Tag: records

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

(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 .

 The Author  : 

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

Translated by Dr. Mariam Michael