Lettre à M. Dacier, ... relative à l'alphabet des hiéroglyphes phonétiques

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hieroglyphic script that it bears were a result of the petition from the priests who, indeed, speak there of the consecration of a similar monument, the cartouche oval frame of the feminine name could necessarily only be that of a Cleopatra. This name and that of Ptolemy, which in the Greek have several similar letters, were to serve for a comparative alignment of the hieroglyphic signs composing both; and if the similar signs in these two names expressed the same sounds in both cartouches, they would demonstrate their entirely phonetic sound-based nature.

A preliminary comparison had also led us to recognize that, in the demotic simplified cursive script, these same two names written phonetically employed several characters that were completely similar (1). The analogy of the three Egyptian scripts in their general progression led us to hope for the same encounter and the same relationships in these same names written hieroglyphically: this was immediately confirmed by the simple comparison of the hieroglyphic cartouche containing

(1) See my original: "Observations sur l'obélisque égyptien de l'île de Philæ" Observations on the Egyptian obelisk from the island of Philae, in the Encyclopedic Review, March 1822 issue; and the cartouche of the Rosetta inscription, following this memoir plate I, number 22.
(2) See my plate I, number 21.
(3) We owe to Mr. Letronne a learned explanation of this Greek inscription, published under this title: original: "Éclaircissemens sur une inscription grecque..." Clarifications on a Greek inscription, containing a petition of the priests of Isis, on the island of Philae, to Ptolemy Euergetes II, copied at Philae by Mr. Cailliaud in October 1816; read at the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. Paris, royal printing house, 1822, in-octavo. Regarding the two queens named Cleopatra mentioned together in the Inscription, see, according to the citation by Mr. Letronne, the original: "Annales des Lagides" Annals of the Lagids the Ptolemaic dynasty, by Mr. Champollion-Figeac, volume II, page 168.
(1) See plate I, number 2 or 14 and 17.