The idea that symbols could be used to represent the sounds of a language rather than represent real objects,
is known as the "rebus principle" and is one of the most significant ancient discoveries leading to the
development of writing. Not only did this principle apply to the development of the Ancient Egyptian
written language, but it was also the precursor to the development of the alphabets used in modern
languages as well.
A rebus in a message spelt out in pictures that represents sounds rather than the things they are pictures
of, for example the picture of an eye, a bee and a leaf can be put together to form the Englisg rebus
meaning "I be-lieve" , which has nothing to do with eyes, bees or leaves. Consider the following two
examples, the picture of an eye and a deer, makes 'idea' and the picture of an eye, sea and a ewe, says
"I see you" The principle is adopted in many parts of the Ancient Egyptian system of spelling with
hieroglyphs.
The term"rebus" can refer to the use of one or more pictograms representing one or more phonograms,
in the beginning. Ancient Egyptian writing relied heavily on pictographic signs concrete objects.
Words which cannot be represented easily by means of a picture, such as proper names, ideas and
function words, were difficult to write. The rebus principle provided the means to overcome this
limitation. Fully developed hieroglyphs read in rebus fashion were in use at Abydos Egypt as early
as 3400 BC.
A famous Ancient Egyptian rebus statue of Rameses II consists of three hieroglyphic elements. A
large falcon representing Horus the sun god - RA, who is standing behind a sitting child, - MES, and
the child is holding a sedge plant stalk in his left hand - SU. Remember we are not looking at these
hieroglyphs from the perspective phonograms. These three items compose the rebus RA-MES-SU or
we prefer Ramesses.
Two main types of sound writing evolved from the development and extension of the rebus
principle; syllabic and alphabetic writing. The English langue is purely alphabetic, although
from the example of the rebuses, it can be seen how easy it is to construct a syllabic from
English words, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs can demonstrate both by types of writing.
It is even possible to compose a rebus that is both of an alphabetic and syllabic nature, for
example:-
.
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