I don’t, but I know AE lacked some [ETA for accuracy - thanks, @Catsidhe ! - written] vowels.
They did have an ‘A,’ tho, as seen in the classic “Reblog if AAAAAAAAA” tumblr post…
8 Likes
It didn’t lack the sounds, but Hieroglyphics didn’t encode any vowels. It was a hybrid abjad. Hebrew and Arabic are at base abjads as well: even the letters which kind of go with vowels are actually consonants or semivowels: aleph/alif isn’t /a/, it’s the glottal stop /ʔ/. It’s just that it is typically (but not exclusively) associated with /a/. Yod isn’t /i/, it’s /j/. Waw isn’t /u/, it’s /w/. It’s just that they’re associated with the vowels.
The vulture hieroglyph isn’t “a”, it’s “ꜣ”, which is /ʔ/. It’s not “Ra”, it’s Rꜣ, which we pronounce “Ra”, and sometimes spell “Re” from historical habit. We don’t actually know what the vowel was, or even if it was open or closed syllables: was it /rɑʔ/, or /ræʔ/, or /rʌʔ/, or /rɔʔ/, or /rɑʔə/?
The “once you know the vowels” is a reference to the Stargate movie, where that’s the breakthrough to understanding the language spoken by the Goa’uld and their slaves.
14 Likes
ahem Ah, I’ve only seen it once, when it came out 
8 Likes
Ich habe das Original gesehen, nicht die brillante Neuverfilmung.
9 Likes
I thought we got “Rē” from later Coptic – and possibly Demotic, which I don’t know much about – rather than just having invented it from convention.
9 Likes
I think you’re right: Coptic via Champollion, but even then, it can give us only hints about the ancient Egyptian pronunciation. A lot can happen in four thousand years.
My understanding of Demotic was that it’s a cursive form of hieroglyphic, not a fundamentally different script. A quick look at a transliteration table shows letters for aleph, yod,
waw, and ‘e’. I don’t think they wrote Ra down in Greek during the Ptolemaic era either. I’m not an Egyptologist, though.
9 Likes
This is what memes are for…
Most Excellent
10 Likes
I got to see SRV about 2 months before he died. It was a really good show, but a really weird double bill with Joe Cocker. SRV was him and a very small band - I think just a couple of other people. Joe Cocker had a huge stage full of dancing girls and horn sections and so much going on. It was 2, 2, 2 concerts in one. But it was just so dissonant. I’m glad I got to see him live, though.
12 Likes
20 Likes
Also… I want to meet the first person who figured out how to make a musical instrument… whether a drum or a flute or something else. How did they get to the point of figuring it out and making it a reality.
11 Likes
YESSSSSS!!!
I’m particularly curious about whoever invented string instruments, but I’d do time travel for any of the inventions. Yes, even bagpipes.
10 Likes
I saw him in the first half of ‘86, supported by the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The encore was Stevie and Jimmie playing “Scuttle Buttin’” on the same twin-neck Strat, swapping solos (and necks). Amazing.
6 Likes
I want to know that Ernest Shepard saw that painting
6 Likes
Percussion was the first. Banging two rocks together.
Immediately next: yodelling.
15 Likes
yes. yodeling when one smashes one’s finger between those “musical” rocks!
14 Likes
7 Likes
It’s hard to know where to go.
8 Likes
Another thing I’d time travel to see in person…
8 Likes