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Do any of the letters require hieratic (cursive) rather than monumental hieroglyphic prototypes?

Asked 31 Oct 2026 by ·Part of Who invented the alphabet, and could they read Egyptian?·0 answers·0·0 following
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Hamilton's catalogue proposes hieratic prototypes for several letters; Goldwasser replies that every letter can be matched to a monumental hieroglyphic picture and that no cursive alphabetic text exists⁠[1]⁠[2]. Dobbs-Allsopp sees hieratic influence only later, in the fixing of right-to-left direction⁠[3].

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1
Test each letter against dated hieroglyphic and hieratic sign tables to see whether any requires a hieratic prototype.
~16 h
—not judged
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes

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  1. Session 1: raised the question
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