Coptic Lesson 6 | Pronunciation Update! (Patreon)

In this video I discuss a small but important update to my historical pronunciation of Old Bohairic(OB).

The key takeaway is that in Bohairic ϫ and ϭ are both voiceless, and that ϭ is simply the aspirated version of ϫ and nothing more, contrasted just as ⲡ/ⲫ ⲧ/ⲑ ⲕ/ⲭ.

In a later stage of Bohairic (during Antiquity? during the Middle Ages? I can't say at this time) the voiceless unaspirated ⲡ ⲧ ϫ ⲕ became voiced, allowing the aspirates to lose their aspiration.

What should you do? If you want a linguistically coherent convention, then if you pronounce ϫ to be like English "jump" (a voiced postalveolar affricate [d͡ʒ] ) then you have to make ⲡ = [b], ⲧ = [d], ⲕ = [g].

You can hear the voiced version of these consonants here, a review of the Coptic alphabet by someone who uses an Old Bohairic pronunciation that is less ancient: https://youtu.be/gox9QhwmPkY

See also the attached PDF for what helped clarify this all for me.

For now, I will use the voiceless/aspirate contrast.

Coptic Lessons Index

Topics covered in this lesson:

• Pronunciation Update

• Greek words in Coptic