Online: January 8 — April 30, 2018
On-site: January 11 — April 26, 2018, Thursday, 6:00-9:00 pm at the Oriental Institute Room 210
Course Description:
This course will provide a complete introduction to the fundamentals of the Sahidic dialect of Coptic, the phase of the ancient Egyptian language written with the Greek alphabet and in use from ca. AD 200-1100, equivalent to one full semester in a university program. During each three-hour on-site session, we will cover two short lessons from the grammar book. We will focus on grammatical analysis, discussion of exercises, and readings from literary texts, including: the Coptic bible (Old and New Testaments), the Sayings of the Fathers, the Gospel of Thomas, the martyrdoms of famous saints, and many others.
Due to our limited meeting time, preparation outside of the classroom is essential. Students should plan to spend at least 8-10 hours per week studying vocabulary, grammar, and preparing the exercises. No prerequisites are required. No knowledge of earlier phases of Egyptian or Greek is required; however, any such knowledge will be helpful and will allow for a deeper engagement with the material. Students should be aware that this is a college level course that will go far beyond the basics and will require the frequent use of grammatical terminology. By the end of the course, students will have completed a full introductory course in Sahidic Coptic that prepares them to independently read Coptic literature.
This course is a hybrid course and will have simultaneous online and onsite sections. Local students will have the opportunity to attend the onsite course (and have access to all the online materials) while non-local students can take the course entirely online. The weekly onsite session will be recorded and uploaded for next day viewing through the online course. Online course materials will include discussion forums, supplemental videos, additional readings, links to online content, bibliography, and supplementary material to help engage the students in the study of Coptic language, history, and culture.
Instructor: Dr. Foy Scalf, Head of Research Archives, Oriental Institute
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Thomas O. Lambdin. Introduction to Sahidic Coptic. Macon: Mercer University Press, 1983.
RECOMMENDED TEXTS:
Walter E. Crum. A Coptic Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939.
Registration required. Register here.
Register by December 28, 2017
FOY SCALF 