Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/332

 328 COPTIC LANGUAGE Misraim, the founder of Egypt, and that it has descended from him to all the native race ; this is the legend of the convents, and the boast of the Coptic people. But since Renaudot, the most eminent Egyptologists have agreed in de- riving it from AtyuTTTo? (according to Brugsch, in ancient Egyptian, Ha-lca-ptah, house of the worship of Ptah), whose sacred language was the mother of the Coptic, by which alone we are now enabled to understand the Egyptian monuments. This ancient sacred language co- existed with a vernacular dialect, and out of the two, with a mixture of Greek and Arabic words, arose the Coptic, which may be dated from the time of the Ptolemies in Lower Egypt ; the version of the Gospels in it having been read by St. Anthony, who did not know Greek, about the year 271. The language was used in Lower Egypt until the 10th century, and in Upper Egypt until the middle of the 17th, when it altogether gave way to the Arabic, except in the monasteries, where it was still preserved. With Christianity the Copts adopt- ed not only the Greek religious nomencla- ture, but the Greek alphabet as well, even introducing the forms of such letters as g, d, z, x, and ps, though these sounds do not oc- cur in genuine Coptic. Thus in the Coptic alphabet there are 32 signs, including these intrusive Greek letters; a numeral sign for 6 inserted after e; six Egyptian letters derived from hieroglyphs (and represent- ing* two forms of sh, Teh, h, /, and the English J) ; and a syllabic sign for ti. Strictly speak- ing, however, there are 21 Coptic sounds, viz. : a, e, i, o, u (which was written oy), all pro- nounced as in Italian, with y sounded as a French u ; b, le, I, m, n, p, r, 8, t, / (also writ- ten ph), h, the German ch, the English sh and th, and the English j. Diacritic signs were used ; thus a horizontal line over numerals, over contracted words, and over m and n, which are then to be read em and en, &c. The language has three dialects, viz. : the Memphitic, or genuine Coptic, which abounds in aspirates, writes ai for ei, and loves the final i; the Sahidic or Theban, which uses the final e, and writes ei instead of ai, and in which the Pistis Sophia, a Gnostic work, is written ; and the Bashmuric, belonging to the two oases, the poorest of the three in literature, using a, e, e, and I respectively, instead of 0, a, e, and r. All simple words are monosyllabic, unless lengthened by additional vowels ; e. g. : ape, head ; ohi, to stand ; mash, to strike ; pet, to run ; ro, mouth, &c. Verbs become passive by a change of their vowel into e : Ico, to put ; Ice, to be put. There are doubled roots, as shor- sher, to destroy (shor, to throw away) ; words inserting a vowel, prefixing a, en, sh, or suffix- ing r, s, f, sh; compounds of two words, as nek-mou, to draw water, rem-ne-Tcahi (man-of- land), inhabitant, tsa-bo (ti, give, sbo, learning), to teach, ham-she (man-wood), carpenter, &c. ; and compounds with the following prefixes: at-nay, invisible, la-foi, very hairy, ment-(or met}-at-nute (-ism a-the-), atheism, ref-sont (-or creat-), creator, shu-taio, worthy (of) hon- or, shin-nay, to see ; hence nouns by pi-, er-, as pi-shin-nay (-ing see-), vision, an- (much, again) -thba, myriad, &c. Nouns are formed by prefixing at, ma, met; thus: ma-neso (place- drink), inn; met-athmu (-ity immortal-), im- mortality. Many hieroglyphs are thus com- pounded: MT-S (Copt, met-sei), ornament; MT- KT (met-lwto circuit; MT-STN (met-suten kingdom. The MT expresses our -ment, -dom, -ity, -ism, &c. There are but two genders. The feminine is often formed from masculine by a vowel change, or by suffixing e (i, Memphitic), or by an article or adjective ; thus : uro, queen (from uro, king) ; hinb-i, ewe-lamb ; alu-shime, female child ; alu-hout, male child. The arti- cles are indefinite, definite, and demonstrative. The former are of common gender ; as, u romi, a man ; han-mui, some lions. The definite ar- ticles are pe (pi, M.), corresponding to French le ; te (ti to Fr. la ; and ne, nei (ni), to Fr. les ; thus : pi-son, le frere ; ti-sone, la sceur ; ne-tay, les montagnes. They often drop the final vowel, as pnute, le dieu. Before initial h the corresponding aspirates occur, as in Greek ; thus, th-orasis, r) bpacis. In hieroglyphs the prefix P stands for le, and N for les, but the suffix T for la; thus MU-T (Copt, ti-mau), mere la. The demonstrative articles, either joined or not, are pei, Lat. hie ; tei, Lat. hcec ; and nei, Lat. hi, hce, hcec. In hieroglyphs and Memphitic, they are PAI, TAI, NAI. Posses- sive adjectives are formed of the definite arti- cle and of the suffixes a (to have), and e (to be, etre a, to belong to) ; thus : pa, Fr. le mien ; ta, Fr. la mienne ; na, les miens and miennes ; analogous are pek, tele, nek, Lat. tuus, tua, tui, masculine ; pu, tu, nu, the same for feminine ; pef, tef, nef, his, her, their, masc. ; pes, tes, nes, fern. ; pen, ten, nen, Lat. noster, &c. ; peten, &c., Lat. tester, &c. ; pey (pu), &c., their ; e. g. : pa-nuti, my God; pen-het, our heart; teTc-shom, thy power. The hieroglyph RN-F is for the Copt, pef-ran, his name. Foreign and many Coptic nouns are without a plural form; thus: ni-apostolos, the apostles; han- magos, some magi; Copt, pei-hou, the day; nei-hou, these days. Many Coptic nouns be- come plural by suffixing i (e, Sah.) to conso- nants, or by lengthening final vowels ; as ape- ey, heads; uro-u, kings; sbo-ui, doctrines. Hieroglyphs trebled the noun, or added three lines, or final diphthongs ; thus : KM-UI, Egyp- tians ; MR-UI, regions. Some are anomalous ; thus: eiot, father, eidte, fathers; hurit, guar- dian, hurate, guardians ; son, brother, sney, brothers. Others are more dissimilar, as shime, woman, hidme, women ; bole, servant, ebiaik, servants; iom, sea, amaiou, seas. The cases of declension are signified both by separate particles and by prefixes. The nominative sign is enshi (S. and B.), or enje ; the genitive, ente, en-, em- ; the dative and accusative, en-^ em-, e-, d- ; vocative, pe ; the ablative, ebol, hiten, en-, em-, e-, and many prepositions.