Hieroglyphic Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Middle Egyptian Language Paperback – December 17, 2012

Started with Dr. Pettys' "Understanding Hieroglyphic Inscriptions" and liked it so much that I now have 5 of his books. The great thing is that none of them are overwhelming, very easy to follow and extremely interesting. He doesn't overwhelm you, many would be students make the mistake of going to Allens "Middle Egyptian" and give up a few pages into it. Allen certainly is a great book, which I also have, but trust me, start with Petty, then Collier and Manley. At the prices for his books, well worth the investment.

This is now my new "go-to" hieroglyphic dictionary. It's compact and has everything you need, especially at the beginning of your studies. The book is beautifully printed, and the information contained therein is priceless. I've only noticed a couple of typos in the English translations; however, it does not make the book any less brilliant or valuable. Bravo!

This is a very simple dictionary with a brief half page introduction and a sizeable wordlist. There is nothing else, so for anyone looking to learn hieroglyphs, this is a pure dictionary which will supplement textbooks such as Allen or Collier & Manley. The size and binding are good and will last some time even with constant thumb throughs.I'm particularly happy about the organization of the dictionary, it is in alphabetical order (A, i, y, a, w, b, p....), and they provide a helpful bar at the top that bolds the letter you are on. On the left, it also has the first two letters. This is extremely helpful since a lot of signs are still foreign to me and getting the transliterated letters help orient me in the dictionary. Once you've found the word, it lists the hieroglyphic text, the transliteration and the English word. It does not tell you parts of speech, verb type, etc.Since I'm a beginner and still in the early stages of learning there's not much I can say about the accuracy of the text. The actually quantity of words covered is quite good, but I've already encountered a few odd gaps. It is missing a few common words (to go, to rise) from my exercises. Nevertheless, it covers almost everything I needed as a beginner and has been much handier than using online resources or going into the glossaries of a textbook.

Instead of combing through the translations of Budge of Egyptian transliterations and translations you get a vocabulary that will aid in the reading of any Middle Egyptian texts. For years I have been frustrated by the Budge transliterations and translations as I am no more than a Egyptophile not an Egyptologist. What Bill Petty, PhD. has done is make the language od heiroglyphics more accessible to te general public. If you have Sir Alan Gardner's Egyptian Grammer (someone should make it more accessible to the 21st Century student), Mark Collier and Bill Manley's How to Read Egyptian Heiroglyphics and this book you can get a fighting chance to read on your own any inscription you run across.

Well packaged and arrived early. The book is very informative.

This is a great resource. I've been reading hieroglyphs for over 20 years, and I learned stuff from this book! It's great for beginners or experts. I would 100% recommend!

Very good for quickly looking up a word due to the phonetic alphabet being printed at the top of every page with the current leading character in bold. It would be perfect for me if it included parts of speech, verb root classes and Gardiner codes for determinants and ideograms.

Petty has done a good job in collating the commonly received meanings of Egyptian words; and as he says, his book has more entries than Faulkner — or than Gardiner, of course. That said, occasionally he fails to pick up relatively common words.It's a small, thin book (1st photo), achieved by being very summary (2d photo). In that second photo, notice two other things. One is good: he student is helped out with the bizarre standard Egyptological "alphabetical" order by the strip at the top of each page. The other is bad: the book doesn't lie flat, here I use a heavy file card box to keep the left page from flapping shut; that can get irritating.