SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

The Preservation of the Coptic Heritage The Making of Volume I of the Coptic CD

(by Hany N. Takla)

Introduction: The preservation of the Coptic Heritage has been in the forefront of our Society's activities. The use of the electronic media was identified at an early stage as a suitable mean to such goal. Work started in the early 1980's to develope the tools for such work. Textual material were the first target. As the process continued over the years, the storage media evolved from the computer cassette tapes to floppy disks of various capacities to the seemingly indestructible media of the Compact Disk ROM (CD ROM). Much resources, human and material, were expended to accomplish this work. Finally, the first fruit is here! Objective: The Coptic Language has been identified as an indispensible tool for the preservation process. To help spread such education, a transportable method was devised to teach reading comprehension, to provide the necessary resources to enhance this learning process, to direct it in a constructive manner. Contents: The Coptic CD contains four different modules. These modules represent activities that the Society has engaged in since its early days in 1979. They are as follows: I. Lessons : This module includes an introductory course in Bohairic with recorded sound files for every word and phrase included. These lessons are an abridged Bohairic version of Lambdin's Introductory Sahidic Grammar , which is commonly used in American Universities nowadays. They were used in different configurations in both the St. Shenouda Center for Coptic Studies and the Pope Shenouda III Theological Seminary in Los Angeles. There are two identical sets of 12 lessons that differ only in some of the word pronunciation. The first set reflects the Traditional pronunciation system (Trad), which is based on a revision in

1870's. This is also the default system used in the Coptic Church at this time. The second reflects a Modified pronunciation system (Mod), proposed by the compiler of the course in 1984. The difference between the two systems is noticeable but not major in scope. The modifications w re designed to correct some of the elements in the Traditional system that may cause the pronounced word to be understood differently than how it was intended. Each lesson is divided into three distinct parts: grammar, vocabulary, and written translation exercises (Bohairic to English only). Each part of a particular lesson is in many cases dependent on corresponding one of the previous lessons. A 15-20 minute closed-book quiz follows Lesson No. 6, which is made up of 10 simple phrases or sentences to be translated into English. A two-part final examination is suggested at the conclusion of the 11th lesson. The first part is a 30-minute closed-book translation exercises, similar to the quiz. The second part is an open-book translation of a portion of a Coptic Psalm, used in the Agbeyia (book of the Hours) of the Coptic Church. The 12th lesson is given as a resource lesson for the students and it includes neither vocabulary nor exercises. The purpose of these lessons is train the students, with any or no knowledge of Bohairic Coptic, to master the mechanics of understanding the written Coptic language. This is done by identifying the most common prefixes and suffixes used in the language. This in turn reduces greatly the number of words that the student needs to learn in order to have better comprehension of the written text. This simple structured approach is ideal for learning to read the Coptic Bible, especially the New Testament, which is the primary building block of the the liturgical and patristic tradition of the Coptic Church.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

-6-