Why did Egyptians use pictures instead of words?

Answer 1

The use of hieroglyphics is a very ancient way to visually record language. We are introduced to our modern alphabet at a very early age, and for us it seems odd that alphabets were not always the method of visually encoding language. Alphabets seem downright simplistic, but they are in fact very sophisticated systems. Imagine a time before any form of writing. Even the concept of visually encoding language might seem odd, useless or impossible. It must have been an amazing insight on the part of one or many people across cultures that there was a need to record words, and that a way to do it could be developed. I bet that a collection of dozens of abstract squiggles, meaningless on their own, (letters) would not have been the first thought on anyone's mind. Representations of real objects, and then perhaps representations of religious/cultural symbols would have been a more likely starting point. The history of the alphabet is quite interesting and thought-provoking. If you check this history, be sure to find out what linguists have to say about it, too. See links for more information.

Answer 2

This sounds like a good time to think about what it means to make assumptions. Assumptions are not always bad if you are aware that you are making them. The ancient Egyptians certainly used words. We know a lot about the language of that time. The hieroglyphic writing that you are talking about was a very ancient form of writing, even for most of the ancient Egyptians! They had a form of common writing which is nothing like hieroglyphics and similar in some ways to our English longhand writing. For most of Egypt'sancient history hieroglyphic writing was used primarily for religious texts and rituals and it was known only to the priests and some scribes. In later periods it was probably as strange even to the priests as it is to most of us.

The writing makes use of many pictographs. Some of them actually represent the object pictured, but not all of them. Some of them represent certain sounds in much the same way that letters represent sounds in standard English. The sounds though are often too complex for one of our letters to represent. It would be easy to assume that what we call words can only be formed in the way that we do it, but hieroglyphics is proof that there are other ways. You can have a little fun twisting your brain for a few minutes by making believe that a smart and friendly space alien visits you and asks: "Why do you use groups of letters instead of words?" See what I mean?

Answer 3

Because writing with letters representing all the sounds of a language had not yet been invented.

Answer 4

because they wanted to be unique