[prof.h.mandingo]

The Egyptians has a phonetic alphabet. They used it in lieu of the hieroglyphs. In fact some of the glyphs has basic sounds attached.

[muawiyah]

The Egyptians didn't INVENT their writing system. They simply adapted the Sumerian system to their language ~ and added "abbreviations" and "standard symbols" to it to make it a bit easier to do.

The cunuiform wedges are just marks ~ you have to look at groups of them to see the stylized hieroglyphs ~ but there's several thousands of years of development behind that system.

The first Chinese hieroglyphs are arguably derived from the Sumerian system ~ although they have a very powerful component that is strictly Eastern ~ or American Indian in origin. That is an elaborate SIGN SYSTEM inside the main system that's based on the configuration of the human body. It's pretty much the same as American Indian Sign Language.

The Chinese may also have incorporated an older shamanistic "sign system". In the end Chinese hieroglyphs/and symbols have changed seveal times so today's system looks nothing like the oldest systems.

[muawiyah]

Since Semitic speakers (Egyptians) were using hieroglyphs, special signs, and signs tied to specific sounds, it made sense for them to develop the first alphabets ~ but they didn’t use them instead of their hieroglyphs ~ they developed them OUT of their hieroglyphic system. The earliest alphabets passed through many hands over hundreds of years.