Our Coptic language > Old pronunciation vs new debate
Classical Coptic Pronunciation
bashandy:
With respect to the second aspect of your enquiry. The changes that happened to Coptic were not limited to pronunciation.
01. The typography of Coptic changed with the introduction of the early coptic printers, later with the coptic typewriters and coptic fonts later. Part of this may have to do with the limitations of printer capabilities the other seem to be applying typographical values of western languages to Coptic. In 14th century manuscripts onwards the letters did not have equal size, phi, fai, shima & hori were relatively bigger in size than alpha, beta was wider, kappa had a different shape, the combination of ⲟⲩ was often vertical resembling an ümlaut.
bashandy:
02. The punctuation used by Labib and books based on his work, showed changes, the usage of space between words was introduced, capitalisation in the English and French concept emerged. Full stops were used. The djinkim was overly used sometimes to denote the new changes in the pronunciation which addled a lot of glottal stops, other times to minimise consonant clustering which is an element in Arabic language and also it resembled the French accents at times.
03. The grammar showed loss of reflexivity, no equivalent of ⲫⲁⲓ ⲁⲫⲟⲧ ⲫⲁⲓ, ⲣⲁϣⲓ ⲛⲉ, ⲟⲩⲟⲛⲟϥ ⲙ̀ⲙⲟ, ⲛⲉϩⲥⲓ ⲙ̀ⲙⲟⲕ, these forms were uncommonly used. The use of ⲡⲉ, ⲧⲉ, ⲛⲉ became equivalent to verb to be or verbe être. Adjectifs started to follow nouns more like French and Arabic, in coptic it was mostly the other way round. Ⲉϩⲣⲏⲓ, ⲛ̀ϩⲣⲏⲓ, ⲛ̀ϧⲣⲏⲓ ⲉϫⲱϥ etc were seldom used.
04. Neologisms seemed to serve two main purposes in the texts of Labib. Expressions for new items, car, bicyclette, fridge, train, post office (ⲃⲉⲣⲉϭⲱⲟⲩⲧⲥ, ⲃⲉⲣⲉϭⲉⲣⲁⲧ, ⲁⲡⲗⲏϫⲓ, ⲥⲓⲑⲃⲉⲗϩⲱⲃ, ⲙⲁⲛⲃⲏⲗⲗⲁ) and to avoid Greek words for pyramid, letter, spoon etc (ⲁⲃⲙⲉⲣ, ⲃⲏⲗⲗⲁ, ⲙⲁⲛⲭⲁ) Also new expressions appeared to express modern classification as four-legged etc.
05. Anti-hellenism seemed to be a major goal in the texts of Labib, though I'm not aware of any texts that explicitly discussed the rationale. Greek vocabulary comprises about 20-40% of the Coptic lexicon depending on the nature of the text.Words like άριστον, και, γαρ, αλλά, μήπως, δε, δείπνον, χαίρε, ευχαριστώ, επιστολή, Άγιος, αμήν. Αλληλούια, μαρτυρούν, αλέκτωρ, πως, πάντως, ίνα, μη ποτέ, μη, μάλλον καλώ, κακώς πυραμίδα, Σαρξ, σώμα, πνεύμα etc. were almost non-existent from texts that Labib composed. He reverted to either uncommon words, or words with unknown etymology eg ϣⲟⲗϩⲥ (ⲥⲱⲙⲁ), ⲛ̀ⲑⲟϥ (ⲁⲗⲗⲁ), ⲁⲛ (ⲙⲏ), ⲃⲏⲗⲗⲁ (ⲉⲡⲓⲥⲧⲟⲗⲏ), ⲛⲓϥⲓ (Ⲡⲛⲉⲩⲙⲁ), ⲉⲥⲉϣⲱⲡⲓ (ⲁⲙⲏⲛ), ⲙⲁⲛⲭⲁ (ⲙⲩⲥⲑⲏⲣ) etc.
06. Style: texts used in ⲁϧⲱⲙⲫⲁⲧ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲱⲛ seem to be a bit of a literal translation from Arabic or French rather than a coptic text. This shows up in the usage of idiomatic expressions ϫⲉⲙⲫⲉϩ ⲛ̀ⲕⲁϩⲓ pomme de terre, ⲡⲁⲥⲟⲛ ⲙ̀ⲙⲉⲛⲣⲓⲧ akhi al-aziz, etc.
The total outcome of Greco-Bohairic pronunciation, avoiding Greek words, unusual grammar and style. My have lead to the emergence of a pidgin form of Coptic. The tendency to follow the same pattern of inventing words or expressions, and innovation in the language seemed to have persisted as part of handling coptic which lead to instabilities of pronunciation, style and grammar.
Andrew:
Hi Bashandy:
< The total outcome of Greco-Bohairic pronunciation, avoiding Greek words, unusual grammar and style. My have lead to the emergence of a pidgin form of Coptic. The tendency to follow the same pattern of inventing words or expressions, and innovation in the language seemed to have persisted as part of handling coptic which lead to instabilities of pronunciation, style and grammar. >
This is a fascinating study, complete with examples. Has anything similar happened to Sahidic? I know it's the most studied dialect in foreign universities. I can expect changes in the font, separating words and adding punctuation. But making up new words is rather strange.
Andrew
bashandy:
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for your feedback and kind words. The message that was attributed to St Samuel Kalamon around the 9th century was urging people to restore and protect Coptic language.
In the 13th century and 14th century, the scala and grammar introduction manuscripts focused predominantly on Bohairic dialect, with no apparent neologisms or deliberate change in Coptic.
In the 19th century, the project of revival of Coptic Language was by and large sponsored by the Coptic Church and Copts like Moftah and Labib. Bohairic was established at that time as the official dialect of the church. Most local enthusiasm and teaching of Coptic in Church was geared towards Bohairic, which serves predominantly the liturgical service, which for many people is the main reason to learn coptic.
To the extent that when Dr Emile Maher proposed old Bohairic a committee condemned his teaching as influenced by Sahidic
bashandy:
The committee of 1968 that condemned teaching OB at the church apparently looked upon the alleged influence of Sahidic on Bohairic as a reason to discredit OB in favour of the GB.
Sahidic on the other hand, was the subject of study of Coptologists, a stark contrast was the first Coptic-Arabic dictionary by Labib was arranged in Bohairic, while Crum's dictionary (1939) was arranged by consonants in Sahidic. Thomas O Lambdin and Plumley published books explaining the grammar of Sahidic. The writings of St Shenouda Archmandrite are considered to be the jewel of the Coptic literary heritage.
In the 20th century, Sahidic gained a new height of importance when Nag Hammadi Codices of apocrypha and Gnostic gospels and writings were accidentally discovered. Before this, little was available about them. We knew they existed as church fathers condemned them, but this was the first hands on reading.
In the later part of the 20th century, Ariel Shisha-Halevy studied Bohairic dialect academically and he considers it to be of valuable literary value.
Sahidic was not part of the local revival project hence no neologisms seem to emerge from it.
The only phases of interaction were that Labib published texts in Sahidic but he did not make any changes to them.
Anonymous group translated the syllabus of ⲭⲏⲙⲓ by Emile Maher into Sahidic www.coptic.org/language
The syllabus of ⲥⲁϫⲓ adopted a few words from Sahidic as ϩⲟⲛⲃⲉ from Sahidic in its Sahidic form as there's no available Bohairic form to this word.
In short, the interest in Sahidic is geared towards understanding manuscripts, Bohairic was a subject to a different project
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