The Stargate designation is P8X-873. Abydos has a 36-hour day and the Stargate symbol for Abydos refers to its three moons. Abydos is a desert planet and has major sand storms. Some sites say it's all desert, but that's not stated
in canon. The Stargate movie books mentioned some farmers.
The People
History
The Abydonians are descendants of Egyptians taken from Earth
by Ra. Ra, a Goa'uld who took on the persona of the god Ra, came
to Earth 10,000 years ago, and the Abydonians were taken away
at that time. The Giza coverstones and an amulet from "The
Curse" are from 10,000 years ago. The rebellion that causes
Ra to leave Earth takes place 5,000 years ago (3000 BC). On Abydos,
Ra outlaws reading and writing to prevent another rebellion, although
Sha'uri knows where the cave is that has a record of how they
got to Abydos, and she shows it to Daniel in the movie.
Society
The Abydonians are patriarchal, close-knit, and the father
is the head of the family.
In "Secrets," Kasuf expects his daughter to do
what he says and go with Daniel off-planet.
They have elders, and in "Full Circle," one is
a woman. Kasuf is a leader and probably the head man of the village.
Daniel calls Kasuf, his father-in-law, "good father,"
and Kasuf calls him "good son." ("Secrets.")
Abydonians live in tents in several episodes, but "Abydos
and the Abydonian People" notes that it is not said why
they aren't in their city of Nagada.
Their funerals include the Weighing of the Heart ceremony,
based on ancient Egypt ("Forever In a Day.") "Abydos
and the Abydonian People" has a good section on this.
Abydonians were Ra's slaves and mined naquadah for Ra.
They speak Abydonian, which is based on ancient Egyptian.
"Abydos and the Abydonian People" notes that while
the Abydonians haven't been allowed to progress technologically,
they learn to use automatic weapons quickly.
Food
A small, horned reptile. Daniel says it tastes like chicken
(movie).
Daniel mentions he had to learn how to grind yefetta flour
(series).
From watching the movie again:
Bread is thin and crunchy.
The reptile is cooked with fruit and tastes like chicken.
There are bunches of green stuff (herbs??) drying upside
down. We also see the brown versions.
Clothing
From watching the movie again.
Sha'uri is wearing flat cloth shoes when she is shot and
revived in the sarcophagus.
Some wear robes and headdresses.
Sha'uri wears thongs with beads in her long hair.
Skaara wears a wrist guard that also covers his fingers.
Clothing colors are mainly dirty cream, but Kasuf and Sha'uri
wear a dark red. Sha'uri once wears a purple head covering.
Shau'uri wears a thick bracelet on her upper arm.
Nagada and City Life
Jack figures Nagada could have 5,000 people ("Children
of the Gods").
In the movie, Nagada has strong, high walls as protection
against the sandstorms. The streets appear to be narrow, crowded,
and there are rope crosswalks above the street that connect the upper
levels.
In the movie, there was a huge Eye of Ra.
From watching the movie again:
They have jars like amphora. They also have various pots.
Their cups and plates are containers shaped like boat hulls
with a big hole in the middle for drinking or eating.
Bedding or matting is wrapped up in a bundle and rests against
a wall.
For inside lighting, they have lamps with wicks and fire
in a stone pedestal.
One of the rooms has walls covered with hanging rope.
Skaara sits on a stool (I think) for his smoking scene.
Sha'uri is seen with a stone grinder.
Animals
They have domesticated the mastadge and use it as a beast
of burden.
They eat a small, horned reptile.
In "Pretense," Skaara says they thank the animals
for the gifts they give, and they worship them.
Geography
In "Full Circle," the Abydonians go to the Caves
of Kalima or Kaleemah for protection.
Words
Bonniewae -- very good -- Kasuf, Stargate movie.
nefer -- nefaar (early draft of movie script, when Sha'uri
is called Sari, and Daniel had a snickers bar)
seema -- slavery (early draft of movie script, when Sha'uri
is called Sari, and Daniel had a snickers bar) )"Stargate:
The Movie").
Abydonian words in the movie
They had a linguist help them in the movie. They didn't always use reconstructed Egyptian for the series, so I consider the movie
version (minus Ra's dialogue) to be the best for language. Bear
in mind that this is what it sounds like to me, and there were
no captions for these. I'm only mentioning the ones I feel the
best about. Your mileage may vary:
ne nay (emphasis on "nay") -- no. (I am really
confident of this one). In ancient Egyptian, negation is "n"
(Manley and Collier). Note: "Goa'uld to English Translation"
mentions ne'nai as "no/don't."
"bani, baniwae" -- Kasuf when eating the candy
bar.
naturu aya -- Eye of Ra(?) Unnamed Abydonian says this when
he sees Daniel's Eye of Ra necklace."Naturu" is later
shown to mean "god."
sha sheya tiyu, or she sheya tai yu - sandstorm
Ya nach Kasuf -- I am Kasuf(??)
yu yu -- said a couple times in the movie. It might mean
"come."
ih! -- Skaara says this when he finally realizes what Jack
is asking. It probably means, "Oh!" Collier and Manley
say "i" means "Oh!" (+standing
man) in ancient Egyptian.
yi shay -- When Skaara disgustedly joins the rag-tag army
in surrendering. It probably means, "darn it!"
Riu -- Ra.
ya yi bi ay - Can I try? Or, Can I look at it?
What a normal Egyptologist would translate as "door
to heaven," Daniel translates as "Stargate."
From the scene where Daniel and Sha'uri are in the cave with
the hieroglyphs
Daniel says (how the Egyptologists conventionally say it now)
--> Sha'uri says
nedjet --> nedde or nedye, but I think nedde. The main
point is this means the feminine ending "t" is dropped,
which Egyptologists do think happened in ancient Egyptian.
netch, neteru --> natu, naturu (god, gods). Ancient Egyptian
is "ntr" (they didn't include vowels).
tiu --> yes(?) Sha'uri says this after Daniel asks her something.
At the end, when they're getting along splendidly, Sha'uri
says, "Nafi!" which sounds to me like nefer (nfr)--
good, beautiful.
Sentences that were captioned. The meaning is certain, but
I was madly writing down both the caption and what the Abydonian
sounded like to me.
Ye ye mai we -- Take a good look.
En katwe see -- I want you to see this.
A woo na nakhe -- The day of our victory.
Yoi te sai moi -- I didn't tell them.
Ne way na ga we -- We won't live as slaves.
Sha'uri, yi shi qi boy? -- Sha'uri, what happened here?
Her secki pre Daniel? -- What happened to Daniel?
From Watching the Movie Again
The matrons who clean up Daniel for his wedding night have
distinctive box-like headdresses covered with cloth. They "clean
him up" so that he smells like a yak. They also brush his
hair with a comb with widely separated bristles.
When Sha'uri comes to Daniel, she is dressed with a veil
with decoration on the edges. The men, including Kasuf, wait
outside.
The pyramid has two pylons in front.
Sha'uri knows the Earth glyph.
The hairy mastadge has a leather harness.
A big horn alerts the city when the sandstorm comes. There is a different
note sequence when the gliders go by.
The Abydonians meet strangers with a drink.
Nagada is in front of a desert and then mountains.
Music includes a drum and reedy flute.
When Kawalsky apologizes for Jack almost shooting everyone
over the sandstorm, Kasuf bows and crosses his arms.
The slaves walk in a winding line in the desert.
The doors to the city are lashed-together poles.
Children and youth around Re wear brighter colors than the villagers do, and the children are
cleaner. Many wear broad collars with paste jewels. Girls have
short hair that is cut straight across, and they have bangs with a headband. Men
have shaved skulls with several hair locks. They play a board
game with Re that may have pyramid pieces.
In the movie, Daniel says the symbol for Abydos is a pyramid
with the three moons above, "and connect the dots." I would guess
that this is the symbol , based
on Daniel's drawing made over Skaara's drawing. However, this
is the point of origin for Abydos in "Children of the Gods."
In the scene where Daniel learns Abydonian from Sha'uri,
Jack asks Daniel how he can suddenly speak the language. Daniel
said he just had to learn how to pronounce it, once he knew the
vowels, he could speak it. (This refers to the fact that ancient
Egyptian writing doesn't include vowels, so pronouncing it is
all conjectural).
In that same scene, I recognized several hieroglyphs. The
writing seemed to be left to right. (This page is written to be read left to right). Egyptians usually wrote in the other direction, right
to left, but they could also write left to right. I saw hieroglyphs
for r ,
kh,
b (which shows its going from left to right) ,
sha, nb .
I also saw at least one symbol meant to be read from right
to left: tj .
The point of this is that they were using real hieroglyphs, and
they were not using hieratic.
These is a cat on the ship.
Sources:
The movie Stargate
The tv series Stargate SG:1
"Abydonians."
The Stargate Omnipedia. http://www.gateworld.net/omnipedia/races/a/abydonians.shtml
"Abydos."
The Stargate Omnipedia. http://www.gateworld.net/omnipedia/planets/a/abydos.shtml
Collier, Mark, and Bill Manley. (1998.) How to Read Egyptian
Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself. Los Angeles:
University of California Press.
DeeKayP. (2004, June 30). "Abydonian
Elder." Stargate Wiki. http://wiki.starate-sg1-solutions.com/index.php/Abydonian_Elder
DeeKayP. (2004, June 15, modified Dec 2, 2004). "Abydos
and the Abydonian People." Stargate Wiki. http://stargate-sg1-solutions.com/index.php/Abydos_and_the_Abydonian_People
Abydos
in History
+standing
man) in ancient Egyptian.
, based
on Daniel's drawing made over Skaara's drawing. However, this
is the point of origin for Abydos in "Children of the Gods." 
,
kh
,
b (which shows its going from left to right) 
,
sha, nb 
.
.
The point of this is that they were using real hieroglyphs, and
they were not using hieratic.