phonetic determinative

plural phonetic determinatives

1. Egyptologya type of hieroglyph that functions similarly to a phonogram, representing a series of consonants, but is unable to function autonomously and must follow other phonograms that together represent the same consonants

   It is difficult to know whether the boat hieroglyph was merely intended as an ideogram, or as a phonetic determinative for the verb ḫd, ‘to fare downstream’.

   2012, Toby A. H. Wilkinson, Royal Annals Of Ancient Egypt, page 116

   3 more examples

   Now if we look at the meaning of the five-rayed star (Fig. III-1,c,i) as an Egyptian hieroglyph [Gardiner, 1957, 487, symbols N13,14,15], we find that when the star was alone it was used as an ideogram or determinative (sometimes it was also used phonetically or as a phonetic determinative) in various words having to do with stars or constellations.

   1987, Roger Herz-Fischler, A Mathematical History of Division in Extreme and Mean Ratio, page 52

   Although the standing ram, fully articulated and thus suggesting vitality, can function as a generic determinative, it also appears in the primary position, often accompanied by a phonetic determinative: either the flaming bꜣ-pot or the nẖnm-vase for ẖnm.

   2008, Susan T. Hollis, The Ancient Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers”: A Mythological, Relgious, Literary, and Historico-Political Study, page 65

   At this point, one can notice that “entire words entering bodily into the writing of etymologically unrelated words” is not a phenomenon limited to the so-called “phonetic determinatives”.

   2015, Stéphane Polis, Serge Rosmorduc, “The Hieroglyphic Sign Functions: Suggestions for a Revised Taxonomy”, in Fuzzy Boundaries: Festschrift Für Antonio Loprieno, I, page 168

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see phonetic, determinative.