• 11:48
  • Tuesday ,29 September 2020
العربية

The problem is our elite

Article Of The Day

00:09

Tuesday ,29 September 2020

The problem is our elite

 Some people seek fame by all means even by declaring their ignorance through controversial statements about our history like the recent announcement of one elite that the Coptic language was developed from the old Egyptian one and assuring it is not Coptic (as if Coptic only means Christian!). Most people understand that Coptic means Egyptian and not Christian. Egypt was Coptic until Islam entered it and its name changed accordingly.

 
Coptic language, according to Encyclopædia Britannica, is an Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in Egypt from about the 2nd century ce and that represents the final stage of the ancient Egyptian language. In contrast to earlier stages of Egyptian, which used hieroglyphic writing, hieratic script, or demotic script, Coptic was written in the Greek alphabet, supplemented by seven letters borrowed from demotic writing. Coptic also replaced the religious terms and expressions of earlier Egyptian with words borrowed from Greek. Coptic is usually divided by scholars into six dialects, four of which were spoken in Upper Egypt and two in Lower Egypt; these differ from one another chiefly in their sound systems. The Fayyūmic dialect of Upper Egypt, spoken along the Nile River valley chiefly on the west bank, survived until the 8th century. Asyūṭic, or Sub-Akhmīmic, spoken around Asyūṭ, flourished in the 4th century. In it are preserved a text of the Gospel According to John and of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as a number of Gnostic documents. Akhmīmic was spoken in and around the Upper Egyptian city of Akhmīm. Sahidic (from Arabic, aṣ-Ṣaʿīd [Upper Egypt]) was originally the dialect spoken around Thebes; after the 5th century it was the standard Coptic of all of Upper Egypt. It is one of the best-documented and well-known dialects.The dialects of Lower Egypt were Bashmūric, about which little is known (only a few glosses in the dialect are extant), and Bohairic (from Arabic, al-Buḥayrah), originally spoken in the western part of Lower Egypt including the cities of Alexandria and Memphis. Bohairic has been used for religious purposes since the 11th century by all Coptic Christians. The latest Coptic texts date from the 14th century.
 
This means that Coptic is a scientific term for the last stage of the old Egyptian language. Yet, the problem of our society is the elite that only care about getting attention and benefits instead of teaching people.