Correct Deacon Responses?

georgemelek

Hey all,

I was just wondering - are Ibrahim Ayad's coptic deacon responses on this website the correct way to pronounce them? Because if so, my whole life has been a lie - especially is pateer lol. Also, if he is saying it correctly, how did so many people learn it the wrong way? Thank you and God bless!

ItalianCoptic

They are all based on dialect from my experience. It depends on where the person is from in Egypt and/or the dialect of Coptic which they speak. I always hear subtle differences, that's why I have done my best to learn the Coptic alphabet and read them based on how the actual letters are written. I still make some subtle changes with a's and e's (Like Kay and Kee) based on my background from learning Latin in the Catholic church as a kid.

For instance, "Athanatos" in the Trisagion I have noticed is pronounced, "Asanatos" by most Deacons I serve with. I asked our head nun which it is, then learned how to read it and it is mispronounced by most people as, "Asanatos." I don't know if it's extremely horrible to mispronounce a little bit here on there. I learned a lot from Ibrahim Ayad's recording and videos.

I usually roll with him. I got some responses from a church in Seattle and memorized them 3 or 4 years ago. When I served with a Monk and our Abouna that week, the Monk asked me if I was speaking Italian by accident! I would definitely go with our Archdeacon.

ophadece

Dear @georgemelek,
The whole controversy about the Coptic Church's Greco-Bohairic pronunciation vs the more authentic one that very few hymns were recorded with. The problem with cantor Ibrahim and the cathedral chorus is that they keep inventing and changing the pronunciation year on year, and YouTube is full of examples.. Enough said about that now..
Ⲟⲩϫⲁⲓ ϧⲉⲛ Ⲡϭⲥ