Representing the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus). The sharp “corner” at the back of the head represents a tuft of feathers sticking out; other details sometimes shown include a featherless area at the base of the beak and a lean, thinly feathered neck. This glyph was conventionally polychrome. The oldest depictions color the wings blue or grey, but later they become green; the glyph as a whole is polychrome, with a largely yellow head, and yellow or red feet. (Less careful representations are sometimes all yellow, all blue, or nearly all white.) The phonetic value of ꜣ is derived by the rebus principle from its use as a logogram for ꜣ(“Egyptian vulture, bird”). Compare the Chinese character 鳥.
This glyph should not be confused with the extremely similar
(𓅂, a buzzard), which serves as a phonogram for tjw and has a more rounded back of the head. In some inscriptions the two could also be distinguished by their colors, the buzzard being largely yellow with red details.
Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 467
Henry George Fischer (1988) Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN
Betrò, Maria Carmela (1995) Geroglifici: 580 Segni per Capire l'Antico Egitto, Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., →ISBN
Peust, Carsten (1999) Egyptian Phonology: An Introduction to the Phonology of a Dead Language[1], Göttingen: Peust und Gutschmidt Verlag GbR, page 48
Nina Davies, Picture Writing in Ancient Egypt (1958): "Pl. IV, 1. Egyptian Vulture. Phonetic ꜣ 'vulture' (G1). From the tomb of Rekhmire (no. 100). White ground. Although the bird in outline differs little from the long-legged buzzard (G4, our Pl. IV, 3) with which the Egyptians sometimes confused it, there is no resemblance in the painted examples and these do not vary." [Plate depicts the vulture wih blue-green wings and mostly yellow head and feet, the buzzard entirely yellow with red feather-details on the wings and tail.]
