Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic

Greek Influence on Egyptian-Coptic
Author: Eitan Grossman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Coptic language
ISBN: 9783943955170

Coptic, the latest phase of the Ancient Egyptian language, existed from beginning to end in a multilingual space. The indigenous Egyptian language had been in contact with Greek - and other languages - from the first millennium BCE, as well as Arabic, since the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 CE. In effect, this is the earliest and best-attested situation of stable language contact in the ancient world. It is also a rich source for studies on lexical borrowing, since about 5000 loanwords from Greek and some 500 from Arabic form part of the lexicon of Coptic at various stages. These loanwords are documented in a wide variety of genres and registers, from the language of theology to that of science and everyday life. The focus of the volume is mainly lexical borrowing from Greek into Coptic, but other aspects will be treated as well, e.g., the sociolinguistic situation of Greek and Coptic, Coptic loanwords in Greek, Arabic loanwords in Coptic, and pre-Coptic evidence for lexical borrowing. A special focus will be on the sociolinguistic and functional aspects of lexical borrowing in Coptic.

The Rise of Coptic

The Rise of Coptic
Author: Jean-Luc Fournet
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691230234

Coptic emerged as the written form of the Egyptian language in the third century, when Greek was still the official language in Egypt. By the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641, Coptic had almost achieved official status, but only after an unusually prolonged period of stagnation. Jean-Luc Fournet traces this complex history, showing how the rise of Coptic took place amid profound cultural, religious, and political changes in late antiquity. For some three hundred years after its introduction into the written culture of Egypt, Coptic was limited to biblical translation and private and monastic correspondence, while Greek retained its monopoly on administrative, legal, and literary writing. This changed during the sixth century, when Coptic began to penetrate domains that were once closed to it, such as literature, liturgy, regulated transactions between individuals, and communications between the state and its subjects. Fournet examines the reasons for Coptic's late development as a competing language—which was unlike what happened with other vernacular languages in Near Eastern Greek-speaking societies—and explains why Coptic eventually succeeded in being recognized with Greek as an official language. Incisively written and rich with insights, The Rise of Coptic draws on a wealth of archival evidence to shed new light on the role of monasticism in the growing use of Coptic before the Arab conquest.

A Companion to Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt

A Companion to Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt
Author: Katelijn Vandorpe
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 792
Release: 2019-03-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1118428455

An authoritative and multidisciplinary Companion to Egypt during the Greco‑Roman and Late Antique period With contributions from noted authorities in the field, A Companion to Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt offers a comprehensive resource that covers almost 1000 years of Egyptian history, starting with the liberation of Egypt from Persian rule by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and ending in AD 642, when Arab rule started in the Nile country. The Companion takes a largely sociological perspective and includes a section on life portraits at the end of each part. The theme of identity in a multicultural environment and a chapter on the quality of life of Egypt's inhabitants clearly illustrate this objective. The authors put the emphasis on the changes that occurred in the Greco-Roman and Late Antique periods, as illustrated by such topics as: Traditional religious life challenged; Governing a country with a past: between tradition and innovation; and Creative minds in theory and praxis. This important resource: Discusses how Egypt became part of a globalizing world in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times Explores notable innovations by the Ptolemies and Romans Puts the focus on the longue durée development Offers a thematic and multidisciplinary approach to the subject, bringing together scholars of different disciplines Contains life portraits in which various aspects and themes of people’s daily life in Egypt are discussed Written for academics and students of the Greco-Roman and Late Antique Egypt period, this Companion offers a guide that is useful for students in the areas of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and New Testament studies.

The Multilingual Experience in Egypt, from the Ptolemies to the Abbasids

The Multilingual Experience in Egypt, from the Ptolemies to the Abbasids
Author: Arietta Papaconstantinou
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780754665366

The wealth of documentary sources preserved by Egypt's papyri makes the country a privileged observation ground for the study of ancient multilingualism. Papyri capture more linguistic registers than other ancient and medieval sources, ranging as they do from very private documents not meant by their author to be read by future generations, to official documents produced by the administration, which are preserved in their original form. This collection of essays aims to make this wealth better known, as well as to give a diachronic view of multilingual practices in Egypt from the arrival of the Greeks as a political force in the country with Alexander the Great, to the beginnings of Abbasid rule when Greek, and slowly also Coptic, receded from the documentary record.

Graeco-Coptica

Graeco-Coptica
Author: Andrea Hasznos
Publisher: Harrassowitz
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Coptic language
ISBN: 9783447067522

Coptic scholarship is still quite far from having an agreement on how and where the Egyptian language was affected by Greek. It is indeed an intriguing question whether outside of loanwords Greek had any influence on Coptic. Andrea Haznos' study makes observations on syntax and stylistics in translated and original Coptic literature, sifting out the syntactic patterns showing Greek influence in one or both text groups, showing how certain patterns came to be used in Coptic clearly through translations, and raising the question whether those syntactic influences which came to the Egyptian language through the bilingual situation can be detected with certainty. With these observations the author helps develop the criterium system needed to determine whether a Coptic text was written in Coptic or Greek originally. While examining the final clauses, consecutive clauses, object clauses/infinitive constructions after verbs of exhorting and subject clauses/infinitive constructions from the point of view of syntactic graecism in translations and in original Coptic texts, valuable observations on Coptic dialects (esp. Sahidic, Mesokemic, Lycopolitan) and their relations are also made.

The Language of the Papyri

The Language of the Papyri
Author: T. V. Evans
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2010
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0199237085

A collection of essays by leading scholars on the linguistic significance of Greek and Latin papyri from Egypt. The Language of the Papyri charts a range of productive approaches to this material, and offers new methodologies suitable for its analysis.

Greco-Egyptian Interactions

Greco-Egyptian Interactions
Author: Ian Rutherford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2016
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199656126

Contact and interaction between Greek and Egyptian culture can be traced in different forms over more than a millennium: from the sixth century BC, when Greeks visited Egypt for the sake of tourism or trade, through to the Hellenistic period, when Egypt was ruled by the Macedonian-Greek Ptolemaic dynasty who encouraged a mixed Greek and Egyptian culture, and even more intensely in the Roman Empire, when Egypt came to be increasingly seen as a place of wonder and a source of magic and mystery. This volume addresses the historical interaction between the ancient Greek and Egyptian civilizations in these periods, focusing in particular on literature and textual culture. Comprising fourteen chapters written by experts in the field, each contribution examines such cultural interaction in some form, whether influence between the two cultures, or the emergence of bicultural and mixed phenomena within Egypt. A number of the chapters draw on newly discovered Egyptian texts, such as the Book of Thoth and the Book of the Temple, and among the wide range of topics covered are religion (such as prophecy, hymns, and magic), philosophy, historiography, romance, and translation.

The Greeks and Us

The Greeks and Us
Author: Marcel Detienne
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2007-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0745639003

The human race is all too pre-disposed to think in terms of us and them. Europeans have always laid claim to the Ancient Greeks they are our Greeks, our ancestors but their legacy reaches further than we could ever imagine. Their influence stretches from the Japanese to the Cossacks, from Ancient Rome to Indonesia. In this path-breaking new volume, the great French historian Marcel Detienne focuses on Eurocentric approaches which have trumpeted the Greeks and their democratic practices as our ancestors and the superiority of the Western tradition to which they gave rise. He argues that such approaches can be seen as narrow-minded and often covertly nationalistic. Detienne advocates what he calls comparative anthropology which sets out to illuminate the comparisons and contrasts between the beliefs, practices and institutions of different ancient and modern societies. Detienne aims to put the Greeks in perspective among other civilisations and also to look afresh at questions of political structure, literacy, nationhood, intellect and mythology. The work of Marcel Detienne has made an enormous impact on our thinking about the Greeks in areas such as rationality, literacy and mythology, and in this new volume he challenges once again our conception of the Greeks and their impact on the modern world.