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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Samekh/Sin

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: MarianneLuban AT aol.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Samekh/Sin
  • Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 00:14:15 +0000

On 22/11/2004 22:24, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 11/22/2004 1:11:02 PM Pacific Standard Time, peterkirk AT qaya.org writes:



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").


My Coptic grammar says thita can be an abbreviation for "t H"--such as "ethneete" for "t Heneete". "Heneete " is "monastary" and "t' is the feminine article "the". I can't tell you why the thita is present in "ethouab" because I am not sure of the meaning of the entire phrase. I don't read Coptic very well because the syntax is very different from ancient Egyptian. And the dialects vary, too. The only thing I recognize in the term is "wab" or "pure" in AE. Coptic is a specialization all by itself and few Egyptologists are well-versed in it. The Sahidic Coptic dictionary gives "pure" or "holy" as "ouaab"--but gives no term for "saint". So I can't tell you so quickly what "ethouab" is all about--but I'll have a further look.

Thank you. But my guess would be that this is a prefix et- on a word originally something like houab, and the t and h merge into theta according to a regular spelling rule. Or I suppose it could be some kind of compound of Greek ethos "custom" and Coptic ouaab "holy". Let me know if you find out more.

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






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