Learn › How hieroglyphs work

Egyptian transliteration explained: what ꜣ, ꜥ, ḥ and ḫ mean

14 October 2026

Egyptian transliteration writes hieroglyphs in Latin letters, one letter for each consonant the signs spell. The odd-looking letters stand for sounds English has no letter for: ꜣ and ꜥ are both said “a” by convention, ḥ is a strong h, ḫ is the kh of Scottish loch. There are no vowels because the hieroglyphs never wrote them.

So when a book prints ꜥnḫ, read it ankh. ḥtp is hotep, and ḏḥwty, the god Thoth, is Djehuty. Each special letter matches one sign of the hieroglyph alphabet, which makes transliteration a key for sounding out a wall as well as a page.

Each special letter has its own sign

Egyptologists say these letters in a fixed, agreed way. The agreed sound is a reading aid. The ancient sound was often different, and for some letters it is still debated.

ꜣ, vulture G1: said “a”, probably once r- or l-like
ꜥ, forearm D36: said “a”, a throat sound like Arabic ʿayn
ḥ, twisted wick V28: a strong, breathy h
ḫ, placenta Aa1: kh, as in Scottish loch
ẖ, belly with udder F32: a softer kh, as in German ich
š, pool N37: sh, as in ship
q or ḳ, sandy hill N29: a k from deep in the throat
ṯ, tethering rope V13: tj, close to the ch of church
ḏ, cobra I10: dj, close to the j of jump

Egyptian vulture Forearm Twisted flax wick Placenta Belly with udder Pool Sandy hill Tethering rope Cobra

A small mark changes the sound of a letter

Most special letters are a plain letter with a mark, and the mark changes the sound. Plain h is the reed shelter O4, ḥ the wick V28. Plain t is the bread loaf X1, ṯ the tethering rope V13. Plain d is the hand D46, ḏ the cobra I10. Plain k is the basket V31, q the sandy hill N29.

The crook S38 writes ḥqꜣ, “ruler”, said heqa: a strong h, a deep k and the vulture's a. The cloth on a pole R8 writes nṯr, “god”, said netjer. The pillar R11 writes ḏd, “stable”, said djed. The belly sign F32 with the loaf X1 writes ẖt, “body”, said khet.

Reed shelter Bread loaf Hand Basket with handle

Tutankhamun is written twt-ꜥnḫ-imn

His birth name is transliterated twt-ꜥnḫ-imn, “living image of Amun”. In the cartouche, Amun's name comes first out of respect for the god: the reed M17 for i, the game board Y5 for mn, the water ripple N35 repeating the n. It is still read last.

Then twt: bread loaf X1 for t, quail chick G43 for w, loaf again for t. The convention says w as u, so twt becomes Tut. Next the ankh S34 writes all three consonants of ꜥnḫ at once: ꜥ said a, then n, then ḫ said kh: ankh. Finally imn, with i said a here, is Amun (some books write Amen).

Put together, they make Tut-ankh-amun. Hyphens in a transliteration join the parts of one name or phrase. A full stop sets off a suffix, as in ḫꜥ.f-rꜥ, Khafre, “he appears like Ra”, where .f is “he”.

Flowering reed Game board Ripple of water Quail chick Ankh

Write Tutankhamun's cartouche

French and English spell Hatshepsut differently

Her name is ḥꜣt-špswt, “foremost of noble women”. The lion's forepart F4 writes ḥꜣt, “front”: ḥ said h, ꜣ said a, then t, which gives Hat. Then špswt: š said sh, p, s, w said u, t. An e slipped between š and p makes Shepsut.

English writes š as sh, so English books print Hatshepsut. French writes the same sound ch, so French books print Hatchepsout. The transliteration ḥꜣt-špswt is the same in both.

Forepart of a lion Noble on a chair holding a flail

Books follow more than one house style

Transliteration has more than one house style. The reed M17 is printed i in many English grammars, sometimes with a hook above it, and j in many recent and German-language works. The sandy hill N29 is ḳ, a dotted k, in older literature and q in modern publications. Their sound is the same either way.

Some letters merged over time. The door bolt O34 is z in Old Egyptian. By Middle Egyptian it was said like the folded cloth S29, so some books write both as s. The vulture ꜣ is harder still: scholars think it began as a kind of r or l and later became a glottal stop or a y-like sound.

The letters also hide real sounds. Saying ꜣ and ꜥ both as a is pure convenience: ꜥ was almost certainly a consonant from the throat, as in Arabic. Every sign page on the site gives the transliteration next to its picture and its spoken form.

Door bolt Folded cloth

Browse the signs and their letters

Questions

How can we read Egyptian at all if no vowels were written?

The consonants carry the meaning, and grammar, determinatives and context do the rest. Later stages of the language help with the sounds: Coptic, written in Greek-based letters, records the vowels of many words.

What is the difference between transliteration and translation?

Transliteration swaps each sign's sound for a Latin letter: ꜥnḫ. Translation gives the meaning in English: “life”. Egyptologists print both, transliteration first.

How do I type ꜣ and ꜥ?

Both have their own Unicode characters, the Egyptological alef and ayin. Older texts and websites made do with 3 or A for ꜣ and a for ꜥ, or with look-alikes such as ȝ and ʿ.

Why does something like bḥ look unpronounceable?

Transliteration shows only consonants, so a group can be two letters with no vowel. Add the conventional e between them and bḥ is said beh.

Glossary

ankh: The sign of life, ꜥnḫ, a cross with a loop on top. Gods hold it out to kings in temple scenes.
birth name: The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
cartouche: An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
Coptic: The last stage of the Egyptian language, written in Greek letters with a few extra letters taken from demotic. The Coptic Church still uses it, and it showed scholars how Egyptian words sounded.
determinative: A sign at the end of a word that is not read aloud. It shows what kind of thing the word means, such as a seated man for men and their jobs.
hieroglyphs: The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
transliteration: Writing Egyptian in Latin letters, one letter for each sound sign, such as ꜥnḫ for ankh. Egyptologists say the words with an e between consonants.