Ouerjw: oualektoar, ouanapai, nem hanjalim (Chicken: a cock, hen, and chicks)
THIS IS WHY A STANDARD COPTIC DICTIONARY IS ESSENTIAL – AND THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE EXISTENCE OF A COPTIC LANGUAGE ACADEMY
You may think that we have a Coptic lexical gap only in new concepts that are the result of the modern word’s developments in culture and technology. But it doesn’t appear so. I use the poultry example to demonstrate my case. We have no clear words for simple nouns such as chicken [دجاج], cock (rooster) [ديك], hen [دجاجة], and chick [كتكوت، سيوسيو، فرخ، فروج], or at best, there is a lot of confusion about them.
Let us examine three of the commonly used Coptic dictionary: the digital Naqlun Coptic Dictionary by Fr. Arsani, The Abbreviated Coptic-English Dictionary by Adeeb B. Makar (2001), and The Coptic Language Dictionary by Mu’awad Da’ud Abdel Nour (2013).
I will exclude the generic nouns such as ‘ho’oot’ (which means male of human or animal) which is given to mean cock in some of these dictionaries and ‘mas’ (which means the young of animal or bird) which is often given to mean the chicken’s chick. And I shall focus on the terms given to mean specific members of the poultry.
- 1. FR. ARSANI’S NAQLUN DICTIONARY
Fr Arsani does not give a word for chicken in its plural concept.
For cock, he gives ‘jalim’, ‘erjw’, ‘alektoar’, ‘alektruon’, and ‘ho’oot’.
‘Alektoar’ and ‘alektruon’ are of course Greek, and ‘ho’oot’ is of course generic.
For hen, he gives ‘erj’, ‘anapai’, and ‘jalim’.
For chick, he gives ‘erjw’, ‘erj’, and ‘jalim’.
- 2. MAKAR’S ABBREVIATED COPTIC-ENGLISH DICTIONARY
For chicken, he gives ‘jalim’ and says it is the plural of ‘erj’. But he also gives ‘erjw” as chicken!
For cock, he gives only the Greek, ‘alektoar’.
For chick, he gives ‘erj’, and says it is chick, baby of chicken.
- 3. ABDEL NOUR’S COPTIC LANGUAGE DICTIONARY
For chicken, he gives ‘erjw’.
For cock, he gives the Greek ‘alektoar’.
For hen, he gives ‘erjw’ and ‘anapai’.
For chick, he gives ‘erj’ (Sahidic, ‘eerj’) for the singular and ‘jalim’ for the plural.
Abdel Nour also gives the Sahidic word ‘apo’i’ and says it means hen, chick and bird:
Further, he gives another Sahidic word ‘moukna’i’ and says it means “white chicken”:
WHAT CAN WE SURMISE FROM THE ABOVE?
While we need to create new words (neologisms) to fill in the lexical gap we have, we need to clarify the terms for known concepts of the past. I do not imagine for one moment that the ancient Egyptians and their descendants the Copts did not have a word for chicken, hen, cock, and chick, but the knowledge of that seems to have disappeared, and even the dictionaries of the Middle Age (the salalim) are not very helpful in this. With the loss of much of Coptic manuscripts, thanks to our oppressors, and probably our negligence too, we don’t seem to possess written literature in which we can confidently which is which. The only word which exists and is definitely used for ‘cock/rooster’ is the Greek word ‘alektoar’, and we can attribute this to the fact that the word is mentioned in the Gospels (Matt. 26: 34,74,75; Luke 22: 34,60,61; Mark 13: 35,38, 14: 30,72; John 13: 38, 18: 27). Why the translators of the Gospels from Greek to Coptic used a Greek word for rooster, I have no idea. Perhaps by then the word ‘alektoar’ predominated, but I for one moment cannot believe that there existed an Egyptian word for the cock. Anyway, it is now a naturalised Coptic word, and we can celebrate in the fact that we have at least one word that we all agree on and can with accuracy be used to describe the male chicken. But what about chicken (as a generic concept), hen, and chick?
From the above, and trying to get some of the above confusion and differences in the three dictionaries, I would suggest the following:
- That ‘erjw’ is used for chicken
- That ‘alektoar’ is used for cock
- That ‘anapai’ is used for hen
- That ‘erj’ is used for chick, with ‘jalim’ being the plural for ‘erj’, that is chicks.
The dilemma will only be solved by discovering Coptic manuscripts that contain the relevant words, but until then I think what I have proposed makes sense. But sense is not only what I am after: I think settling small issues like these will facilitate learning and communication in Coptic.
The task of the proposed Coptic Language Academy is great – and one of its greatest duties will be the authorising of a standard Coptic dictionary. It will hopefully clarify every thing in the lexicon of the Copts.