Coptic pronunciation and sound files

[Krammy]

Hi everybody !

Does anyone know where I can find transcriptions of Coptic in IPA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet (I studied linguistics) and sound files or clips in which we can hear people speak in Coptic ? Whenever I find a sound files that is supposed to be in Coptic, I always hear a priest singing "Bi ism el ab, el ibn wa el ruh il quds....aaaaaaaaaaammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin" (Coptic? Yeah right! That's Arabic!). The priests at my local church say the mass in French or Arabic and seldom say anything in Coptic. They just sing from time to time in Coptic and singing is not the best way to know the proper way of speaking a language.

Thanks for your help

Krammy   

[Admin]

Well, first question you need to ask is
which pronunciation do you want to learn
currently there is two different Coptic pronunciation
The original pronunciation
And the one that was invented and adopted by the church (and it is the one that is currently used in the mass)
if you want to know more, you might have a look at this link
http://kame.danacbe.com/index.php/topic,2.0.html
Here in this forum we adopt the Original pronunciation
check out this video its a hymen in Coptic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGIa4steqVw
I can get you many sound files that contains Coptic lessons
but its Arabic/Coptic

[Krammy]

I'm more interested in the original pronunciation than the Hellenized version. Thank you for clarifying to what extent Greek has altered the pronunciation. I was aware that Coptic had Greek loanwords (i.e. Agora) but it's sad that Greek had a bigger influence.

I watched the video and the sound of Coptic was, just like Arabic and Aramaic/Syriac, divine. It's funny, the priest at the local Coptic church sang a similar hymn but the other priests that were with him sang another hymn that sounded a lot different. The other hymn was sang with a much deeper voice. When I went to my cousin's wedding (her father is a Copt) at a Coptic church in the USA, the priest sang hymns with a totally different voice than the person in the video. He sounded like the usual Arabic priest except that he was singing in Coptic.

I would really appreciate it if you can find me the Coptic lesson files. I don't mind that they're Coptic/Arabic.

Thank you very much in advance

[MikeS]

Hello Krammy,

Just noticed your request regarding IPA for Coptic text(s).

I did a study a few years ago regarduing and outlining the "Old Bohairic" pronunciation. I approached it form strictly a Linguistic point of view as I am a non-Copt and I do not speak Arabic.

My study does contain a few text specimens in both OB and GB IPA transcriptions. I did have sound files to go along with the texts but unfortunately, I can not seem to locate them.

Let me know if you are still interested and I can forward the study to you.     

[MikeS]

Actually, I don;t have the sound files anymore, but I do have a print out of the Pater Noster (Lord's Prayer) in three Coptic dialects with phonetic transcriptions (IPA).

There are two transcriptions for each; for Bohairic, how it is pronounced using GB and OB pronunciations (the one you'd probably be most intrested in) and for the other two dialects (Saidic and Fayumic) I give a more "classical" pronunciation (more or less like something you'd learn if you were taught the dialect in a university - based really on almost a classical Greek pronunciation - as found in books such as Lambdin's Saidic grammar.

The second transcription is based more on the same principals and rules as OB.

Personally, I think the actual pronunciation of the two dialects fell probably somewhere in between the two transcriptions offered for each.

Anyway - I have scanned the document and attached it here as a pdf doc. I'm not sure how it will appear on your pc, but it looks and prints out on mine just fine.

   
 

[Krammy]

MikeS,

Do you have anything else left from your study? I would like to see the full study if possible.

[MikeS]

Hi Krammy,

I can send you a copy of the study along with the Lord's Prayer in the three dialects with transcription. I'm afraid those two documents are the only ones I seem to have left and they are just pdf copies of the printed documents; I can't seem to locate the discs I saved them on before my pc crashed (if indeed I saved them at all).

Let me know what your e-mail is and I will forward you the copies.

Mike S