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ETYMOLOGY. the Coptic Language Comprises an Autochthonous

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ETYMOLOGY. the Coptic Language Comprises an Autochthonous (CE:A118a-A124b) ETYMOLOGY. The Coptic language comprises an autochthonous vocabulary (see VOCABULARY OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN and VOCABULARY OF SEMITIC ORIGIN) with an overlay of several heterogeneous strata (see VOCABULARY, COPTO-GREEK and VOCABULARY, COPTO-ARABIC). As a rule, etymologic research in Coptology is limited to the autochthonous vocabulary. Etymology (from Greek etymos, true, and logos, word) is the account of the origin, the meaning, and the phonetics of a word over the course of time and the comparison of it with cognate or similar terms. In Coptic the basic vocabulary, as well as the morphology of the language, is of Egyptian origin. Egyptian shares many words and all its morphology (grammatical forms) with the Semitic languages. Egyptian is transcribed with an alphabet of twenty-four letters in the following order: 3, „ , ‘, w, b, p, f, m, n, r, h, , , h, z, s, , (sometimes transcribed q), k, g, t, t, d, d. All these letters represent consonants. The sign 3 is the glottal stop heard at the commencement of German words beginning with a vowel (die Oper) or Hebrew aleph; „ is y in “yes,” but sometimes pronounced like aleph; ‘ is called ‘ayin, as in Hebrew, the emphatic correspondent to aleph (cf. Arabic ‘Abdallah); h is the English h; is an emphatic h, as in Arabic Mu ammad; is the Scotch ch in loch; h is like German ch in ich (between and ), and nearly like English h in human; is English sh in “ship”; t is ch in English “child”; and d is English j in ‘joke.” The group „„ is pronounced y. There is no particular sign for l; this sound is transcribed 3, r, n, or nr. Late Egyptian uses the sign of a lion (rw) for l. There are no vowels written in Egyptian, but the original pronounciation may be reconstructed to some extent by the insertion of the Coptic vowels and by comparative studies. Thus, Egyptian rmt, man, which is B rwmi and S rwme, is reconstructed *r met and was probably pronounced *r mit which is the form of a participle, as Egyptian Arabic *r gil (classical Arabic ra ul). Egyptian shares many words with the Semitic languages, including Akkadian (Assyrian in northern Mesopotamia, Babylonian in southern Mesopotamia), Hebrew (language of the Bible), Aramaic (language of Jesus Christ), Arabic (language of the Qur’an), and Ethiopian (language of Menelik, the legendary son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, founder of the Ethiopian dynasty), among others. Egyptologists pronounce Egyptian words by inserting e between the consonants: sdm, to hear, is sejem; ptr, to look, is peter. The letters 3 and ‘ are pronounced a; is „ ; and w may be pronounced as u. Thus, 3p, to hide, becomes hap; ‘n , to live, is ankh; „ ny, to bring, is ini; and mw, water, is mu. wfw, the name of the builder of the Great Pyramid, becomes Khufu or, more often, Cheops, as the Greeks rendered it. This system provides an artificial pronunciation as a practical means to read an Egyptian text, but not the true phonetic value of the words. The meaning of Egyptian words shows that the primitive vocabulary of the language was to a large extent identical with that of Semitic tongues: for example, „ b (Arabic lubb), heart; sp.t (Arabic if-a.t), lip; „ dn (Arabic 3udn), ear; ls, written ns, but B, S las (Arabic lisan), tongue; d, hand, as value of the hand hieroglyph (Arabic yad); dy, to suckle (Arabic tady, woman’s breast); db‘ (Arabic ‘isba‘), finger; g s, gazelle (Arabic a ass, gazelle); nd (Arabic kird), ape; z3b (Arabic di3b), jackal; sf (Arabic sab‘- a), seven; ws (Arabic wasi‘) to be wide; „ wn (Arabic lawn), color; isb (Arabic hasab), to calculate; mwt (Arabic mat, yamat : mawt), to die; hmm (Arabic hamm, yahumm : hamm), to be hot. There are also many words in Egyptian that are not found in any Semitic language. One might suppose that they belong to the African substratum of the language. Examples of such words are „ n‘, chin; fnd, nose; h.t, belly; „ nm, skin, hide; 3bw, elephant; mmy, giraffe; mz , crocodile; t3, turtle; mnw, dove; bny, date (fruit); t, wood; m ‘, flax; mdw, to speak; wnm, to eat; zwr, to drink; msy, to sit; w‘b, to be pure; „ b3, to dance; w m, to repeat; and hdb, to kill. The grammatical elements of Egyptian correspond to those of the Semitic languages. The original form of some of them has been reconstructed, such as –a.t, ending of feminine nouns; -u (not written in ancient texts, later indicated by -w), ending of the masculine plural; -ay (written -y), ending of the dual; iy (written -y) adjective ending (cf. Arabic -iy as in ‘arab-iy, Arabic; hind-iy, Indian; turk-iy, Turkish). The endings of the personal pronouns resemble those of Semitic (particularly of Akkadian), with the sole exception of -f (probably -fi) for the pronoun of the third-person masculine singular “his.” The verbal prefix s- (pronounced sa-) forms causative verbs, as w‘b, to be pure, s-w‘b (*saw‘ab), to purify, also written s-‘b (*s ‘ab); compare this with the causative prefix a- in Babylonian, sa- (Assyrian). The prefix m- (with different vowels) forms names of place (nomina loci), names of instruments (nomina instrumenti), and passive participles, as in m-hr, low-lying land, from hr, under; m- 3.t, balance, from 3y, weigh; m- tm.t, closed receptacle, from tm, to close, to seal; m- r„ , dung (cf. S hoeire; * a„ r-a.t, ancient * ar„ .a.t) The position of Egyptian thus resembles that of Mbugu, a language spoken in Tanzania combining Bantu grammar with a largely non-Bantu vocabulary. In Mbugu “finger” is ki-tshaa (plural, vi-ts/aa); in Bantu it is ki-dole (plural, vi-dole). The grammatical prefixes ki- (singular) and vi- (plural) are alike, but the words for “finger,” -tshaa in Mbugu and -dole in Bantu (Swahili), are different. The specific Mbugu words derive from Somali, Iraqw, or other, still unknown languages (Tucker and Bryan, 1974). Terminology Coptic dialects are cited according to the system devised by Kasser (1980a-b, 1981): A is Akhmimic; B is Bohairic; F is Fayyumic; L is Lycopolitan or Lyco-Diospolitan; M is Mesokemic; S is Sahidic; and (not a dialect) O is Old Coptic. “Radicals” are, as in the Semitic languages, the stem consonants of a word. Egyptian wn, to open, is a biradical verb, and sdm, to hear, a triradical one. The radicals of a word are called a “skeleton”: the skeleton of B, S cwtp, to choose, is stp. “Emphatic” as a phonetic term means articulated with an action of the tongue toward the soft palate combined with a contraction of the vocal cords. As a grammatical term, “emphatic” means a durative or repeated action, an action carried out by several subjects or on several objects. B ra, to do continually, is the emphatic form of B iri, to do. Egyptian reconstructed forms are preceded by an asterisk: *nátir god; *natar-a.t, goddess; *sadim to hear; *na át to be strong. Still ° ° older forms take a small circle: sadm, to hear; na at, to be strong. Archaic forms are preceded by quotation marks: “sadm-u, to hear; “na at-u, to be strong. Periods of the Egyptian Language The development of the Egyptian language comprises four main periods: Proto-Egyptian (4000—3000 B.C.). Prehistoric civilizations of Amra (Negada I), Gerza (Negada II), Merimda, etc. Formation of the Egyptian language. No written documents. Ancient Egyptian. Language of the Old Kingdom (approximately 3000-2100 B.C.). Short inscriptions, religious and biographic texts. The Pyramids, the most famous of which are those of Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Chephren), and Menkure (Mykerinos), at Giza (2545-2457). Pyramid texts, beginning with Unas (Onnos) (2310-2290). Middle Egyptian. Classical period of the Egyptian language, mainly during the Twelfth Dynasty (seven kings, called Amenemhet or Sesostris) (1991-1785 B.C.). After this dynasty, decline, invasion of the Hyksos (1650-1553 B.C.). The classical language remains in use for religious texts until the Roman period. Late Egyptian, also called New Egyptian. Mainly the language of the Eighteenth Dynasty (kings named Thutmose and Amenophis, and queen named Hatshepsut or Ha-shpeswe) and the Nineteenth Dynasty. Late Egyptian shows more affinity with Coptic than the preceding periods of the language: definite and indefinite article, beginning of the analytic verbal forms. The Twenty-second Dynasty is Libyan (kings named Osorkon, Shoshenk, Takelot; 946-720); the Twenty-fifth Dynasty is from Kush, capital at Napata in Nubia, with small pointed pyramids (Shabako, Sebichos, Taharka; 713—655). Invasion of the Assyrians, then Persian domination (Cambyses, Darius I, Xerxes I, Darius II; 525-404) and, after a short period of independence, a second Persian domination (Artaxerxes III, Darius III; 342-332). History of Coptic Etymology The first attempts to establish the relations between Coptic and other languages were made by Ignazio Rossi (1808) before the decipherment of the hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1823. Rossi, who was an excellent Semitist, compared Coptic words with related expressions in Semitic (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic), Latin, and Greek. The correspondence of S, B las, tongue, to Hebrew la n and Arabic lisan was first noted by him. The fundamental work was done by Champollion, whose Grammaire égyptienne (1836-1841) contains hundreds of etymologies. He even transcribed Egyptian words not with the Latin but with the Coptic alphabet. As the Egyptians wrote no vowels, the Egyptian form is often shorter than the Coptic one: Egyptian rn, but Coptic ran, name. Champollion’s successors transcribed Egyptian words with Latin letters, a system that was several times modified.
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