How did Ancient Egyptians say numbers? Since they wrote them in bases of ten I'd think pronouncing each hieroglyph would take ages

by readitlikeireddit
Koalaonion310

Hello, Egyptology Student here!

We cannot say for sure how anything was pronounced in the ancient egyptian Times. The sounds we use to communicate the words are just a theory of how things might have sounded. Please Note that even though Middle egyptian has an alphabet, not every Hieroglyph is its own letter. Some have up to three consonants to them, others are not transliterated/ spoken at all because they are determinatives for example.

Here is how an Egyptologist would pronounce the numbers in the middle egyptian language: (I will only do the pronunciation since you won't be able to properly pronounce the Transliteration because you haven't learned how to)

1: "wa" maskulin , "wat" feminine 2: "senu/i" mask. , "senti" fem. 3: "chemet" (ch like a cat hissing) mask. , "chemetet" fem. 4: "fedu" mask. , "fedet" fem. 5: "du" mask. , "det" fem. 6: "Su" mask. , "set" fem. 7: " shefchu" (ch like the cat) mask. , "sefechet" fem. 8: "chemenu" (ch like the cat) mask., "chemenet" fem. 9: "pesedu" mask. , "pesedet" fem. 10: "medu" 20: (unclear) 30: "maba" 40: "hem" 50: "diu" 60: "isu" 70: "sefechu" (ch like the cat) 80: "chemenuu" (ch like the cat) 90: "pesedu" 100: "set" ( s like the german "sch", like Garden shed) 200: "seti"/" "senti" (like the sch sound) 300 - 900: (unclear) 1 000: "deba" 10 000: "hefen"

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE MULTIPLE LANGUAGES IN ANCIENT EGYPT. THIS IS JUST MIDDLE EGYPTIAN FROM THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (there is also early egyptian, late egyptian, ptolemaic etc.)

Source:

Gardiner, A. (1959) "Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs", London, p. 191-192.