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Old Bohairic vs Sahidic, What's the difference?

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JC_HMONAS:
Hello,

I'm a little confused on the names of the dialects, maybe someone could shed some light on this for me.

This is what I think is right...PLEASE, correct me if I'm wrong about something, I want to learn as much as I can:

-Greco Bohairic is what almost every Coptic church uses right now.

-Old Bohairic is what Abouna Shenouda Maher uses, and what is said in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKdHr4YtMzU. (right?)

-Sahidic as I understand, is another dialect of Coptic, but isn't it also a misnomer for Old Bohairic? Does it sound different from Old Bohairic? Where can I find any recording of Sahidic pronunciation?


Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

ophadece:
Hi JC_HMONAS,
Welcome to kame forum. Greco-Bohairic is the accent manufactured wrongly in the church in the 19th century.
Old Bohairic is a misnomer, because it is in fact the right dialect that as you rightly said is spoken by Fr. Shenouda. There's also a Sa'idic dialect which is not very far from the authentic Bohairic but proponents of the Greco Bohairic claim that it's very different basing their opinion on the fact that they refuse to acknowledge that the proper dialect is different. I hope I haven't complicated things
oujai

JC_HMONAS:
Hello ophadece (from tasbeha.org?),

Thank you and thank you for your response, I'm very happy I found this forum.

So who uses the Sahidic dialect now? Anyone?

I've read that people refered to Old Bohairic as Sahidic, which was a misnomer spread by Arian Moftah's students. And when people refer to "Sahidic" now they really mean Old Bohairic not the actualy Sahidic dialect. I think that's where my confusion was. Any truth to this?

ophadece:
Hi JC_HMONAS,
Yes I also log on to tasbeha.org like you. You are right about misnaming the two dialects and I am not 100% sure where each dialect is spoken, but I guess Sa'idic is mainly spoken in upper Egypt although on a small scale, and many books and research material has used it more than Bohairic.. hope your confusion ends here..
Oujai

Admin:
In the past,
South Egypt up to Cairo used Sahidic for prayer while northern cities used Bohairic.
at some point in history Orthodox Patriarchies were selected almost exclusively from one Monastery that pray in Bohairic.
with  many consecutive patriarchies all praying in Bohairic and with the language in general getting weaker. Bohairic started to dominate and be used in prayer everywhere.

at the moment Sahidic is not used by any one at all!

 

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