Coptic A

Teacher(s)

den Heijer Johannes; Obsomer Claude;

Language

French

Prerequisites

For beginners, none, but a knowledge of Egyptian, Greek or possibly Arabic is useful.

Main themes

Study of Coptic, the historic language of Christian Egypt.
Alternately with LGLOR 2732, this course is taught to students of two different levels, but with one part in common.
In the first term (15 hours), it gives beginners an initiation into the Sahidic dialect, while students who have already started, continue with the translation of texts in this same dialect.
In the second term, all the students continue their reading of Sahidic texts and in addition start to study Boharic, by means of a commented reading of a number of texts written in this dialect.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	At the end of this course, the student will be capable of reading, translating a text of average difficulty. To achieve this goal, he will have learnt the script, a basic vocabulary, the use of Crum's dictionary and the bases of the grammar.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

For the beginners, the 15 hours initiation into the Sahidic dialect will allow them to learn the script and reading, a basic vocabulary, the morphology and syntax; it will continue with a commented translation of the New Testament. The other students will translate, on their own, a selection of texts.
Then, all the students will be together to read Sahidic and Boharic texts, belonging essentially to the domain of hagiography and ecclesiastical historiography.

Teaching methods

The "initiation" consists of lectures, which include practical exercises.
The second part consists of an introduction followed by reading and guided translation exercises. In addition, a number of academic  studies on the thematic being studied will be introduced.

Evaluation methods

Written exam.

Online resources

The initiation syllabus and the matter covered in the second term are available on the Moodle server.

Bibliography

Initiation au sahidique :
- Cl. Obsomer, Initiation au copte, 2e édition, LLN, 2014, 39p.
Dictionnaire :
- E.W. Crum, A Coptic Dictionary, Oxford, 1939.
Grammaires de référence pour le sahidique :
- B. Layton, Coptic in 20 Lessons, Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies, Leuven, 2007.
- B. Layton, A Coptic Grammar, Second Edition revised and expanded, Wiesbaden, 2004.
Grammaire de référence pour le bohaïrique :
- A. Mallon, Grammaire copte, bibliographie, chrestomathie et vocabulaire, Beyrouth, 1956.
Textes disponibles sur Moodle : extraits du Nouveau Testament en version copte ; textes hagiographiques et historiographiques.

Faculty or entity

GLOR