AHPG898 Coptic Dialects 4 credit points Unit Guide Semester 1, 2012 Faculty of Arts Department of Ancient History 2 1. GENERAL INFORMATION 1.1 Convenor Position: Unit Convenor Name: Dr Victor Ghica Email: [email protected] Phone: (02) 9850 8240 Office: W6A 524 Office hours: upon request. Students are strongly encouraged to visit the Coptic Studies page (http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_ancient_hist ory/coptic_studiesatmq/) and the website of the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University (http://mq.edu.au/about_us/faculties_and_departments/faculty_of_arts/department_of_ancient_history/ho me/) to find out about the department, the teaching staff, units and degrees offered. Distance students will be provided with a handbook by the Centre for Open Education. The handbook contains all pertinent information about enrolment, receiving course materials, handing in assignments and general study skills. Distance students should therefore first consult the handbook for questions about these matters. Please note though that the assignments for this language unit will not be mailed in to the Centre for Open Education, but e-mailed directly to your lecturer using the assignments tool on the website (see below p. 4). 1.2 General inquiries Position: Departmental Administrator Name: Ms Raina Kim Email: [email protected] Phone: +61 2 9850 8833 Office: W6A 540 1.3 Welcome Welcome to AHPG898 Coptic Dialects! If you have enrolled in this course, you will have quite a good command of Coptic grammar and the Sahidic dialect. You are able to read stories in Sahidic, to ponder the wisdom of a desert father in the original or to trace the life of a well-known saint or martyr. But there is a vast realm of fascinating texts outside Sahidic literature, and the aim of this course is to open up this realm for you: the literature in the other dialects of Coptic. Many of you may know one of these dialects: Bohairic, which is still in use today in the liturgy of the Coptic-Orthodox church. Bohairic is certainly the best known dialect of Coptic, and there is a wealth of saints’ lives and sermons for us to read. But there is an intriguing array of other texts which Coptic dialectology will make accessible to you, in Fayumic, Akhmimic, Lycopolitan, or Mesokemic. Old Bible translations and interesting manuscript finds belonging to religious groups for some time in competition with Christianity (Gnostics, Manichaeans) make for interesting reading in these dialects. 2. ACADEMIC CONTENTS 2.1 Credit points AHPG898 is worth 4 credit points. 2.2 Pre-requisite 3 The pre-requisite for this unit, which will be offered biannually, is AHPG896 Coptic I - Sahidic or AHPG829 Coptic I - Bohairic (ideally: AHPG897 or AHPG839, Coptic II), or previous knowledge of Coptic. 2.3 Unit description and outcomes This unit will introduce students to the main regional forms of Coptic and make accessible the following treasures of Coptic literature: • Bohairic: There is a rich literature in Bohairic Coptic in Early Medieval manuscripts which were produced after Bohairic had begun to supplant Sahidic as the dominant form of Coptic in the 9th century: martyrdoms and other saints’ lives, sermons and liturgical texts. Of course, Bohairic Coptic is still of vital importance today as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church. rd • Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, Mesokemic: From the 3 century CE, educated bilingual milieus in Egypt translated the Bible into Coptic. At first these groups seem to have translated into their own regional language form, which means that we have a number of early bible manuscripts in all of these dialects. After the 5th century, this wealth of variety is reduced, and Akhmimic, Lycopolitan and Mesokemic texts phased out. We will discuss questions of general interest and not shrink back from the debate which arose in the 1980s, whether we are allowed to deduce the existence of different regional language forms (dialects) just because we have written texts that use different forms of orthography. We will also look at the background of the texts and aim at seeing them in their historical context. Welcome then to a semester of variety and challenges! 2.4 Graduate capabilities Cognitive capabilities 1. Discipline knowledge and skills Our postgraduates will be able to demonstrate a significantly enhanced depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content knowledge in their chosen fields. 2. Critical, analytical and integrative thinking Our postgraduates will be capable of utilising and reflecting on prior knowledge and experience, of applying higher level critical thinking skills, and of integrating and synthesising learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments. A characteristic of this form of thinking is the generation of new, professionally oriented knowledge through personal or group-based critique of practice and theory. 3. Research and problem solving capability Our postgraduates will be capable of systematic enquiry; able to use research skills to create new knowledge that can be applied to real world issues, or contribute to a field of study or practice to enhance society. They will be capable of creative questioning, problem finding and problem solving. Interpersonal and personal dispositions 4. Effective communication Our postgraduates will be able to communicate effectively and convey their views to different social, cultural, and professional audiences. They will be able to use a variety of technologically supported media to communicate with empathy using a range of written, spoken or visual formats. 5. Engaged and responsible, active and ethical citizens Our postgraduates will be ethically aware and capable of confident transformative action in relation to their professional responsibilities and the wider community. They will have a sense of connectedness with others and country and have a sense of mutual obligation. They will be able to appreciate the impact of their professional roles for social justice and inclusion related to national and global issues 6. Capable of professional and personal judgment and initiative Our postgraduates will demonstrate a high standard of discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgment. They will have the ability to make informed choices and decisions that reflect both the nature of their professional work and their personal perspectives. 3. ASSESSMENT IN THIS UNIT 4 3.1 Assessment at a glance Assignments (weighted according to length and difficulty) (2 x 30%) 60% Vocabulary tests: frequent words from dialects other than Sahidic (2 x 10%) 20% Grammar tests: grammar patterns and rules from dialects other than Sahidic (2 x 10%) 20% 3.2 Assessment tasks Learning any ancient language is based on three basic principles: assimilation, repetition and application: • the continuous assimilation of new words and grammatical structures, • the memorisation and constant repetition of the knowledge acquired and • the application of this knowledge by means of translation and grammatical exercises. In a classroom setting the control of the students’ progress is fairly easy, both for teachers and for the students themselves, with vocabulary tests, translation exercises and other tests usually done in an exam environment. Distance students will need to be extra disciplined about learning the new words and going over material already learned. Assignments You will be given two assignments consisting in translation exercises and questions on the contents of the lessons covered. If you have reviewed the lesson contents and learned the vocabulary, you will be able to work on these assignments without major problems. • The assignments will be posted on the internal pages of the website using the assignments tool. • Please use the assignments tool on the website of the unit to submit and retrieve your assignments. • Please remember to proofread all your assignments before you send them out! Check your (English) spelling and grammar. Typing Coptic While communicating with your lecturer and your fellow students, you will need to type words in Coptic or Greek. Now most ancient language fonts – even if they are of the same language – have a different distribution of characters on the keyboard. So if members of the group use different fonts, this will lead to misunderstandings. I suggest therefore that you download the public domain Coptic and Greek fonts “Ifao N Copte” and “IFAO-Grec Unicode” or “New Athena Unicode”. Ifao N Copte and IFAO-Grec Unicode They are available for both PC and Macintosh computers on the following website: http://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/outils/polices/ Please take also note of the copyright notice on the website indicated. The fonts are available for a wide range of use, even for publication, however, commercial use is not permitted. They are accompanied by a readme file, which explains the keyboard distribution of the letters and diacritics (accents, punctuation marks). They are professional fonts and give most of the diacritics and graphemes encountered in Coptic texts. Coptic Unicode: New Athena Unicode It is only in 2005 that a separate Unicode standard for Coptic has been defined. Before it has just been treated as an appendix of Greek. A free unicode font (New Athena Unicode) is available at: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pinax/greekkeys/NAUdownload.html. For information on Coptic input using New Athena Unicode see: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pinax/coptic.html. If you wish to use type Coptic or Greek in an assignment or essay, install one of these fonts on your computer. To type Coptic or Greek in the online discussion forum use the following procedure: • When you create a discussion message, in the right upper corner of your window a little box should appear that reads "enable HTML creator". 5 • If you click this box, the HTML editor should appear on your screen. Make sure you have selected “WYSIWYG” (“What you see is what you get”) at the bottom of the box. • Among the options at the top of the box there is a drop down menu with all the fonts installed on your computer.