I was planning on doing a post on my favorite of books from 2017, but right now I am begrumpled and blutterbunged. (See my previous post on these and other fun words.) For some unknown reason, I lost an entire folder from my desktop. Luckily, not my current WIP, but some important docs for something else I do. I can recreate most of it, but it’s still leaving me a bit out of sorts.
So right now, you’re getting a completely different topic – Coptic. I enjoyed Rick’s post yesterday on Latin pronunciation so I thought I’d share a video I found on YouTube where someone reads the Lord’s prayer in two dialects of Coptic: Sahidic and Bohairic.
As long time readers of Type M know, I’ve been studying Ancient Egyptian and Sahidic Coptic for many years now. Coptic is the last trace of Ancient Egyptian. It emerged around the 2nd century AD and was spoken in Egypt until Arabic came along. Now it exists as a liturgical language only. The Bohairic dialect is what is used in the Coptic Christian church today.
The script might look a bit familiar to you all. It’s basically the Greek alphabet plus several new characters for sounds that didn’t exist in Greek.
Totally fascinating. Thanks, Sybil. Can I ask what made you start studying Ancient Egyptian and Sahidic Coptic? Is it the feel of the languages or the cultures they represent, or the stories, the joy of translating, or none of the above ;)
ReplyDeleteNot sure why I start doing anything, Marianne. Sometimes it feels like it just happens. In this case...I find languages fascinating, especially ancient ones. I used to take classes at UCLA extension and, for a few quarters, they offered Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. I thought that would be fun. I was bitten by the AE bug and continued studying with people I met in class long after UCLA extension stopped offering classes. Studying Sahidic Coptic just continued my AE journey. I actually like it better in many ways. The grammar is a lot easier. It's a SVO language whereas AE (Middle) Egyptian is VSO. Plus there are actual vowels in Coptic! Middle Egyptian only has the consonants.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'll stop rambling now...
VERY cool!
ReplyDeleteOn to your computer problem -- and if you've tried/thought of these things, feel free to ignore this.
I have "lost" folders several times and always found them -- much to my extreme relief. I'd try the following things:
Search for the folder, using your computer's search function. You may have accidentally stuck the folder into another folder. This is what I've found I've done most times something has mysteriously vanished. I was grabbing one file to put it in a folder and accidentally grabbed something else at the same time.
Search for one of the files by its name. Your main folder may have vanished, but the files might still exist on your hard drive.
Use software that will check your hard drive's index. That may restore the folder. This has also worked for me. At the very least you'll find out if your hard drive is having issues and this is just a symptom. That could be far worse in the long run. Your missing folder could be the "canary in the coal mine".
Thanks, Rick. I tried the first two, then just decided to reproduce what I could. Got most of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat software checks a hard drive's index? Any recommendations? I have Windows 8.1
I think it's best to take this conversation offline. Expect some e!
ReplyDelete