Bashandy, are Greco-Bohairic pronunciation, neologisms, and liberal grammatical structure a problem?
Apologies for the delay in my reply.
01. Greco-Bohairic pronunciation:
01.a. Greco-Bohairic pronunciation adopts the modern phonetic values to Coptic sounds, thus introducing sounds that are alient to native Egyptian tongue and are hard to pronounce unless someone is versed in another language since childhood. These voices do not exist in colloquial Egyptian despite the presence of some of them for over a thousand year in classical Arabic e.g. Th, Dh, and other sounds that are present in Germanic & Romance languages as P & V. In addition, Greco-Bohairic failed to recognise certain consononants as w switching them to a vowel; resulting in arbitary increase in the number of glottal stops per sentence, in addition to emphasis on pronouncing every single glottal stop; and switching most of the vowels to 'ee'. e.g.
ⲡⲓⲟⲩⲱⲓⲛⲓ ⲛ̀ⲧⲁⲫⲙⲏⲓ ⲫⲏⲉⲧⲉⲣⲟⲩⲱⲓⲛⲓ ⲉⲣⲱⲙⲓ ⲛⲓⲃⲉⲛ ⲉⲑⲛⲏⲟⲩ ⲉⲡⲓⲕⲟⲥⲙⲟⲥ
Old Bohairic (OB): biwoini ndabmai beyadarwoini eromi niwan atnaw abikozmos
Greco-Bohairic (GB): Pi-ou-oini enta-efmee fi-et-er-ou-oini eromi niven ethneyoo epikosmos
01.b. Also, it made traditional names of people and places, even coptic loan words in colloquial Egyptain Arabic ununderstandable. e.g. ward, waddamon, warina, braswaya, samna, demiana, kani, mani, etc. in GB they are pronounced as vert, vatimon, verina, presveya, semni, timiany, keene, mini etc.
01.c. OB pronunciation makes it easier to understand other dialects, as pronunciation of the language becomes more in-line. With GB understanding Sahidic can be become an arduous task as it seems so remote from Bohairic.
e.g. and: Bohairic: ⲟⲩⲟϩ Sahidic: ⲁⲩⲱ OB: Bohairic: woh, Sahidic: awo GB: ou-oh, Sahidic: avo ; heavens; Bohairic: ⲫⲏⲟⲩⲓ Sahidic: ⲡⲏⲩⲉ OB: Bohairic: fawi, Sahidic: bawa GB: fi-o-wi, Sahidic: pive
01.d. GB has the potential to sever the connection with idiosyncratic use of words in the psalmody or other texts where different spellings for the same words can exist e.g.
In the acrostic psali of Sunday (annual psalmody):
ⲅⲉ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲁⲗⲓⲑⲱⲥ: ϫⲉ ⲅⲁⲣ ⲁⲗⲓⲑⲱⲥ
ⲇⲉⲕⲉⲙⲧⲁⲅⲁⲑⲟⲥ: ⲧⲉⲕⲙⲉⲧⲁⲅⲁⲑⲟⲥ
OB: both would be pronounced as je ghar alitos & dakmataghatos
GB: the psalmody ones would be pronounced as ge ghar & dhekmetaghathos, while the original pronunciation would be ge ghar, and tekmetaghathos
Acrostic psali of Saturday
ⲃⲟⲛ ⲛⲓⲃⲉⲛ: ⲟⲩⲟⲛ ⲛⲓⲃⲉⲛ
OB: both would be pronounced as 'won'
GB: the psalmody the psalmody version would be 'von' and the original version would be 'ou-on'
01.f. The consequence of this is much added stops and added 'ee' sound in Coptic hymns that made it more difficult to sing
01.g. GB has the potential to make Arabic written in Coptic letters in the 8th-10th century manuscripts ununderstandable as it makes Arabic sounds like an alient language.
02. Neologisms: neologisms are inevitable if we are to use a language that was declared dead 300-500 years ago. However, logic and a clear relationship with the language is mandatory to form a coherent lineage. These are some examples which a find to be sound neologisms by Fr Shenouda Maher (Dr Emile Maher formerly)
ⲟⲩⲱⲓⲕ ⲉϥⲙⲉϩ: literally bread filled; then you add the name of the filling
ⲡⲓⲡⲉⲧⲓⲱⲓ: lit. that washes: the washer
ⲡⲓⲡⲉⲧⲉⲣϫⲁϥ: that cools: the fridge
Or newer terminology from the community
ⲡⲓⲡⲉⲧⲱⲡ: that computes: the computer
ⲡⲓⲙⲁⲛⲛⲁⲧ: the website lit.
ⲡⲓⲫⲟϫⲓ ⲛ̀ϣⲟϣⲧ: the keyboard literal
In the families that spoke Coptic there words which no clear etymology was given or how it created or discovered:
ⲁⲡⲗⲏϫⲓ: fridge
ⲙⲁⲛⲭⲁ: spoon, the Greek term used in church is ⲙⲩⲥⲑⲏⲣ
ϯⲣⲉⲥⲓⲱⲓ: washer, it's based on the prefix ⲣⲉϥ: ⲣⲱⲙⲓ ⲉϥ, which is reserved to people doing something like sinner, it cannot be switched into feminine ⲣⲱⲙⲓ ⲉⲥ
ⲃⲏⲗⲗⲁ: letter there are at least one word in Coptic for letter and one word in Greek for it. ⲥϧⲓ ⲛ̀ϫⲓϫ, ⲉⲡⲓⲥⲧⲟⲗⲏ
ⲃⲉⲣⲉϭⲉⲣⲁⲧ: bicycle, the origin is not clear while the closest word to it comes from · ⲃⲉⲣⲉϭⲱⲟⲩⲧⲥ: means chariot, which comes from ancient Egyptian and has Semitic etymology; (czerny 1976, p. 27) ⲣⲁⲧ⸗ means leg which should be coined to the subject e.g. my leg; your leg etc. There is no indication that the term for chariot is a combination of two words, hence chopping the first part and adding another suffix may not be a legitimate way to create a word.
03. The liberal usage of grammar, can create difficulties in understanding or reflect influence of other languages on Coptic; hereby affecting the reason of caring for the language and the significance of its idiomatic expressions, e.g.
ⲛⲟϥⲣⲓ: was coined to express 'Hello' in Coptic it never existed on its own it was Ⲛⲟϥⲣⲓ ⲉϩⲟⲟⲩ good day, so, it does not mean a lot as a standalone word
ϣⲉⲡϩⲙⲟⲧ: accept grace, was used to 'Thanks' "Shukran" "Merci" in Coptic it was used in a sentence ϯϣⲉⲡϩⲙⲟⲧ ⲛ̀ⲧⲟⲧⲕ ⲓⲉ ⲛ̀ⲧⲟⲧϯ ⲓⲉ ⲛ̀ⲧⲉⲛⲑⲏⲛⲟⲩ which meant I accept the grace of your hands. The word on its own lost its meaning became like 'thank' v.
To be fair, on the other hand, this is the only successful attempt at revival of Coptic, with all of the reservation regarding pronunciation, neologisms and syntax; it worked. The whole work is so inspirational, and can serve as a model to learn from and develop on. It is a successful model to be followed and studied. I guess Coptic language owes a lot to Claudius Labib & Pisenti Rizkalla for their passion, fervor and huge effort to revive a dead language in their families. We cannot underestimate the sheer magnitude of their dedication and work. Therefore, if the methodology was adopted and adapted to use sounds neologisms and pronunciation it will be great.
On reading their biographies, I learned that both were hard workers to learn and understand the language and to avoid recreating a creole hybrid Greek-Coptic language. I believe that if they had the access to resources that we have now, they would have done the revival in Old Bohairic pronunciation (just speculating) given their integrity and honesty in hard work.
