Coptic Study group

Moderator:Ashucky

User avatar
Antea
Posts:3954
Joined:2015-08-23, 10:53
Real Name:c
Gender:female
Coptic Study group

Postby Antea » 2018-11-12, 21:12

I’m opening this study group, since it seems that some of us are interested in it. I’ve been myself learning it from time to time, but my resources are a little bit ancient, since I am using a book from the 19th century approx :roll: . So if someone has something more modern in mind, please, feel free to make any suggestion :yep:

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-12, 21:46

I have ten books on Coptic (księżycowy has access to them as well) but have never looked at any of them. I can share if you like.

księżycowy

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-11-12, 22:05

I forget, do we have Introduction to Sahidric Coptic by Lambdin, Vijay?
I humbly suggest that as a textbook to work through. I even happen to have the answer key right here: https://www.uregina.ca/arts/religious-s ... in.key.htm

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-12, 22:10

Sahidic. Yes.

księżycowy

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-11-12, 22:13

I have to say, I'm surprised this group started so quickly. :P

If we go slow enough for me to handle the rest of my study groups, I'm totally in!

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-12, 22:16

It would also be nice if I could somehow work Budge into this. :P He mentions Coptic, too. (I'm curious how shitty Budge is now).

księżycowy

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-11-12, 22:17

And maybe I can add in some from Allen's fantastic Middle Egyptian textbook. :P
Maybe.

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-12, 22:23

Okay, okay, we all get it. You have superi...

WAIT a second.

I have that one, too!

księżycowy

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-11-12, 22:28

Ancient Egyptian study group forming in.....three.....two.....one.....

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-12, 22:39

Welcome to the Ancient Egyptian & Coptic Study Group!

User avatar
dEhiN
Posts:6828
Joined:2013-08-18, 2:51
Real Name:David
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby dEhiN » 2018-11-15, 6:39

So, are we only doing Coptic? I suggest we do a separate Ancient Egyptian one. Also, does anyone know where I can get the Lambdin resource?
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

księżycowy

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-11-15, 9:19

I literally just realized that we're all crazy. :silly:

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-15, 18:40

Coptic is Egyptian, though, and was largely instrumental in the decipherment of the Ancient Egyptian language, so I think having one thread where we can study and compare the two might be useful.

I took a look at the alphabet in the grammar. It basically looks like Greek in a really small font with a few extra letters. I'd also like to find out some more about how Coptic is used today, though. In particular, I know nothing about the revival movement, and there's a clip of a liturgical song from a Coptic church that I remember hearing on Encarta. I wonder whether I can still find it.

księżycowy

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-11-15, 18:43

Yeah, the Coptic alphabet is heavily based on the Greek alphabet.

User avatar
dEhiN
Posts:6828
Joined:2013-08-18, 2:51
Real Name:David
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby dEhiN » 2018-11-15, 23:15

vijayjohn wrote:Coptic is Egyptian, though, and was largely instrumental in the decipherment of the Ancient Egyptian language, so I think having one thread where we can study and compare the two might be useful.

I feel like that would split our motivation or purpose, though. I would prefer, at least initially, to just focus on Coptic (or I guess, specifically Sahidic Coptic) and then maybe later, once we are all at a certain level, to compare the two. Doing a comparison initially is like learning modern French while simultaneously doing a comparative study to Old French. But that could just because I've never done any study of Ancient Egyptian.

If we were to add in the purpose of comparison to this study group, which variant of Ancient Egyptian would you want to compare? According to Wikipedia, Coptic and Demotic are grammatically closely related to Late Egyptian.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-15, 23:24

Okay, we could create a separate group for Ancient Egyptian then.

Honestly, most of what I know of Ancient Egyptian probably comes from Budge. :P I don't know what variety of Egyptian he looks at...I guess Middle Egyptian?

księżycowy

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby księżycowy » 2018-11-16, 0:05

Yeah, from what I remember it’s Middle Egyptian.

And I think I side with dEhiN, focus on Coptic now, and then add in Ancient Egyptian. I don't have time to mess around with hieroglyphics at the moment. I can easily handle the Coptic alphabet though.

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-16, 0:21

Oh, is that how it is? Okay, then maybe I'll start comparing with Ancient Egyptian while the rest of y'all are focusing on Coptic! :twisted:

User avatar
dEhiN
Posts:6828
Joined:2013-08-18, 2:51
Real Name:David
Gender:male
Location:Toronto
Country:CACanada (Canada)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby dEhiN » 2018-11-16, 1:35

vijayjohn wrote:Oh, is that how it is? Okay, then maybe I'll start comparing with Ancient Egyptian while the rest of y'all are focusing on Coptic! :twisted:

Go right ahead, you're free to do what you want!
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Coptic Study group

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-11-16, 7:09

Yay! Thank you! :mrgreen:

Before I do anything like that, though, I wanted to find that clip of Coptic liturgical music, and I did! It's this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFlw5R9TcPs
The part I remember hearing is 2:55-3:18, but I realized listening to this whole thing that from 3:07 to the very end of this song, the choir of deacons is really just singing "kyrie elaison" (Lord have mercy) in Greek a few times.

I also found this video with another prayer, this time all in Coptic, but with the words written out both in Coptic script and in Latin script with translations into both Arabic and English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41QCT7pF4VU
And I learned that there are efforts to revive the Coptic language inside the church, but also that there is an entire political party in Egypt called the Liberal Egyptian Party whose goals include the revival of the Egyptian language and/or Coptic and recognizing Egyptian Arabic (instead of Modern Standard Arabic) as the official language of Egypt.


Return to “Ancient, Classical and Extinct Languages”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests