Coptic Institute

Category: History of the authentic Coptic accent

  • Questions and answers about The old Coptic accent

    Questions and answers about The old Coptic accent

    From the Arabic book, written by Fr. Shenouda, (The old Bohairic Coptic accent , its history, Authenticity and preference)- Translated By Dr. Mariam Michael :

     First Question :

    How do you explain the the widespread use of modern pronunciation in church nowadays, Although it is not based on sound scientific basis ?

    Answer : 

    I think that this is due to the Church’s commitment ( Until recently) to the idea of the one Seminary, and one Coptic language teacher who received the modern pronunciation from Erian Effendi Girgis or his disciples, without knowing the extent of the novelty of this accent and its lack of authenticity . He continued to teach it to his disciples in the only one seminary , and they are graduated in it to serve all over the evangelism , priests, servants and teachers of religion. And some of them are chosen to the degree of the venerable Episcopal.

    So the Intellectual Priests in the seminarian education, who are capable of Preaching and teaching, are now those who pray with the modern accent  . While the old pronunciation remained with the simple priests, who did not get a share of theological education in the seminary, delivered from the Predecessor to the successors  .

    By extinction of the uneducated generation of priests during the last four decades, the use of the old pronunciation receded to a few of Priests and intoners who did not learn in seminary  .

    The situation remained as it is until the blessed Pop third Shenouda came and, god keeps his life, he encouraged me to research and study Coptic language and teaching it, so he sent me on a mission to Oxford in order to prepare the doctoral thesis in the philosophy of the Coptic language, in the subject,’ Audio Coptic Bohairic dialect and the effect of the Coptic language on Egypt’ .  I continued the thesis, By the grace of the Lord, and  by the bless of prayers of Pop shenouda, and I typed in the four volumes containing about 2237 pages, It won the admiration of scientists of the Coptic language and their extreme appreciation

    The Author  : 

     Fr. Shenouda Maher Ishak ( previously Deacon Dr. Emil Maher Eshak ).

    Translated by Dr. Mariam Michael

  • Records of the old pronunciation

    (With the acoustic Latin Script)

    With the acoustic Latin Script A long time ago the foreigner scientists cared about recording of the old Coptic accent that was used in church’s prayers by voice input using the Latin letters .Though the voice input method has been evolved over time, however. all registrations made by the scientists in all eras witness to the heritage of one  constant across time,  the old Bohairic accent, which we received through the tradition in our Coptic church, and which we teach now to revive its use and generalization as it is the accent which was used when the language was still used as conversational language in the daily life . Record of Petraeus (1659) : It is the oldest known recording we have for the old language, using the voice input in Latin letters. In 1659, Petraeus has published the first Psalm written in  the Bohairic Coptic dialect using the voice input for its pronunciation in Latin letters . This text had been excerpted and re-published completely by both Sholtz in (1778) in his book ‘ Grammatica – aegyptiaca –  utriusque – dialectiquam, breviavit, illustravit, Oxonii 1778’ , and the Galtier in the fifth volume of the Journal of the French Institute ( BIF V, p. 110) . And as Petraeus recording was in the same century during which the Coptic language was about to extinct as a conversational language in the daily life and to be restricted only to the use in churches, so,  this recording has a Great importance, it witness that the old pronunciation which we use now is the one that our fathers had used when they were still using the Coptic language .

    So we re- publish the text  Quoted from Galtier .

    CYMERA_20131229_033856

     The Author  : 

     Fr. Shenouda Maher Ishak ( previously Deacon Dr. Emil Maher Eshak ).

    Translated by Dr. Mariam Michael

  • Coptic Authentic Pronunciation

    Coptic Authentic Pronunciation

    Coptic Demotic Egyptian are grammatically closely akin to Late Egyptian, which was written in Hieroglyphic script. Coptic flourished as a literary language from the second to 13th centuries, and its Behairic dialect continues to be the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It was supplanted by Egyptian Arabic as a spoken language toward the early modern period, though revitalization efforts have been underway since the 19th century .

    The Coptic accent, its history, Originality and Superiority:

    An overview about the old Coptic accent and the emergence of the new accent:

    There were five or six main Coptic accents, in addition to them there were many other sub accents, each of which is derived from the Conversational language in specific distination of the Egyptian Country.

    The main Coptic accents are the Upper Egypt(tribal) which is named Saidy.

    The old accent was considered the cultural language in Egypt, and continued as the conversational language in upper Egypt till the end of the sixteenth century.

    The Maqrizi, who lived in the fifteenth century said while he was talking about Moshe Monastery the following:

    ” And mostly on Egypt’s Christians is the knowlege of Saidy Coptic which is the origin ofCoptic language, followed by the Behairy Coptic language, and the Christian women in Al -Said and their children still not talking except with the Saidy Coptic language and have full knowlege of the “Greek language” . The use of Behairy accent became invalid as conversational language much earlier. But it continued the language of Churches’s prayers in lower Egypt especially in the region of Wadi Al Natrun.

    The author: Fr. Shenouda Maher Ishak ( previously Deacon Dr. Emil Maher Eshak).

                                  
    Translated by Dr.Mariam Michael

  • Ancient dialect

    The use of Lacustris ancient dialect

    The use of the old Bohairic accent spread

    in the church’s prayers in all the Egyptian towns. There was for the people inUpper Egypt, their churches, books of Masses…

    etc., written in the Bohairic accent). And it was used when the Saidic accent was a living language to communicate in daily life. When it became weak it is substituted by the church books imported from the Monasteries of Wadi el Natrun due to the boom of monasticism and the great number of scribes there.

    As the accent that was used in Monasteries

    of Wadi el Natrun was the Bohairic, so the scribes were copying about their church’s books which were written in the Bohairic accent, and these churche’s Bohairic manuscripts reach to all the churches of the Egyptian country from the north to the far south because their abundance and accuracy also due to their cheap price.

    Also what helps that is that Abu Makar Monastey was considered for long generations Patriarch’s office from which graduaded many of the Patriarchs and they were spending long periods in it both for praying and residence. Most of the bishops

    were choosen from Wadi Al Natrun.
    All these factors combined together helped the spread of the use the Bohairic accent in the prayers of the church gradually to include all the parts of the country of Egypt from Alexandria up to Aswan.

    For this the old Bohairic accent became the assumptive one for us by tradition, spoken by it in the church’s prayers in all parts of the Saint Mark Evangelism. for it is present and it is used in Upper Egypt exactly as it is present and is used in the lower Egypt. The

    modern pronunciation appeared. reach to all the churches of the Egyptian country from the far North to the far south because if their accuracy, also due to their cheap price.

    The Authur:

    Fr.Shenouda Maher Ishak ( previously Deacon Dr. Emil Maher Eshak)

    Translated by Dr. Mariam Michael