phonetic determinative

English

Etymology

The Egyptological sense was apparently coined by Alan Gardiner in his 1927–1957 Egyptian Grammar.

Noun

phonetic determinative (plural phonetic determinatives)

1. (Egyptology) a type of hieroglyph that functions similarly to a phonogram, representing a series of consonants, but is unable to function autonomously and must follow other phonograms that together represent the same consonants
   • 1987, Roger Herz-Fischler, A Mathematical History of Division in Extreme and Mean Ratio, page 52:

     Now if we look at the meaning of the five-rayed star (Fig. III-1,c,i) as an Egyptian hieroglyph [Gardiner, 1957, 487, symbols N13,14,15], we find that when the star was alone it was used as an ideogram or determinative (sometimes it was also used phonetically or as a phonetic determinative) in various words having to do with stars or constellations.

   • 2008, Susan T. Hollis, The Ancient Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers”: A Mythological, Relgious, Literary, and Historico-Political Study, page 65:

     Although the standing ram, fully articulated and thus suggesting vitality, can function as a generic determinative, it also appears in the primary position, often accompanied by a phonetic determinative: either the flaming bꜣ-pot or the nẖnm-vase for ẖnm.

   • 2012, Toby A. H. Wilkinson, Royal Annals Of Ancient Egypt, page 116:

     It is difficult to know whether the boat hieroglyph was merely intended as an ideogram, or as a phonetic determinative for the verb ḫd, ‘to fare downstream’.

   • 2015, Stéphane Polis, Serge Rosmorduc, “The Hieroglyphic Sign Functions: Suggestions for a Revised Taxonomy”, in Fuzzy Boundaries: Festschrift Für Antonio Loprieno, I, page 168:

     At this point, one can notice that “entire words entering bodily into the writing of etymologically unrelated words” is not a phenomenon limited to the so-called “phonetic determinatives”.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see phonetic,‎ determinative.