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Author Topic: Coptic in relation to Indo-European Languages  (Read 6378 times)

05 January , 2008, 11:28:45 PM
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Offline Ahmesis

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Coptic in relation to Indo-European Languages
« on: 05 January , 2008, 11:28:45 PM »
It just happens that I stumbled upon the following Coptic words that synchronize with common French words:
pirwmi
            
l'homme
masinek
            
machine
Éc               
sa, son, ses
]nou            
maintenant, English "now"         
ran               
nom, name
mau               
mère
cwni            
sœur
rasi               
"ravi"
vYouÉi            
fée, féerique
]               
donner, "don"
an               
in, en
noun            
nous
ten               
nous
Éw               
ô
nYb               
noble
ouon               
un
sa               
jusqu'à
Éklinwmen         
v. incliner
jamoul            
chameau
[wm               
champ
ja[Y               
gauche
lac               
langue
mei               
aimer, aimant
Éanon            
nous
an               
non
mou               
mort
ca               
ce
Éwni               
onyx
ic               
voici
ourwou            
rois
iarwou            
rivière
ou               
un/une
ce               
si
caji               
sage
coou               
six
sasf            
sept
mY]               
milieu

06 January , 2008, 09:58:46 PM
Reply #1

Offline Ahmesis

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Re: Coptic in relation to Indo-European Languages
« Reply #1 on: 06 January , 2008, 09:58:46 PM »
Note that language, in general, is a series of visual, tactile, or auditory symbols of communication. The Coptic words I referred to in the above section may, for some people, bear insufficient truth as to the origins of Indo-European modern-day languages. Indo-European languages comprise a family of inter-related languages of the Indian sub-continent, Europe, the Iranian plateau, and Central Asia. For more information, Click here.
Although most scientists nowadays claim its parentage with Afro-Asiatic languages.
A brief mention on the Coptic language and its relation with its African counterparts is furnished in this wondrous article on Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegalese historian and anthropologist).

05 November , 2009, 11:15:24 PM
Reply #2

Offline MikeS

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Re: Coptic in relation to Indo-European Languages
« Reply #2 on: 05 November , 2009, 11:15:24 PM »
As Ahmesis pointed out, Coptic (or perhaps more properly, Egyptian) is an Afro-Asiatic language and is thus not related to Indo-European languages, though some Historical Linguists posit an even older parent tongue which encompasses many of these macro-families including I-E and A-A.

The ancient Egyptians did indeed borrow a few words from their IE speaking "neighbors" - Hittite, Greek, and Latin are/were all IE languages (amongst a few other minor IE languages in the area).

The only specific example that comes to mind is the word for "ox"  - I believe in AE it was something like 'akh' (where 'kh' is the 'ch' of German "Bach") - most likely an IE borrowing. The Proto Indo European word was something like "*uks-"  - the 'k' became an 'h' sound in many IE languages.

By IE borrowings I'm referring specifically to Ancient Egyptian; obviously with the Hellenization of Egypt, thousands of IE Greek words entered into the language.

There are many words in various langauges that not only sound alike but also convey very similar meanings - it does not necessarily mean the langauges are related in any way.

 

   

27 August , 2017, 12:45:15 AM
Reply #3

Offline Canis Majoris

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Re: Coptic in relation to Indo-European Languages
« Reply #3 on: 27 August , 2017, 12:45:15 AM »
I find these "similarities" to be merely coincidence. French hadn't been in Egypt until the time of Napoleon. Latin definitely would have had a more profound influence, and even then, it wasn't ever as strong as Greek, for the administration, laws, and commerce of the Eastern Roman Empire, i.e. Byzantium, were always conducted in Greek. Arabic was the only strong contender with Greek's influence on Egyptian.

Here are examples of some of these words compared to the proper Latin version of the French words:

Ⲫⲏⲟⲩⲓ(Phēoui)- Fides, Fée
Ⲙⲁⲩ(Mau)- Mater, Mere
Ϭⲱⲙ(Tchōm)- Campus, Champ
Ⲙⲏϯ(Mēti)- Medio-in-loco, Millieu
Ϫⲁⲥⲏ(Djasē)-Sinistra (gauche is a borrowing from Old German)
Ⲗⲁⲥ(Las)- Lingua, Langue
« Last Edit: 27 August , 2017, 12:51:18 AM by Canis Majoris »
𓇋𓏌𓎡𓂀Ανοκ 𓅯𓄿𓏭πε 𓉐𓉻𓁈πουρο 𓈖ν 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖Χημι

15 September , 2017, 01:27:40 PM
Reply #4

Offline bashandy

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Re: Coptic in relation to Indo-European Languages
« Reply #4 on: 15 September , 2017, 01:27:40 PM »
Coptic is classified as an Afro-Asiatic language. It is not a semitic language or an Indo-European language. Having said that it had influences from both. It was influenced by Semitic languages as  Hebrew (most influential), Syriac, Aramaic, Akkadian and Arabic. It was also influenced by Greek (most influencial) and Latin. The Greek influence in Coptic is the most pronounced as it extended to orthography and syntax in some instances. The Latin influence is probably due to the presence of The Romans in Egypt. Czerny lists a few words from Latin they are < 20 words.

The above mentioned list, though it can bear some phonetic resemblance but the meanings differ vastly. it's not safe to assume common etymology based on phonetic similarity. 


 

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