Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

Introduction. xxi
and xix. The twelve-paged specimen which he published only
illustrates the plan and arrangement of what he called the
'
Phonetic Division" of his Dictionary, and it is much to be
regretted that he did not issue specimens
of the other Divisions.
The above extracts from Birch's Preface and the specimen pages First
which are here given prove beyond all doubt that^ he had application
grasped of
"
for lexicographical principle to
the importance of the " phonetic principle
purposes, and that he was the first to apply it to the arrangement ^ Egyptian
of the words of the Egyptian language. He says that he borrowed
[the idea of] his " ideophonetic arrangement " from the Chinese,
a statement which should be noted. My colleague, Mr. L. Giles,
the Sinologist, informs me that though the Chinese had no alphabet
they developed a phonetic principle. Some eighty per cent, of
the characters of the language are made up of two parts, one
part serving as a phonetic and giving a clue to the SOUND of the
word, and the other as a " classifier," which gives a clue as to
its
1 MEANING i
2 the "classifiers" are in number about 214, and classifiers and
the phonetic symbols between 1,600 and 1,700. In the case of determina-
Egyptian the signs which are now called " determinatives " are
the equivalents of the " classifiers," and the alphabetic characters
are the equivalents of the phonetic symbols in Chinese texts.
Sad to relate, Birch's " Sketch " did not meet with sufficient
encouragement to induce the publisher to continue the publication
of the " Hieroglyphical Dictionary," and no more parts appeared.
CHAMPOLLION'S " DICTIONNAIRE EGYPTIEN EN ECRITURE
HlEROGLYPHIQUE."
tives.
Nothing more was done in the field of Egyptian lexicography champollion's
until 1841, when the " Dictionnaire Egyptien en ecriture hiero- " Dictionnaire
glyphique " of Champollion appeared at Paris under the careful
editorship of Champollion-Figeac. In a lengthy " Preface " the
editor describes the history of the Dictionary and the plan on
which it is arranged, and the untoward events which delayed its
publication ; and from it the following summary
has been made.
Even before 1822, the year in which Champollion published his
1
last edition.
See his article on the Chinese Language in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
1 A list of them is given in Dr. J. Marshman's Elements of Chinese Grammar.
Serampore, 1814. 4to, pp. 9-14. The " phonetic stage " in Chinese writing is
described and discussed in W. Hillier, The Chinese Language and how to learn it,
2nd edit., London, 1910, p. 3 ff . and in Dr. H. Allen Giles' China and the ;
Chinese,
New York, 1902, p. 29 ff., and 35.