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Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-03-21, 11:26
by Æxylis
I've always had a special fascination with logographic scripts and Egyptology in general so it's no surprise that I would have a fascination with the Egyptian language. I think it sounds very neat, at least what people think it sounds like. Of all the languages of the world, I think this is certainly one worthy of revival. The grammar of Coptic that I know of is great, although I'm sure a bit of it comes from Greek, which is also awesome. It's been a pain trying to figure out how to type or at least represent things like hieroglyphs, hieratic, and/or demotic online. The latest unicode standard just barely added hieroglyphs in the 13000 range but they still don't show up on browsers. In either case, my main focus is on Coptic right now because it's the easiest to display on computers, but I still study hieroglyphs and the like as well. I know of some sites where you can find resources for studying Egyptian. Omniglot actually has a set of links in their links section specially dedicated to ancient Egyptian.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-03-21, 19:36
by Yeshua.C
I have a truck load of resources on all forms of Egyptian language, it's one of my favourites (from a list of about 60 languages I love :D).

As of yet, I'm only an amateur on the subject, but I think it's easier to do Early/Middle/Late Egyptian on paper. And Demotic and Coptic can be done on computers.

I would love to see an Ancient Egyptian revival, but I'm already working on reviving an Australian language.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-03-21, 21:14
by Æxylis
how do you do demotic on computers?

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-03-22, 10:11
by Æxylis
Here's a song in middle egyptian, the only one I know of, if you'd like to hear what it sounds like:


Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-03-22, 16:57
by Sean of the Dead
That's a pretty good song. :D Do you have the lyrics for it? I tried to find them, but couldn't anywhere.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-03-22, 20:42
by Meera
I would love to learn Ancient egyptian! Its soo cool

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-03-22, 23:17
by Æxylis
Sean of the Dead wrote:That's a pretty good song. :D Do you have the lyrics for it? I tried to find them, but couldn't anywhere.


yeah, I like the song too... I don't have the lyrics as I tried searching for them too... the best person to ask about that would probably be the band themselves (darkest of the hillside thickets) ... perhaps it's in the info on their album... but if you do happen to find the lyrics, I would certainly love to have them myself :D

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-04, 2:49
by panoglyph
I'm a fan of Middle Egyptian especially, but I also dabble in demotic, and a little Coptic. I might do it for grad school, but maybe Christian Latin instead. I have a BA in Linguistics. Middle Egyptian is actually my favorite non-Christian language. I think the writing system is the most beautiful and interesting in existence, mostly because Mayan's kind-of gruesome and really only records timelines. Monumental Egyptian isn't too much more elaborate, but hey.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-05, 6:38
by Yeshua.C
"non-christian language"?

If I remember correctly, reading the bible is pretty gruesome. But I guess that if someone is brainwashed into a member of a religion, Christian or Mayan, they gloss over those parts. All's fair in religion+ war. :)


But, Middle Egyptian is awesome! :)

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-05, 20:14
by ILuvEire
I too am quite interested in what constitutes a Christian language. I mean, Jewish languages, I understand, but as far as I know, there isn't a language that is used only by Christians, or versions of other languages used by Christians. Latin was used in the Roman Empire, Ancient Greek by the Ancient Greeks, Hebrew by the Jews, the only one I can think of is maybe Old Church Slavonic, but even that isn't a very good example.

Anyway, I adore Ancient Egyptian (Coptic, not so much) however, I just haven't gotten around to doing any learning, hehe.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-05, 21:12
by Formiko
ILuvEire wrote:I too am quite interested in what constitutes a Christian language.


I'm thinking he means the same one I learned..Greek and Hebrew and Catholics learn Latin too.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-18, 19:54
by juuni...
can't believe i didn't see this thread earlier. i'm happy there is one.
i love egyptian things, and the coptic language...
it's one of my language goal things i guess... but i'm at a bit of a lack for resources.
maybe i'm not looking hard enough.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-18, 21:43
by Nero
ILuvEire wrote:I too am quite interested in what constitutes a Christian language. I mean, Jewish languages, I understand, but as far as I know, there isn't a language that is used only by Christians, or versions of other languages used by Christians. Latin was used in the Roman Empire, Ancient Greek by the Ancient Greeks, Hebrew by the Jews, the only one I can think of is maybe Old Church Slavonic, but even that isn't a very good example.

Anyway, I adore Ancient Egyptian (Coptic, not so much) however, I just haven't gotten around to doing any learning, hehe.


Maybe he meant liturgical language. If that were the case, Coptic is still the language of the Coptic Catholic and Orthodox churches

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-18, 22:33
by Formiko
Nero wrote:
Maybe he meant liturgical language. If that were the case, Coptic is still the language of the Coptic Catholic and Orthodox churches


Hey Nero! Long time no see!

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-20, 14:45
by Nero
Formiko wrote:
Nero wrote:
Maybe he meant liturgical language. If that were the case, Coptic is still the language of the Coptic Catholic and Orthodox churches


Hey Nero! Long time no see!


I pop in and out - I see you've moved to Ghana

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-20, 16:33
by Quevenois
there isn't a language that is used only by Christians


maybe the Celtic ones, but nowadays I guess there may be atheists and people of other religions who learn them. But for native speakers, I think they're all Christian.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-20, 16:58
by Jurgen Wullenwever
Quevenois wrote:
there isn't a language that is used only by Christians


maybe the Celtic ones, but nowadays I guess there may be atheists and people of other religions who learn them. But for native speakers, I think they're all Christian.

A Christian Druid? Now that might be interesting.

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-09-23, 2:16
by ILuvEire
Quevenois wrote:
there isn't a language that is used only by Christians


maybe the Celtic ones, but nowadays I guess there may be atheists and people of other religions who learn them. But for native speakers, I think they're all Christian.
I sort of meant historically and in the present. The Celtic languages aren't known for being used primarily by Christians (besides, they're Protestants! That guy is Catholic!)

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-12-20, 2:08
by Karavinka
There's one thing that I absolutely love about Coptic - its verbal morphology is much simpler than Semitic. But it's hard to remember the words because they all sound damn too weird (at least for me).

Although I'm not learning Middle Egyptian now, I'm curious how those of you who do learn it practice the writing system. Do you hand-copy the hieroglyphs?

Re: Coptic/Egyptian

Posted: 2010-12-23, 14:14
by księżycowy
Though I wouldn't know anything about the Coptic verbal forms (yet), I have been quite interested in Coptic for sometime (and by proxy Ancient Egyptian). Actually I plan on learning Coptic after I'm done with Classical Hebrew (or Biblical if you prefer).

Could anyone recommend a good book to use?
(And I'm asking for Coptic, not Ancient Egyptian. I have two really good ones for A. Egyptian)