象形文字(hieroglyph)
几种文字体系的书写符号。本质上近似图画，但读出时不必如此。这个术语原本用於古埃及最古老的文字体系（参阅Egyptian language）。埃及象形文字的读法可依循图形（住宅区的表示方式代表着pr一词，即房屋）、语音（房屋的记号可有pr的读音）或相互关系（代表一物的记号可以代表另一个同音异义词）。和当代楔形文字不同，语音式象形文字代表辅音而非音节，所以没有书写母音的正规方式；传统上，埃及学家为了读出埃及文字，会把母音e插在辅音之间。中王国时期（西元前2050～西元前1750年）标准化的拼字法运用了约750个象形文字。在西元纪年的最初几个世纪里，象形文字的使用变少－－此种文字最後的标示日期是西元394年，而记号的意义亡佚，直到19世纪早期被解读出来为止（参阅J.-F. Champollion、Rosetta Stone）。「象形文字」一词一直用於相似的书写体系，特别是用来书写古安纳托利亚诸语言中的卢维语的文字，还有马雅人使用的文字（参阅Mayan hieroglyphic writing）。
English version：
hieroglyph
Character in any of several systems of writing that is pictorial in nature, though not necessarily in the way it is read. The term was originally used for the oldest system of writing Ancient Egyptian (see Egyptian language). Egyptian hieroglyphs could be read iconically (the representation of a house enclosure stood for the word pr, “house”), phonetically (the “house” sign could have the phonetic value pr), or associatively (a sign representing one thing could stand for a homophone meaning something else). Unlike contemporary cuneiform writing, phonetic hieroglyphs denoted consonants, not syllables, so there was no regular way to write vowels; by convention, Egyptologists insert the vowel e between consonants in order to pronounce Egyptian words. The standardized orthography of the Middle Kingdom (2050-1750 BC) employed about 750 hieroglyphs. In the early centuries AD, use of hieroglyphs declined—the last dated text is from AD 394—and the meaning of the signs was lost until their decipherment in the early 19th century (see J.-F. Champollion, Rosetta Stone). The term “hieroglyph” has been applied to similar systems of writing, notably a script used to write the ancient Anatolian language Luvian and a script used by the Mayas (see Mayan hieroglyphic writing).
