Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 22/11/2004 20:10, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 11/21/2004 3:56:40 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> peterkirk AT qaya.org writes:
>
>
>  
>
> > Thanks for the clarification. The Coptic alphabet, according to 
> > http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n2636.pdf, certainly seems to have 
> > a theta (although variously names thethe, thita, tutte, tida) which 
> > clearly corresponds in shape, position in the alphabet and numeric value 
> > with the Greek theta. If this document is in fact based on false 
> > information, there may just be time to stop the letter being separately 
> > encoded in Unicode, but it looks to me like it is clearly attested.
> >    
>
> Yes--my memory served me wrong.  The Coptic alphabet certainly does have a 
> "thita"--but I have never seen it used in *Egyptian* words--which is what I 
> should have said in the first place.  It is reserved for the writing of Greek 
> words, which certainly proliferate in Coptic texts. ...

Well, maybe. But "ethouab", the last word of Figure 9 and the 7th word 
of the Coptic text in Figure 12 of 
http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n2636.pdf, is not a Greek word. Do 
you recognise it as of Egyptian origin? In Figure 9 it is glossed as 
"saint" (in French, but the English meaning is also "saint" or "holy").


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/