Vocabulary of Egyptian Origin, Autochthonous Coptic

              [Editorial note: [...] indicates use of Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, or Aramaic text. Original script is available for viewing in the PDF format of this article.]

(CE:A224a-A226a)

VOCABULARY OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN, AUTOCHTHONOUS COPTIC. Coptic is the autochthonous language (or languages, S and B) spoken and written in Egypt from the third century A.D. down to the Middle Ages (eleventh century or a little later). Moreover, it is the latest and most developed form of the Egyptian language itself (known at first in the form called “pharaonic”; cf. LANGUAGE(S), COPTIC). In these circumstances, one is not in the least surprised to observe that the greater part of the Coptic vocabulary is of Egyptian origin (pharaonic more or less ancient, down to demotic), so that one might justly describe it as “autochthonous Coptic of Egyptian origin,” and this even if one observes in the Coptic language the not insignificant presence—indeed rather conspicuous and impressive but nonetheless in a minority—of words of non-autochthonous origin (above all of Greek origin; cf. VOCABULARY, COPTO-GREEK).

This autochthonous preponderance in the Coptic vocabulary is illustrated below by two brief Sahidic texts, one written directly in Coptic by Shenute (Exhibit 1), the other probably translated from the Greek (Exhibit 2). Examining the total of the vocabulary of these two texts and taking no account either of the various articles, the prepositions, or the autochthonous adverbs, one counts, in terms of lexemes, fifty-eight units. Among them is one proper noun, agaywn, and then seven Copto-Greek words: [...], now, then, from [...]; [...], to serve, from [...]; [...], serpent, from [...]; eite, whether, from [...]; [...], or, from [...]; [...], absolutely, altogether, from [...]; [...], community, from [...].

Among the fifty other lexemes, all to be considered as autochthonous in the broad sense of the term (according to Vycichl, 1983; Cerny, 1976; Vergote, 1945 and 1973; and Westendorf, 1977), three appear to be of Semitic origin (cf. VOCABULARY OF SEMITIC ORIGIN, AUTOCHTHONOUS COPTIC): [...] /[...]/, [...] (B [...]), cf. Aramaic [...] (in Greek [...]); moulh /[...]/, to salt, cf. Hebrew [...], Arabic [...]; [wjb /c /, to diminish, cf. Hebrew ab, Arabic kasab.

[See PDF version of this article for Exhibits 1 and 2.]

For all the rest (apart from three cases, indicated by a question mark, where the etymology is either unknown or appears too uncertain), an authentically Pharaonic etymology (more or less ancient, or demotic) is known: [...] /v/, cave, from [...] etc.; [...] /[...]/ to go, from (?); [...] /[...]/, the companions, mutually, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to go, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, another, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, something, from (?); [...] /[...]/, there, from [...]; moose /[...]/, to walk, go, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, each, every, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to be good, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, sycamore, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, large, from (?); [...] /[...]/, bread, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, cause to be cooked, bake, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, to share, distribute, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to say, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to prepare, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, two, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, time, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, side, rib, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to choose, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, despise, judge vile, base, etc., from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, to give, make, etc., from [...], etc.; to /[...]/, part, share, from [...], etc.; [...], to delimit, decide, from [...], etc.; [...], cucumber, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, one, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to cease, finish, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to eat, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, there is, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, vegetable, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, time, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to inhabit, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to impress a mark, etc., from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/ to become, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, to cut, curtail, diminish, from ‘[...], etc.; he /[...]/, way, manner, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, (one)self, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, old man, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, some, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, thing, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, to be bad, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, serpent, from [...], etc.; [...] /[...]/, to say, from *did; [...] /[...]/, desert, from [...]; [...] /[...]/, lord, from [...]; [...] to rest, remain, from [...].

What is presented above is only a modest couple of examples. The matter is examined more systematically in ETYMOLOGY.

RODOLPHE KASSER