Et- And the Qualitative -Libre

Sohag University Faculty of Arts Egyptology Department

et- and the Qualitative form in Coptic language

Prepared By

Walid El Sayed Abd El Rahim Student of Egyptology Pre-Master degree

Supervision

Dr. Ahmad El Ansary Professor of Egyptian Language (Philology) Sohag university

2010-2011

introduction The Verb in Coptic language . Coptic possesses two fundamental forms of the verb: Infinitive and Qualitative. With the help of the auxiliaries, all the necessary tenses of the verb can be formed from the Infinitive . The Qualitative is restricted in use to a few tenses only . The Infinitive may be said to express a verbal action , which in Transitive Verbs passes to an object and in Intransitive Verbs affects the subject initiating the action. The Qualitative may be said to express the condition or state resulting from a verbal action . The Infinitive. In point of fact the Infinitive is a verbal noun and may show either a masculine or a feminine form, though syntactically it is always treated as a masculine substantive. As a general rule the masculine form ends in a consonant and favors an o sound for its formative vowel; e.g. bwl ‘To loose’, mou6 (for mw6, ) ‘To fill’, swtm- ‘To hear’. Feminine forms end in e, and favor a or i as the formative vowel; e.g. mise ‘To give birth to’, ra4e ‘To rejoice’. But some infinitives ending in e are really masculine, their original final radical having fallen away; e.g. 4wpe ‘To become’ from original xpr ; rw6e ‘To wash’ from original . Meaning. The Infinitive can express an active or a passive sense e.g. ouwn ‘To open’ or ‘To be opened’, tako ‘To destroy’ or ‘To be destroyed’, ta`ro ‘To make strong’ or ‘To be strengthened’. With Intransitive verbs the Infinitive expresses an action without a direct object, e.g. 6wn ‘To come near’; or it denotes the beginning of a condition or circumstance, e.g. 56e ‘To become drunken’. Forms. The Infinitive may have Absolute, Construct and Pronominal forms e.g. bwl, bel-, bol= ‘To loose’; solsl-, sl-sl--, sl-swl-= ‘To comfort’;

The Qualitative The Qualitative. The Qualitative originated from the Perfective form in Old Egyptian. In most verbs it has no special ending, being derived from the 3 masc sing of the Old Perfective that ended originally in the weak semi-consonant , which was lost at an early period (in hieroglyphic texts it is more often omitted than written). Occasionally, however, the ending t is attached to the stem; e.g. smont Qualitative of smine ‘To establish’, `raeit (also `oor) Qual of `ro ‘To become strong’, tntont (also tntwn) Qual of tontn ‘To become like’. This ending, which is more often found in Bohairic, ti originated from the 3 fem sing of the Old Perfective

Note: Not all verbs have a Qualitative form; e.g. `nou ‘To ask’, `w ‘To say’, 4ipe ‘To be ashamed’, mou6 ‘To look’, etc. It would appear that many verbs which have no Qual had also lost the power to form Construct and Pronominal forms. A few verbs have lost all their forms with the exception of the Qualitative, which is then used as an Infinitive; e.g. a6e ‘To stand’, bost ‘To be dry’, kiwou ‘To be fat’, sht ‘To be fat’, s2ra6t ‘To rest’, 4oueit ‘To be empty’, 6loulwou ‘To be high’, 6moos ‘To sit’, 6oou ‘To be putrid or wicked’, `oor(e) ‘To be strong’. Meaning. In contrast to the Infinitive, the Qualitative indicates the result of a verbal action, the effect or state produced by an action, the quality which it finally produces. In contrast to the Infinitive of Intransitive verbs, it suggests the permanent character of the verbal action effected. It might almost be said to suggest a neuter sense; e.g. tamio ‘To make’ Qual tamihu ‘To be created’, kmom ‘To become black’ Qual khm ‘To be black’. Note: nhu, which is employed as the Qual of ei ‘To come’, is commonly used to express a future sense ‘To be in the act of coming’; e.g. 3.nhu gar ebol n.6ht.e n-2i ou.6hgoumenos ‘For a prince will come out of thee’ (lit. He is in the act of coming out of thee, namely a prince; Mt 2:6). As the Qualitative expresses the meaning of state or quality, it can with the relative particle supply the deficiency of adjectives in Coptic; e.g. nei+.tafos et.`h6 ‘These white-washed tombs’ (lit. These tombs which are smeared/whitened), p.p\n\a\ et.ouaab ‘The Holy Spirit’ (lit. The Spirit who [is] holy). In verbal sentences the Qual can only be used with the auxiliaries of I and II Present and Imperfect. Note: In Crum's Coptic Dictionary, Qualitative forms are indicated by means of the dagger (†). In this grammar, the abbreviation Qual or Q is adopted to avoid confusion with the letter 5. With Defined Antecedent: When the antecedent is defined, the particle etis used to link the relative clause to the word it qualifies. The relative clause follows the construction of an ordinary statement, the particle et- indicating its syntactical function. et- is used to introduce the relative clauses making an affirmative statement when the subject of the relative clause is the same as the antecedent. Note: This rule does not apply in the case of affirmative statements which contain the Imperfect or Tense of Habitude), or the Perfect tense . The use of et- and the Qualitative is particularly common in forming the equivalent of adjectives or participles;

e.g. p.p\n\a\ et.ouaab ‘The Holy Spirit’ (lit. The Spirit who [is] Holy), p.4hn et.rht 6i`n- m-.ma n-.6ate ‘The tree sprouting beside the water channels’ (Ps 1:3). (a) et-Present Tense; e.g. naiat.ou n-.n-.bal et.nau ‘Blessed (are) the eyes which see’ (Lk 10:23). (b) et-Future Tense; e.g. pai+ et.na.moone m-.pa.laos ‘This one who will shepherd my people’ (Mt 2:6). (c) et-Old Conjugation ; e.g. p.mhh4e et.na4w .3 ‘The crowd which was much’ (Lk 7:11). (d) et-Adverbial Phrase; e.g. p.koui et.n-.6ht.ou ‘The little one who (is) in their midst’ (Lk 15:12), et.m-mau ‘That one’ As the Construct Form is used to express the Definite Article , in order to express such a phrase as ‘That man’ a relative clause is employed: et.mmau ‘Who (or which) is there’; e.g. p.rwme et.m-mau ‘That man’, n-.6m6al et.m-mau ‘Those servants.

Examples from Old Testament, Genesis

Genesis 1,12 1:|k1 Ouoh afyamio ;nje Vnou] ; nninis] ;nk/toc nem 'u,/ niben etonq ;eta ni[atfi ;nte nimwou enou ;ebol kata genoc nem hal/t niben eth/l kata genoc And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind. ‫ا ت ف ضت ا ي‬ ‫ات اا فس ا حي ا‬ ‫ف ق ه ا ت ي ا عظ ك‬ . ‫اج ح ك س‬ ‫ئر‬ ‫كأج س ك‬ Genesis 1,18 1:|k 8 nem [atfi niben etkim hijen pikahi. and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. " ‫ك حي ا ي ع اار‬

‫ع‬

Genesis 3,1 3:1 Pihof de ne oucabe pe ;e bol oute niy/rion t/rou et,/ hijen pikahi Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. ‫ك ت ا حي احي ج يع ا حي ا ت ا ري ا ت ع ا ر اا‬ Genesis 3,26 4:|k 6 ouoh C/y ;a ous/ri swpi naf af]ren pefran je Enwc vai aferhelpic ;e twbh ;m ;v ran ;m P[oic Vnou] To Seth also a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to invoke the name of the Lord. ‫ب سم الر‬ ‫ عنده ابتد ء ا ي‬. ‫ولشيث ايض ولد فدع اس ة ان‬

Genesis 3,20 3:|k ouoh ;a Adam mou] ;m ;v ran ;n tef;chimi je Zw/ Je yai te ;y mau ;n n/ etonq t/rou And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. . ‫ع ا اس ا رات ح اء ا ك ت ا ك ح‬ Genesis 7,14 7:04 nem hal/t niben eth/l kata genoc every bird, every winged creature. .

‫ج‬

‫عك ع ف ر‬

Genesis 7,15 7:09 pimwou de naf;amahi pe ;e masw hijen pikahi ouoh afhwbc ;n nitwou t/rou et[oci n/ etcapec/t ;n ;tve The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. ‫ا ت تحت ك‬

‫اش‬

‫فتغ ت ج يع ا‬

‫اار‬

‫ت ا ي كثيرا ج ا ع‬

‫تع‬ .‫ا س ء‬

Genesis 7,22 7:|k 2 ;e te ouon y/ou ;n wnq ;n q/tou nem en,ai niben et,/ hijen pisouie aumou everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. .‫ت‬

‫ف اي س‬

‫ك‬

‫حي‬

‫ر‬

‫ف ا فس س‬

‫ك‬

Genesis 8 ,19 8:09 nem niy/rion t/rou nem ni[atfi t/rou nem hal/t niben nem n,ai niben etkim hijen ;pkahi kata nougenoc au;i ;e bol q en ]kubwtoc And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families. ‫كأ اع خرجت‬

‫اار‬

‫ع‬

‫ي‬

‫ت ك ا ي ر ك‬

‫ا‬

‫ ك‬, ‫ك ا حي ا ت‬ .‫ا ف ك‬

Genesis 9,3 9:3 ouoh [atfi niben etonq eu;eswpi nwten eu;qre ;m ;v r/] nhanouo] ;n te oucim ait/itou t/rou nwten Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. .‫يع‬

‫ا‬

‫ااخ ر فعت إ ي‬

7

‫ك عش‬

‫ع‬

‫ا حي ت‬

‫ك‬