Determinative
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2008) |
A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an
Cuneiform
In
- 𒁹 (1 or m) for male personal names
- 𒊩 (f) for female personal name
- 𒄑 (GIŠ) for trees and all things made of wood
- 𒆳 (KUR) for countries
- 𒌷 (URU) for cities (but also often succeeding KI)
- 𒇽 (LÚ) for people and professions
- 𒇽𒈨𒌍 (MEŠ) for ethnicities or multiple people
- 𒀭 (DINGIR or d) for gods and other divinities
- 𒂍 (É) for buildings and temples
- 𒀯 (MUL) for stars and constellations
- 𒀀𒇉 (ÍD) (a ligature of A and ENGUR, transliterated: A.ENGUR) before canals or rivers in administrative texts
- 𒄷 (MUŠEN) for birds.
Egyptian
In Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, determinatives came at the end of a word. Nearly every word – nouns, verbs, and adjectives – features a determinative, some of which become rather specific: "Upper Egyptian barley" or "excreted things". It is believed that they were used as much as word dividers as for semantic disambiguation. Examples include 𓀀 (man), 𓁐 (woman) and 𓀭 (god/king).
Determinatives are generally not transcribed, but when they are, they are transcribed by their number in
Chinese
Some 90%[
Notes
- ^ a b c Edzard, 2003
- ^ Rude, Noel, "Graphemic classifiers in Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform", in Noun Classes and Categorization, edited by Colette G. Craig, pp. 133-138. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1986.
- ^ Hayes, John L., "A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts", Undena Publications, 2000
References
Edzard, Dietz Otto (2003). Sumerian Grammar. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Vol. 71. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
External links
- "Determinative Signs In Egyptian". Archived from the original on 20 December 2013.