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This introduction to Coptic was supplied by Geoffrey Graham and is based on the version that was posted to the AEL list on October 6th 1997. I know that there are people here who would be interested in the subject of the Coptic language, especially as it relates to earlier Egyptian. Mark has suggested that from time to time, I post something which might help people get started in Coptic, if they so desire. Bently Layton, here at Yale, is in the process of producing a new Coptic Reference Grammar which will probably become the new standard textbook for beginning Coptic, however, that opus is not yet finished. Until such time as it is, I would suggest to any of you who are interested in pursuing this, the last stage of the Egyptian language, that you begin with Thomas Lambdin's _Introduction to Sahidic Coptic_, Macon: Mercer University Press, 1983. It is probably not in print anymore, but it can most likely be located in libraries. For dictionaries, there are: W.E. Crum's extensive _A Coptic Dictionary_ which has everything that you might need, but is very large and may no longer be available, and Richard Smith's _A Concise Coptic-English Lexicon_, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983, which is a nice small alphabetically orgnised vocabulary list which can get you started. Meanwhile, let me first introduce the Coptic Alphabet (yes it is an alphabet, much easier than ancient Egyptian!) and the pertinent phonology: The Coptic Alphabet was borrowed from Classical Greek, at some time before the development of Koine Greek, although the records of its early development have not yet been found. This means that the phonology of Coptic's usage of the Greek alphabet reflects the kind of Greek spoken about 200 BC, rather than the period at which Coptic seems to first appear in our records, about 200 AD!
That is the Coptic Alphabet as it comes to us in the Sahidic Dialect. Other dialects have a few additional characters, but one generally begins with Sahidic, and this should suffice for now. The first section of letters are all borrowed from the Greek alphabet, and the last six were adopted from the Demotic Script, the native form of writing used in Egypt. Important note: a sound which did exist in Coptic for which no systematic writing was created was the glottal stop. Often it was represented by the doubling of vowels. In such cases, the vowel was pronounced first, and the glottal stop second. I will use {'} as a pronunciation guide in what follows. Another sound not represented consistently in Coptic is the schwa which occurs as an unaccented vowel between certain consonants. It can be written with a supralinear stroke (horizontal line over the consonant which follows it), but this is not always done in every text. When a schwa occurs, we should type in the ascii character {@} which approximates the schwa symbol. For the purposes of ascii rendition of Coptic let us use the following system: alfa a
vita b
gamma g
dalda d
epsilon e
zEta z
Eta E
thEta th (it is a digraph and hence two signs are appropriate)
iota i
kappa k
laula l
mu m
nu n
ksi ks (another digraph)
omikron o
pi p
ro r
simma s
tau t
upsilon u
phi ph (a digraph)
khi kh (a digraph)
ps ps (a digraph)
Omega O
shai S
fai f
hori h
tjantja c
kjima 6
ti ti (a digraph)
The following are vocabulary words which one could relate to earlier
Egyptian:
rOme rmT man/person m./f.
ran rn name m.
son sn brother m. (plural = snEu (pronounce "snEw"))
sOne sn.t sister f.
maau mw.t mother f. (pronounce ma'u)
eiOt jt father m. (pronounce "yOt") (plural = eiote (pronounce
"yote"))
cOOme Dm` book m. (pronounce "tjO'me")
eiOhe 3H.t field f. (pronounce "yOhe")
ih 3x spirit/demon m.
pe p.t sky/heaven f. (plural = PEue (pronounce "pEwe"))
kah q3H clay/dirt/earth m.
moou mw water m. (pronounce "mow", the writing of {ou} is here
/w/)
hoou hrw day m. (pronounce "how")
ounou wnw.t hour f. (pronounce "w@nu")
rompe rnp.t year f.
te tr season m.
SEn Sn tree m.
bO b3.t bush/sprig f.
beke fq3 income/earnings m.
bOk b3k(?) go v. intrans. (preferred word in Souther Coptic)
Se Smj go v. intrans. (preferred word in Northern Coptic)
ei jj come v. intrans. (pronounce "I")
prrie prj.t emanate v. intrans. (pronounce "p@rye")
eine jnj.t fetch/bring v. trans. (pronounce "Ine")
eire jrj.t do/make v. trans. (pronounce "Ire")
cO Dd say/tell v. trans.
moute mdw call v. trans.
sOtm sDm hear/listen/obey v. trans.
nau nw look/see v. trans.
sOoun swn know v. trans.
me mrj love v. trans.
me mrj.t love m. (in Lykopolitan dialect it is {meeie}, pronounced "meye".)
me m`.t truth f. (in Lykopolitan dialect it is {mEe}, pronounced "mE'e".)
moste msDj hate v. trans.
mooSe mS` walk/travel v. intrans. (pronounce mo'she)
noub nbw gold m.
hat HD silver m.
ti rdj give v. trans.
p- p3- the m. (definite article) p-kah "the earth"
t- t3- the f. t-pe "the sky"
n- n3- the pl. n-eiote "the fathers"; m-pEue "the heavens" (note
that /n/ assimilates to /m/ next to a bilabial sound)
ou- w`- or w`.t a/an (indefinite article) ou-son "a brother"; ou-sOne
"a sister"
hen- nhy-n- a few/some (indefinte article pl.) hen-snEu "some
brothers"; hen-Sone "some sisters"
n- n to/for n-t-maau "for the mother"; m-peiOt "for the
father"; n-hen-SEn "for some trees"
e- r to/against/at/concerning e-t-pe "to the sky"; e-m-beke
"about the earnings"
n- m with/in/as
hi- Hr on/upon/and/concerning
ha- Xr under
hn Xnw inside
ebol r-bnr outside
Ei `.wy house m.
pef- p3y=f his (of a masculine object) pef-noub "his gold"
tef- t3y=f his (of a feminine object) tef-sOne "his sister"
nef- n3y=f his (of plural objects) nef-SEn "his trees"
pes- p3y=s her (of a masculine object) pes-son "her brother"
tes- t3y=s her (of a feminie object) tes-maau "her mother"
nes- n3y=s her (of plural objects) nes-cOOme "her books"
Numbers:
oua w`w one m.
ouei w`.t one f. (pronounce "wI")
snau snw two m.
snte sn.t two f. (pronounce "s@nte")
Somnt xmtw three m. (pronounce "shom@nt")
Somte xmt.t three f.
ftoou jfdw four m. (pronounce "ftow")
ftoe jfd.t four f. (pronounce "fto'e")
tiou djw five m. (pronounce "ti'u")
tie dj.t five f. (pronounce "ti'e")
soou srsw six m.
soe srs.t six f. (pronounce "so'e")
saSf sfxw seven m.
saSfe sfx.t
Smoun xmnw eight m. (pronounce "shmUn")
Smoune xmn.t eight f.
psis psDw nine m.
psite psD.t nine f.
mEt mDw ten m.
mEte mD.t ten f.
mntoua mDw-w`w eleven (pronounce "m@nt-wa")
mntsnoous mDw-snw twelve (pronounce "m@nt-snow@s")
mntSomte mDw-xmtw thriteen "m@nt-shomte"
mntafte mDw-jfdw fourteen "m@nt-'afte"
etc.
Independent Pronouns:
anok jnk I
ntok ntk you m. (pronounce "@ntok")
nto ntT you f. "@nto"
ntof ntf he "@ntof"
ntos nts she "@ntos"
anon jnn we
ntOtn ntTn you pl. "@ntOt@n"
ntoou ntsn they "@ntow"
Pronoun Suffixes:
=i/=t =j I, me
=k =k you m.
=<_> =T you f. (no pronounced sound)
=f =f he, him
=s =s she, her
=n =n we, us
=tn =Tn you pl. (pronounce "t@n")
=ou =sn they, them
OK, this post has gotten rather long, and I think this is enough for now. See if you can build some simple groupings of these lexemes which will make grammatical sense in Coptic. I will try to help you, if you write something. (I realize that I have hardly given enough grammatical information for you to do much, but try what you can, following the short examples I gave after certain vocabulary words.)
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"alpha" /a/
like {a} in English "father"
"vita" /b/
alternating with /v/, much like {b} in Spanish
"gamma" /g/
a sound not native to Egyptian or Coptic, and generally used in words
of Greek origin, or where /k/ was close to a nasal sound
"dalda" /d/
a sound not native to Egyptian of Coptic, and generally used in words
of Greek Origin, or where /t/ was close to a nasal sound
"Epsilon"
/e/ a sound somewhere between English {e} in "pet" and {a}
in "pat".
"zEta" /z/
a sound not native to Egyptian or Coptic, and generally used in words
of Greek Origin, or where /s/ was close to a nasal sound
"Eta" /E/ or
/<ae>/ either like English {a} in "lake" or an elongated
{a} as in "lack" if the vowel were held for a longer duration
"thEta" /th/
a digraph consisting of /t/ followed by /h/ like {t} and {h} in English
"that hill". It was not until the period of Koine Greek that
this letter came to represent /<th>/ as {th} in English "think",
but this development NEVER reached Coptic.
"iota" /i/,
/I/ and /y/, this chracter could represent three Coptic sounds: like
English {i} in "sit", {ea} in "seat", and {y} in
"year". It was often written with two dots over it (dierisis)
when it was intended to represesent /y/, and after {epsilon} when it
was intended to represent /I/, but one cannot count on Coptic scribes
to be consistent in spellings.
"Kappa" /k/
a non-aspirated {k} like {c} in French, Spanish, and Italian
"laula" /l/
like English {l}
"mu" /m/ like
English {m}
"nu" /n/ like
English {n}
"ksi" /<ks>/
a digraph of /k/ followed by /s/, like {x} in English "expert"
"omikron"
/o/ like English {o} in "loss"
"pi" /p/ a non-aspirated
/p/ like {p} in French, Spanish, and Italian
"ro" /r/ a tap,
like {r} in Italian
"simma" /s/
like English {s} in "see"
"tau" /t/ a
non-aspirated /t/ like {t} in French, Spanish, and Italian
"upsilon"
/U/, /u/ and /w/, this character could represent four sounds: like English
{w} in "win" and {oo} in "hoop", and the prolonged
version of the same. /<ue>/ like umlauted {u} in German or Turkish.
Rarely it was written with a dierisis when it represented /w/, and after
an {omicron} when it represented /U/ or /u/.
"phi" /<ph>/
a digraph representing /p/ followed by /h/, like {p} and {h} in English
"top house". It was not until the period of Koine Greek that
this letter came to represent /f/ as {f} in English "fix",
but this development NEVER reached Coptic.
"khi" /<kh>/
a digraph representing /k/ followed by /h/, like {k} and {h} in English
"smack him". It was not until the period of Koine Greek that
this sound came to represent /x/ as {x} in Arabic "xaTT",
but this development seems only superficially to have reached Coptic
in certain late writings.
"psi" /<ps>/
a digraph representing /p/ followed by /s/, like English {ps} in "synopsis"
"Omega" /O/
like French {o} in "tome"
"shai" /<sh>/
like English {sh} in "shine"
"fai" /f/ like
English {f} in "fact"
"hori" /h/
This charcter may have represented more than one sound, like English
{h} in "hope", and/or Arabic /H/ in "HayyAt", and/or
Arabic /<x>/ in "xaTT"
"tjantja"
/<tj>/ like English {ch} in {church}
"< kj>ima"
/<kj>/ a palatalized /k/ not unlike the sound of English /k/ followed
by /y/ in "black yams"
"ti" /<ti>/
a digraph representing /t/ followed by /i/ or /y/, similar to English
{tie) in "sweetie" or {t} and {y} in "that year"
