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Old Bohairic vs Sahidic, What's the difference?

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Anaksunamun:

--- Quote from: Admin on 17 July , 2014, 10:58:14 AM ---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!

 

--- End quote ---

That is definitely interesting to know how no churches utilize Sahidic...

Truthfully speaking it's not that much different than Bohairic except for a consonant difference or two, and if you follow the old Bohairic pronunciation the vowels aren't that much different, and obviously some differences in words...  I think I read somewhere that Sahidic is closer to the original spellings of words than Bohairic.

Admin:
I think difference is far beyond one constance or two.
I did learn Bohairic in old pronunciation a I did study Sahidic after and although there is a lot of similarities in words / grammar there is also enough differences that I needed to spend couple of week studying Sahidic and still I am not good at it.

Egyptian dialects did exist long before the appearance of Coptic writing only with Coptic writing differences started to appear (mainly because of writing vowels and also because Greek alphabet had quiet standard pronunciation so each dialect had to use difference letters for same word (instead of using same letters but pronounce is differently )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_language#Dialects

bashandy:
Sahidic is one of the oldest dialects of Coptic language. There is a wealth of manuscripts written in Sahidic Coptic, including the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, Bible, Apocrypha, Gnostic text, the writings, of St Pachomios & St Shenouda Archmandrite, older liturgies were written in Sahidic. A few traces of Sahidic Coptic can be found in current prayers.

It is said by Prof Christian Askeland in one of his lectures on Coptic manuscripts.. That Sahidic was more or less the official dialect, it relies heeavily on consononants with supralinear strokes to denote vowels. In this it has some degree of resemblance to Demotic Scripts where consonants were the ones basically written. Its usage extended through upper Egypt, with local dialects as Fayyumic in Fayoum, Lycopolitan in Assiut & Sohag, Achmimmic & SubAchmmimic in Akhmim & neigbouring areas.

Bohairic was the dialect used in Delta. By the 10th Century the Coptic Orthodox Popes came from Natire Valley, Shihat ϣⲓϩⲏⲧ The manuscripts were written in Bohairic, which eventually became the official dialect of the Church. Monastries were active in translation, and translated a lot of text to Bohairic.

In 1857-1860 Arian G. Moftah, proposed a change of pronunciation of Bohairic Coptic to match Modern Greek letters' pronunciation. This was adopted by the Church. In the late 1960s & 1970's Dr Emile Maher Ishak studied phonetics and came to conclude that that the Old Bohairic pronunciation is authentic.

Sahidic is different from Bohairic in usage of vowels, consonants, & terminology, even grammar is different to some extent. If you're interested in manuscripts, I'd say go for Sahidic. If you're interested in praying in Church then, Bohairic is the way to go. I'd learn Old Bohairic for its authenticity & aesthetics.

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