period made use of this phonetic system along with the
ideographic system already described.

So fond were the Egyptians of their pictorial symbols used
ideographically that they clung to them persistently throughout
the entire period of Egyptian history. They used symbols as
phonetic equivalents very frequently, but they never learned to
depend upon them exclusively. The scribe always interspersed his
phonetic signs with some other signs intended as graphic aids.
After spelling a word out in full, he added a picture, sometimes
even two or three pictures, representative of the individual
thing, or at least of the type of thing to which the word
belongs. Two or three illustrations will make this clear.

Thus qeften, monkey, is spelled out in full, but the picture of a
monkey is added as a determinative; second, qenu, cavalry, after
being spelled, is made unequivocal by the introduction of a
picture of a horse; third, temati, wings, though spelled
elaborately, has pictures of wings added; and fourth, tatu,
quadrupeds, after being spelled, has a picture of a quadruped,
and then the picture of a hide, which is the usual determinative
of a quadruped, followed by three dashes to indicate the plural
number.

It must not be supposed, however, that it was a mere whim which
led the Egyptians to the use of this system of determinatives.
There was sound reason back of it. It amounted to no more than
the expedient we adopt when we spell "to," "two," or "too," in
indication of a single sound with three different meanings. The
Egyptian language abounds in words having more than one meaning,