Reading the hieroglyphs in Welsh!
Brecon Men’s Shed (based at Brecon Volunteer Bureau) continues its ongoing series of talks, presentations and demonstrations on various interesting subjects with Ross Broadstock from Britain’s Hidden History at 10AM on Saturday 6th November 2021.
Ross will be explaining the Britain’s Hidden History project and how ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics can be read in Welsh via the old Cymraeg (Khumric) language, as detailed in his book “Cymroglyphics” that shows how easy it is to do.
“It’s just like a game of Pictionary really…” said Ross, “Just look at the item that has been drawn as a hieroglyph and say what it is in Welsh.
For example, you will often see a goose appear in hieroglyphs. The Welsh word for Goose is Gwydd. Quite often Welsh words have more than one meaning and this is the key to showing that Welsh is indeed the correct language. Looking in an old Welsh dictionary, you will see that Gwydd is also the root word for knowledge – Gwyddad is the attaining of knowledge, Gwyddal is a scientific person, etc. So when you see a Goose in the hieroglyphics, you now know that it means knowledge. This simple system works for all hieroglyphs, and it really is that easy. You don’t need to be able to speak the Welsh language, and you will have already learned the basics in the time that it has taken you to read the first part of this article!”
When asked what led him to the discovery, Broadstock pointed out that he is just the latest in a line of Welsh researchers that have been trying to get the academic world to take this idea more seriously and give this discovery the recognition it is due. Prussian academics in the 1840s acknowledged that Welsh is the language behind the hieroglyphs with linguists such as von Bunsen explaining that Cymraeg is an extremely ancient language that has stayed so close to the Assyrian original that it can still be used to read the hieroglyphs.
International pressure followed and finally a working group of Oxford and Cambridge dons were put together to see whether the Welsh language would decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, unfortunately the group stalled when the First World War came along and the idea was quietly shelved and forgotten about until the 1980s when historians Wilson and Blackett came along to give the idea a try. Their approach was to go back by starting the whole hieroglyphics translation process from the beginning, and sure enough, within a few hours they were translating names and then longer pieces of text.
Sadly, Wilson and Blackett’s findings were buried inside the massive amount of research they produced on a large range of diverse subjects and yet again the translation method passed by largely unnoticed.
Broadstock has now picked up the baton and his approach has resulted in producing a book which deals with the process in a more fun and accessible way with lots of examples and exercises to help people learn the process for themselves. The “Cymroglyphics” book has already been featured on S4C and an American publisher has recently snapped up the rights to publish the book in America where it has now gone on sale.
“Cymroglyphics is really taking off!” says Ross, “It’s so easy to do, people have trouble believing it at first. Then, they can see from the book just how to read pictograms and the various links with Wales that can be seen and they get very excited. The very word ‘Ffaroan’ is old Welsh for ‘high powers’ and even today in Egypt, people can be seen using a ‘Shadurf’ to lift water and sure enough, in old Welsh this means ‘Water Sack’. All you need is an old Welsh dictionary and you are off and running.”
“The consequences of this breakthrough are enormous and may lead to a rewriting of many, if not all, of the existing books about Egyptology, and it is understandable to see academics being so nervous about the whole idea. Hopefully, Welsh universities will see the opportunity to place themselves in the lead for this new area of research. Particularly Swansea University which has both Welsh and Egyptology departments and is ideally positioned to become the world leaders in this exciting field of study.’
To learn more visit www.cymroglyphics.com