Dear all,
I am an European Catholic Christian and keen on traditional churches around the world. Furthermore, I am fascinated that the Coptic-Orthodox Church has passed on relicts of the old Egyptian, Pharaonic culture in its hymns and liturgy.
I have found out that today´s Egypt mostly speaks Egyptian Arabic. However, I have been wondering if the Egyptian language is still in use today which has been called Coptic since the time after Christ.
In some articles, it is stated that a few Copts would use Coptic as colloquial language. There is stated a number of 300 around the world who speak Coptic and not only use it in church services on Wikipedia. However, as there are claims that there is renewed interest in the language since recent decades, I wonder if there are not more people who have skills in Coptic to talk about everyday matters and might do so in the odd case considering the size of the Coptic Christian population to be several millions. I do not refer to native speakers only. In another case a man has reported about a revivalist group in his parish in Egypt. By reviving Coptic as everyday language, the Coptic Christian community could strengthen the link to the past and its identity. The language is best saved by using it colloquially. The church(es) ought to care about teaching Coptic yet to children and encourage its colloquial use in the own community. Are church services to be found in Egypt that are hold completely in Coptic, including the sermon? In a travel advisor, they state that services in Coptic would be held in the Hanging Church of Cairo. However, they did not say if this includes the sermon and non-liturgical speeches, too. Last but not least, Coptic language courses ought also to consider everyday speech. I do well know that one has act be careful in Egypt in order not to awaken the rage of panarabic nationalists and radical Muslims.
By chance, I have found a thread on this forum here in which the topic is the usage of Coptic in church services of the Coptic Church abroad. In my point of view, the churches are as well linked to certain peoples as the teaching of the faith itself. Therefore, the churches ought to keep the language of the countries where there are enrooted. If descendants of immigrants feel more linked to the culture of the residential country, they should join the orthodox or catholic church of this country.
For reasons of old roots, I am also a proponent of using Latin alongside the indigenous languages in the Catholic Church of the Latin rite. However, this case is very different from the case of Coptic in Coptic Churces as Latin is a real ancient language which no people after the rise of Romance languages has any more as native or indigenous language. The same is true for Church Slavonic in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Latin and Church Slavonic are comparable with Ancient Agyptian as Demotic. I regret that the Latin Church does not have national branch churches with strong link to indigenous cultures.
Thank you very much for your posts and wish you merry and peaceful Christmas.
Alex
Comments
Merry Christmas to you too and happy new year
Oujai
They ought to have pushed Coptic to be again used widely as everyday language and native language of children among Copts. This the most effective way to save the treasures linked to Coptic according to the Coptic principle of the church if the everyday presence of the language attrackts the interest to Coptic texts and songs and if every Coptic Christian can easily understand them.
I have seen a website of a Copt that wants the hieroglyphs to be revived because, according to his statement, the Greek-based script would be foreign. But let us consider that many languages have adopted "foreign" scripts because they did not have an own script before or another script was considered to be easier and therefore suitable to spread writing and reading.
And it is important to consider that there were not much radical tendencies in Islam by the mid of the 19th century as today so that such a movement was probably not that difficult to put into practice at this time.
A happy and peaceful 2012 to you,
Alex
As for revival of hieroglyphics symbols, I'm completely against such.. that had already been a passed stage in language development, so why now, and where is the need to go back that far a distance back? We may however encourage Copts to understand more pharaonic than Greek to reconnect with our roots, but frankly speaking I don't see the church capable of doing that at present..
OUjai
In cases of brutal societal conditions against the indigenous language, the conflict between sorrows for the children´s survival and the will to keep the indigenous language is understandable. However, if native speakers of parents do not speak the indigenous language with children for reasons of lacking pride in it without brutal oppression, this is simply stupid and short-viewing. In Egypt, there have been times of brutal oppression against Coptic.
The mid of the 19th century when the church had started the campaign for Coptic, the time to revive it as native language at least among Coptic Christians was at any rate more favourable than today. If a few single persons speak Coptic again at home, this will certainly not interest radical Muslim and Panarabist groups that much. However, in the case of a widespread campaign to revive Coptic as everyday language, hostile actions of radical Muslims and Panarabists are more probable today than 150 years ago. Today, campaigns by those to totally outlaw Coptic in Egypt could follow...But this is no reason for brave people not to act in favour of a revival, but to act carefully.
In countries where indigenous languages are taught at school, this is mostly a result from support by large parts of the population and governments respecting the demand of citizens to save indigenous languages. In Egypt, I believe that most Muslims would not support to teach Coptic in public schools. It is rather to expect that many Muslim parents would be outraged if Coptic would be taught in all public schools. The demands of Coptic Christians are unfortunately not respected by official bodies and many Muslim people to any degree.
Of course, I would like to see that every pupil in Egypt would have Coptic lessons as I am in favour of indigenous languages worldwide to be taught to everybody at school in the task areas or countries. As well, I would like to hear about Bible texts to be part of lessons for everybody in Egypt, too. This is an unrealistic vision in forseeable time, however. The only bodies to be considered to push revival are Coptic Churches and grassroot movements among brave Muslim people.
Some may argue that reviving Coptic is an artificial issue. If a language has totally been lost since hundreds of years like hethitic, I would agree. In the case of Coptic, it has been spoken in everyday life until up to the 19th century and links to the language have somehow been conserved in the church. That which is left in hymns, traded texts and also Egyptian Arabic are not all from far back in the past but close enough to our days. This fact together with that which is still left of the Coptic identity gives a weak glow which could realistically again be raised to a (small) fire. But there are forces today that could want to prevent the fire to be raised again.
For example, the liturgical use could make some Copts think why they should not speak this language of the forefathers in everyday life...
Alex
Oujai qen `P[C
I have read about persons who speak Coptic at home. They are proving evidently that enough has been passed on that Coptic can be used for everyday purposes of modern life and not only for liturgical use.
They are probably descendants of revitalists or revitalists themselves, but not native speakers in an unbroken chain from pharaonic times. The traded texts and hymns in Coptic are however probably contain pieces of heritage in a chain reaching back up to pharaonic times.
As soon as languages become minorised, very often the myth rises that this language would not be suitable for contemporary issues. Some neoliberals even state that English and other world languages are more useful than every other one for modern facilities. Such is simply nonsense. New words for new facilities can be formed in each language. No language whose knowledge has fully been handed down to present times needs lots of loans from foreign languages.
Indeed, recognized persons should go ahead as examples. It would probably push the revival if church leaders commonly held lectures in Coptic. And last but not least, coptic media ought to include spoken/written Coptic with Arabic subtitles/notices. The subtitles/notices would be of use and necessary because very few dominate Coptic like a native speaker.
Prayer is indeed very necessary as Christians all over the world face growing dangers. In industrialized countries, decadency is a real frightening factor alongside the worldwide danger of radicalized Islam. The demonstration of Islamic arrogance and self-confidence has lead myself to even more pride into Western-European, Christian heritage. I reject Western decadency and rather look at former Occidental Europe.
Alex