Greek words in Coptic Texts. Documentary Texts

Research project P 13855 Greek words in Coptic Texts. Documentary Texts Hermann HARRAUER 28.06.1999 The aim of the project is to publish a dictionary of Greek words in Coptic texts. Coptic Texts from the beginning of the language up to the middle ages will be searched for Greek words. The words which are found will be presented in a dictionary and can thus be the necessary tool for further studies like the usage of Greek words after the beginning of the Arabic government in Egypt. The study focuses on documentary texts, that are all non-literary texts as letters and contracts, which are the mirror of the spoken language. In the library of the Papyrussammlung of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek are all necessary editions as well as many original papyri available. The project is the direct continuation of another project, which is running since January 1998. Due to the fact that the indices of the editions are mostly far less reliable than usually believed. Many of the graphic variants as well as some of the words which occur in the texts can not be found in the indices. Thus it was necessary to read all texts. Otherewise the lexicon of Greek words would not have been reliable. This forced change in the methodology of the project meant a much bigger amount of work. Thus, it is not possible to finish the project in two years as planned. Thus it was necessary to put this new project forward. The poject in Vienna is running parallel to the project in Halle (Prof. Dr. J. Tubach), who is compiling a dictionary of Greek words in the literary texts. There is allready a very close collaboration between Vienna and Halle.

A long awaited research tool can now be presented by the publication of a dictionary of Greek words in Coptic documentary Texts. Coptic is the language and the writing system which the Egyptians started to use around 250 A.D. The use of Greek letters for writing the Coptic language - with six additional letters from an earlier Egyptian script (Demotic) - shows the influence of Greek on Coptic. For centuries these two languages coexisted in Egypt. This explains the abundance of Greek words in Coptic texts. 60 Years after the publication of Crums`s famous "Coptic Dictionary" this dictionary can now appear. Almost 8000 Coptic documents form the source base of this dictionary. From these texts some 2000 Greek words have been extracted. In this way the author has produced an important research tool, which will help not only Coptic but also byzantine studies, as well as other branches of scholarship. This dictionary will be published in the Series "Texte und Untersuchungen zur altchristlichen Literatur" in April/May 2002.