Coptic_Vocalism_Three.htm, 3 of 3

COPTIC VOCALISM

(Sahidic)

by Patrick C. Ryan

(9/5/98)

3 of 3

I am rejoicing in it and I will be rejoicing again

Egyptian m(w)t, "die"

Egyptian <em><strong>m(w)t</strong></em>, ' die'

The Egyptian word mt is an example of medial /w/ , which Faulkner and Gardiner both recognize.

Egyptian m(w)t is almost invariably accompanied by a biliteral which Gardiner characterizes as "man with blood streaming from his head" (A14).

In an equatorial climate, death is followed without delay by corruption; and an effluvium quickly surrounds the corpse.

These cognates have, as an ultimate reference, Nostratic m[w]a-wa-t[?w]a "unclean liquid + definite amount + lump)".

In Arabic, we see it as ma:ta (mwt), "be dead"; and this is its original significance, "foul-smelling material". It is also easy to find its cognates in IE and Sumerian: Sumerian mud, "blood" (Jaritz #127); and in IE 1. meu-, "wet, musty, sprinkle, unclean liquid (also urine), dirty, also wash, clean", which shows forms like Greek mudáo:, "am foul". Now Sumerian mud-5pictures a vessel for salve (but perhaps a "chamber-pot"), and means "aroma" (Jaritz #436). I interpret this to be "odor", originally in an unpleasant sense.

For the idea of "effluvium", mud-4 is a compound of #834 ("evil-smell") + #750 (here?) "strong" + # 454 (here?) "make"; mud-4 is not defined in my sources but I would hazard a strong guess that it means something like "effluvium" though I cannot confirm this meaning at this time.

Since final -t was lost, Egyptian m(w)t is Coptic mou, "die". After a nasal (/m/ or /n/), Coptic o: is raised to ou, i.e. /u/, but here the medial w would have produced the same result.

The Price of Semitocentrism

Some readers may be wondering why a discussion of mwt (on the strength of Arabic mâta, this word has already been correctly reconstructed in Egyptian with a medial w though the medial w is nowhere indicated in the Egyptian spelling of the word) has been included in an essay in which an attempt has been made to prove that medial /j/ and /w/ , though unindicated "alphabetically", were nevertheless indicated in Egyptian by its use of "bi-"literals; and must be taken into consideration in order to understand Coptic vocalism.

In the first instance, Egyptologists, who subscribe to the idea of Semitocentric vowel-patterning for Egyptian, have proposed a consonantal basis for pD of p - D. To account for Coptic pite, they assure us that, through vowel patterning, this p - D was realized as */piD/.

But if Arabic fâda is cognate with Egyptian pd (there will, of course, be those, who, with a straight face, will question the semantic equivalence of "stretch" and "continue"), then an Afrasian basis of /p-j-d/ must be assumed which should be extended to Egyptian as well so that the Egyptian consonants should be p - j - D.

If the Egyptian consonants are p - j - D rather than p - D , it removes any hindrance to relating IE *peidh- through a reconstructed earlier IE *peyedh-.

If Egyptian pD represents piD (with the medial i unindicated except by the "bi-"literal), then it is exactly analogous to Egyptian mt, in which the acknowledged medial w is never written, and only indicated by the determinative (better: triliteral) of a bleeding man.

Coptic a

The final major modification we need to consider is that after Coptic h (which comes from Egyptian h, H, x, and X), Sahidic maintains the original Grundvokal /a/ as a without backing it to /o/ or /o:/. Although many Egyptologists have maintained Coptic h is phonetically simply /h/, inhibition of closure (and a transformation from /a/ to /o/ involves both closure and backing) is an observable characteristic of Arabic H (dot-h, a pharyngal fricative) but not of h (a laryngal fricative). Therefore, it is highly probable that Coptic h was realized as /H/, and corresponds to PL HH.

If it had simply been /h/, the Greek spiritus asper (') would have been available to represent it; and no native symbol for it would have needed to be devised.

It is totally amazing that Egyptologists who consciously or unconsciously patterned the reconstruction of Egyptian vowels on a Semitic pattern, did not transfer the common Semitic pattern of C + h/H/$/?/y/w + C into their Egyptian reconstructions.

SUMMARY

Why should we bother to question the ingenious creation of vowel patterning in Egyptian that never existed? For two reasons:

1) If we have an Old Egyptian word, of which we are certain that the spelling reflects older conventions; and we can locate the correct cognate, either in Semitic or IE or even Sumerian, we can predict what the Coptic form should be;

2) If we have a Coptic (or Egyptian) word attested, the meaning of which is obscure, we can, if we are able to locate the correct IE or Semitic or even Sumerian cognate, compare their meanings with what we may suspect may be meant by the Coptic (or Egyptian); stated differently, it gives us a control over our speculations as to what the Coptic (or Egyptian) word should mean.

TABLE OF SAHIDIC COPTIC VOWEL MODIFICATIONS OF EGYPTIAN A

STRESS- ACCENTED STRESS- UNACCENTED STRESS- UNACCENTED STRESS- ACCENTED

OPEN CLOSED OPEN CLOSED

A o:⁽¹⁾ <_ (/a/)⁽²⁾ 0 (final)⁽³⁾ o⁽⁴⁾

AJ e: <- ("aj)⁽⁵⁾
(e)i <- (a"i)⁽⁶⁾
e⁽⁷⁾ e⁽⁸⁾ e <- ("aj)⁽⁹⁾

AW o: <- ("aw)⁽¹⁰⁾
ou <- (a"w)⁽¹¹⁾
? o⁽¹²⁾ o: <- ("awC)⁽¹³⁾
ou <- (a"waC)⁽¹⁴⁾

Supplementary Processes

ah or ha remains a⁽¹⁵⁾

ha"Caj -> hCai⁽¹⁶⁾

Cja -> Ca⁽¹⁷⁾

CaRC -> CahC -> CohC -> Co:C⁽¹⁸⁾

CaCay -> CCay -> CCoy -> CCoi⁽¹⁹⁾

"CanaCana -> "CanCan -> Cn:C_n⁽²⁰⁾

ja"CaCa -> aj"Ca -> e"Ca⁽²¹⁾

No short essay such as this can hope to fully unravel the knotty problems of Coptic vocalism in their entirety but I hope it will enable the reader to easily understand some of the basic processes involved.

For those interested in Afrasian and Nostratic phonology, a Comparison of IE and Afrasian will be available on this site in the next few weeks.

When manifold systematic relationships between IE and AA through Egyptian and Arabic can so readily be presented, it is truly inconceivable that some Egyptologists and IEists can continue to maintain that Nostratic is, at best, an interesting but unproven theory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Budge, Sir E. A. Wallis. 1978 reprint. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary. 2 Volumes. New York. Dover Publications

Ehret, Christopher. 1995. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary. University of California Publications in Linguistics: Vol. 126. Berkeley and Los Angeles. University of California Press

Diakonov, I. M. 1970. Problems of root structure in Proto-Semitic. Archiv Orientálnì 38

---------------------1975. On root structure in Proto-Semitic in J. and T. Bynon (eds.), Hamito-Semitica. The Hague, Paris. Mouton

Gardiner, Sir Alan. 3rd edition, revised 1973. Egyptian Grammar: being an Introduction to the Study of the Hieroglyphs. London: Oxford University Press

Jaritz, Kurt. 1967. Schriftarchäologie der altmesopotamischen Kultur. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt

Loprieno, Antonio. 1995. Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Pokorny, Julius. 1959. Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Volume I. Bern and Munich: Francke Verlag

Vergote, J. 1971. Egyptian (40-67) in Afroasiatic: A Survey. Edited by Carleton T. Hodge. The Hague/Paris: Mouton

--------------1973, Grammaire Copte, Tomes Ia et Ib. Louvain. Édition Peeters

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Patrick C. Ryan * 9115 West 34^th Street - Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 * (501)227-9947
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1. as in Sahidic Coptic bo:te, "emmer", from bd.(i)t (early "batajata)
2. as in Sahidic Coptic ko:rm, "smoke", from qrm (early "qarama)
3. As in Sahidic Coptic So:lm, "smell", from xnm (early "xanama)
4. as in Sahidic Coptic hmom, "become hot", from Smm (early Sa"mama)
5. as in Sahidic Coptic re:<, "sun", from r(i)' (early ra"ja'a)
6. as in Sahidic Coptic hine, "move by rowing", from X(i)ni (early Xa"janaja)
7. as in Sahidic Coptic bo:te, "hate", from ft(i) (early "pataja)
8. as in Sahidic Coptic ke, "another", from ki (early kaja)
9. as in Sahidic Coptic souen, "price", from sw(i)n (early sa"wajana)
10. as in Sahidic Coptic so:pe, "lip", from s(w)p(i)t (early "sawapajata)
11. as in Sahidic Coptic mout, "vein", from m(w)t (early ma"wata)
12. as in Sahidic Coptic ro, "mouth", from r(w) (early "rawa -> *rau)
13. as in Sahidic Coptic ho:, "house", from Hwt (early "Hawata)
14. as in Sahidic Coptic koun=, "bosom", from q(w)n (early qa"wana)
15. as in Sahidic Coptic hape, "Apis", from Hpi (early "Hapaja)
16. as in Sahidic Coptic hrai, "upper part", from Hri (early Ha"raja)
17. as in Sahidic Coptic man, "certain person, thing", from m(i)n (early ma"yana)
18. as in Sahidic Coptic ho:p, "hide", from H3p (early "HaRapa)
19. as in Sahidic Coptic stoi, "smell", from sTy (early sa"Taya: <- sa"Tajaja)
20. as in Sahidic Coptic snsn, "resound", from znzn (early "sanasana)
21. as in Sahidic Coptic ehe, "cow", from iH.it (early ja"Hajata)

	STRESS- ACCENTED	STRESS- UNACCENTED	STRESS- UNACCENTED	STRESS- ACCENTED
	OPEN	CLOSED	OPEN	CLOSED
A	o:⁽¹⁾	<_ (/a/)⁽²⁾	0 (final)⁽³⁾	o⁽⁴⁾
AJ	e: <- ("aj)⁽⁵⁾ (e)i <- (a"i)⁽⁶⁾	e⁽⁷⁾	e⁽⁸⁾	e <- ("aj)⁽⁹⁾
AW	o: <- ("aw)⁽¹⁰⁾ ou <- (a"w)⁽¹¹⁾	?	o⁽¹²⁾	o: <- ("awC)⁽¹³⁾ ou <- (a"waC)⁽¹⁴⁾