This determinative was originally two separate signs, one with a seated man putting his hand to his mouth as a determinative for eating, and one where the seated man’s hand did not touch the mouth but was depicted palm-outward as a determinative for speech, intellect, and exclamations. Later the latter sign was subsumed by the former. This and other glyphs depicting men conventionally color the skin red; the hair is typically black, and the clothing white (sometimes with black outlines or details).
During the Heracleopolitan Period, confusion of this sign with the seated man
(
𓀀) resulted in the use of a variant of
with a
standing man putting his hand to his mouth.
- Determinative for eating and drinking, as in wnm (“to eat”), zwr (“to drink”), ḥqr (“to be hungry”).
- Determinative for speech and exclamations, as in j (“O!; to say”), sḏd (“to recount”), gr (“to be silent”).
- Determinative for thinking and feeling, as in kꜣj (“to plan”), mrj (“to love”).
- Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 442
- Betrò, Maria Carmela (1995) Geroglifici: 580 Segni per Capire l'Antico Egitto, Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., →ISBN
- Henry George Fischer (1988) Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 15