You will have a command of the basic structures of Sahidic Coptic and will be able to read simple narrative texts in that language.

Introductory Sahidic

Coptic is a major source language for the study of early Christianity. It was the vernacular of Christian Egypt in Late Antiquity, and survives as the liturgical language of the present-day Coptic Orthodox Church. Knowledge of Coptic gives access to a wide variety of religious sources, including Manichaean, Hermetic and Gnostic texts (such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Judas), some of the early versions of the Old and New Testament, and many interesting apocryphal and hagiographical texts. Non-literary Coptic sources (such as papyri and ostraca) shed direct light upon early monasticism and the social life of the Egyptian church. As a sacred language of tradition, Coptic has an important symbolic function for modern Copts both in Egypt and abroad.

This course provides an introduction to script, grammar and vocabulary of Sahidic Coptic, the most important written dialect of Coptic. The course is basically text-oriented, however, and from the outset original Coptic texts will be read.