Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1843-09-28
The COptic Language.

This ancient language has of late become
an object Of great attention among scholars
In consequence of the progress of discovery
in respect to the Egyptian hieroglyphics.
These, as is now known, are in great part
nothing more than the representatives Of all
Phabetic sounds. going to make up the words
Of the spoken language of ancient Egypt.
That language was the one now known as
the CoPtlc. The characters anciently used
to express II were the Euchoriaf or common,
the Hieratic, and the Hieroglyphic. The al
phabetic characters in which It is now written,
were borrowed from the Greeks after the con-
quest of Egypt by Alexander; with the addi-
ton of seven letters peculiar to this alphabet
The Coptc is very simple language. Its
nouns and adjectives are notinnated; and the re-
lation of one noun to another is denoted either
by theirluxtaposItion, or by PARTICLES prefixed
as in Hebrew, or by propositions as in Eng
ilsh. The distinction Of number is marked
by the articles or pronouns- The verbs are
III form often merely nouns, used in a verb
sense :Sssseout change. They hare but O sim
gle conjugation, and no passive voice. The
lenses are chiefly formed by various prefixes,
as in Hebrew. The Coptic, so far as known,
is an original tongue, belonging to none of the
great families of languages, and bearing no
resemblance to any known dialect. 1t de-
ciples from its own radicals. The Coptic was
in truth the language of Lower and Middle
Egypt Two dialects of it also existed the
Sahidic, or Thebaic, spoken in Upper Egypt,
and the Basmaric, which prevailed in Bosnian,
province of the Delta
The only remains of the language and lite
nature OF ancient Egypt. are portions of the
scriptures in the Coptic version; manuscripts
on papyrus found III the tombs and the in,
scrphons upon the collosal monuments of
Egyptian architecture, of which, as yet, but
very lew have been deciphered The version
oil the old Testament is said to have been
made into the Egyptian language, at the same
time with the Septuagint; that of the New
Testament is usually referred to the third cen
fury, and by some TO the second and the
same date is ascribed to the Sahidic and Bas-
marie versions, of which slight fragments are
eXtant. The Coptc version of the New TIES.
lament was published by Wilkins, Oxford,
l7l6 and of the Pentateuch by the same,
Oxford, 1871; and of the Psalter by Tuki
Rome. l744. OF the other parts of The Old
Testament no perfect copy has been found
Large portions of them exist, however in the
iiturgIca books OF the Coptic church. usually
win an Arabic translaton; and it is not i'm.
possible that from comparison of these sour
ces, The whole version may yet be completed
In 1888, we have been lold, Lord Prudhoe
purchased in Egypt large folio manuscript
volume containing many passages of scripture
IN CoPuc not before known TO exist, which
he transmitted to the Rev. DR.. T'attam, author
OF the "Coptic Grammar and Lexicon.n IN
the autumn OF the same year, DR.. Tattaln HIM
sell visited Egypt, and was quite successful in
obtaining and copying important MSS The
same scholar has published the Twelve Minor
Prophets in Coptic, with literal translation.
Dr. lattam, we are informed, has Just return
ed from second journey to the East, during
which hls researches have been even more sue
cessful than on the former occasion We
trust the result will be given to the public At
no distant day.-.N Y. Observer.