky that hieroglyphs often indicate sounds, rather than
ideas. A picture of an owl indicates the sound "M"; a dungbeetle
"KH-P-R" ("KH" indicates the sound we hear in Scottisch "loCH" or
Hollandish-Dutch "Gaaf" -- not Limburgian-Dutch "Gaaf").
As you see only consonants (BCDFG) are written, no vowels (AEOIU).
From what we know about languages in general and Ancient Egyptian in
particular, these vowels could be reconstructed, but in practice,
Egyptologists use a short "E" everywhere. Thus, "KH-P-R" is pronounced
*by Egyptologists* as "KHEPER" to have at least something to utter.
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-Steve