Introduction to the Hungarian Interpretation of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Borbola János
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9. Summary
- The colorful Egyptian hieroglyphs are not decorations, but an intelligent, fluid writing, the written form of the ancient language spoken in the Nile-Valley.
- The Egyptian writing can be continually followed from archaic times, through the end of the Greco/Roman age, thanks to the multitude of surviving inscriptions. There is no need to apply (pseudo) scientific methods to form hypothetical words - marked by stars (" * ") in the literature - and trace these back to the past, following the erroneous methodology applied to the Finno-Ugric system. The signs, carved into stone, may still be admired today, from the perspective of thousands of years.
- Among the hieroglyphs we find only quantitative changes over the years. The forms and phonetic characteristics of the hieroglyphs were inherited in unchanged forms, but with the passage of time, newer signs were added to the existing ones.
- The hieroglyphic writing is a mixed writing: it is an interwoven system of signs, syllables and independent consonants, which complement one another.
- Every hieroglyph has - apart from its obvious pictographic value - an independent phonetic value too. (Champollion).
- The hieroglyphic writing is a mixed writing where the pictographic-system was assembled according to the phonetic-values of the signs. Its objective is to set down speech in pictographic form. Thus the language of the Nile-Valley is a hieroglyphic mixed writing which rests upon a phonetic base.
- Based on the above, we may also conclude that hieroglyphic writing is inseparably tied to the ancient language. Consequently without the knowledge of its structure, phonetics and vocabulary it is unreadable. In practical terms, this writing could only be written and read in one language. The spoken language of the people of the Nile Valley.
- Due to these attributes, the ancient phonetic-forms cannot be exchanged for newer sounds! Consider the impossibility of regular phonetic-changes within the same language, or the arbitrary introduction, in the case of the Middle Kingdom, of the Semitic sound-forms and structures. Under such conditions, the writing would have lost its phonetic basis and its continuity.
- Lacking the exact knowledge of the sound values of the hieroglyphs, the exchange by hypothetical consonantal structures (transliteration) - cannot be read directly; these can only be submitted to analysis.
- This morphological and syntactical process of making the hieroglyphs correspond to their presumed meaning is known as an analytical translation. Today, this duality prevails in linguistic studies: although no one is able to read a text directly, the syntactical analysis is declared to be an acceptable procedure to make the text understood. In other words, it is sufficient to make the hieroglyphs correspond to a pre-determined set of meanings. Thus, the visual aspects of the pictures and the ancient role of their phonetic forms are considered only secondary. The rich finds of murals, statues, and the "talking" multitude of pictographic signs (pictures of living entities, objects), together with the applied analysis has resulted in the belief, maintained to this day, that the hieroglyphic writing has been deciphered.
- However the reality is that, even with a 180 year effort on the part of the professional linguists, this ancient language still cannot be spoken. The connecting/governing role of the text-forming phonetics which constitutes the base of hieroglyphic writing is missing. The reason: the system of analysis, morphology, syntax and phonetics is inaccurate. We must repeat that without the identification of the three pillars of a language which structurally complement one another (vocabulary, grammatical system and phonetics) one can arbitrarily establish any extinct or insular language, especially if one makes the elements arbitrarily fit according some discretionary evaluation of the hieroglyphs.
Finally we may conclude that the continuous writing preserved, and protected a once existing culture and its mediator, the language of the Nile-Valley, which is identical to our dear mother-tongue, the ancestor of the Hungarian language.
The above reflects, only the summary of our research. In order to follow the ancient texts one needs to immerse oneself far deeper in their study. Being a pictographic and consonantal-writing, we have to familiarize ourselves with its resulting unique structure, while we are forced to 'struggle' with the confusion stemming from the immense richness of the Hungarian vocabulary. In addition, it is not enough to speak today's vernacular language, since we know almost nothing about the real roots of our language. For this reason, the research of the Hungarian language has to be placed upon a new foundation. The familiarization with its ancient phonetic and structural system, the re-evaluation of our vocabulary along with the direct reading of hieroglyphs have to be placed again on the linguistic and historical research agenda.
There is a long road ahead! At present, we can see only the ever more forcefully emerging outlines of our ancestral language and with it the culture of our people. The discovery of the missing details and links, their evaluation and organization necessitates further, harmonious effort
The Sun will rise again and illuminate our path.
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