sign grouping

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sign grouping

The basic rule of Middle Egyptian writing is ``scribes hate voids''. So the signs tend to fill the available space. Compare the following text:

$\begin{hieroglyph} {\leavevmode \Hunh{\Aca D/37/}\Hrp \Hunh{\Aca N/35/}\Hrp \Hun... ...p \Hunh{\Aca D/38/}\Hrp \Hunh{\Aca V/31/}\Hrp \Hunh{\Aca G/46/}}\end{hieroglyph}$

with the way it's really written:

$\begin{hieroglyph} {\leavevmode \Hbt{\HhbtI{\Aca D/37/}\Hhbt{\Aca N/35/}\Hhbt{\A... ...T/25/}\Hhbt{\Aca D/38/}\Hhbt{\Aca V/31/}}\Hrp \Hunh{\Aca G/46/}}\end{hieroglyph}$

The aesthetic considerations are very important in hieroglyphs. Sometimes, sign-order is changed for the sake of space-filling only. For writing $\fegy {tA}$ , ``this'', the normal form is $\htimage {\begin{hieroglyph} {\leavevmode \Hunh{\Aca X/1/}\Hrp \Hunh{\Aca G/1/}}\end{hieroglyph}}$ , but a space is left after the bird. So, the word is often written: $\htimage {\begin{hieroglyph} {\leavevmode \Hunh{\Aca G/1/}\Hrp \negAROBspace\neg... ...ce\Hbt{\HhbtI{{\Hsmaller\Hsmaller\Aca X/1/}}\Hhbt{\Hqrtesp }}}\end{hieroglyph}}$ .

Serge Rosmorduc
2/26/1998